Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to Answer of 5th March 2026 to Question 115670, what proportion of the £28.3 million for reading and writing initiatives has been allocated to schools in Essex.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s £28.3 million funding will deliver a range of support for schools, including new training for primary schools, delivered through the English Hubs programme, to help children progress from the early stages of phonics through to reading fluently by the time they leave primary school.
Since the launch of a new continuous professional development (CPD) programme ‘Unlocking Reading’ in January 2026, 59% of secondary schools in England have signed up to the in-person training. We do not currently have a breakdown of how many of these are in Essex, but would encourage all secondary schools to express their interest via the website:https://fft.org.uk/literacy/unlocking-reading/
The local English Hubs for schools in Essex are New Vision and Myland English Hubs. 29 schools in Essex are currently English Hub partner schools, receiving intensive support from literacy specialists with the teaching of early reading.
Over 300 schools in Essex have received some form of support from the English Hubs programme since its launch, and 100 schools in Essex are signed up to access CPD provided by the Hubs this academic year.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure adequate numbers of qualified physics teachers in secondary schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government’s Plan for Change is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.
In 2023/24, just 17% of the postgraduate initial teacher training target for physics trainees was met. In 2025/26, this increased to 78%, with 1,095 new entrants, reaching the highest number for physics since comparable statistics began in 2014/15.
We are continuing to support physics teacher recruitment with bursaries worth £29,000 and scholarships worth £31,000 tax free. We are also supporting retention alongside increased recruitment, with an offer of a targeted retention incentive, which has a value of up to £6,000 after tax for physics teachers in years 1-5 of their career who choose to work in the most disadvantaged schools. This comes on top of near 10% pay rises for all teachers and leaders in the last two years, and we continue to work with sector leaders to reduce workloads, improve wellbeing and increase flexible working.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Epping Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to embed CPR training in schools in a) Epping Forest constituency and b) England.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Epping Forest to the answer of 28 November 2025 to Question 92868.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February 2026 to Question 113311 Private Education: Single Sex Education, how the Department records and retains information on applications by independent schools for approval of material changes.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Information regarding applications for approval to make a material change is recorded and retained on the Independent Education and School Safeguarding Division's customer relationship management system, against the school’s individual record. Once a material change application is approved, the department's publicly available register of schools in England, the ‘Get Information About Schools’ service, is amended to reflect the change to the school's registered details.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the prevalence of child morning hunger across early years, primary and secondary school settings in England and its impact on school readiness and attendance.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department appreciates the publication of the report and look forward to giving it our full consideration. We agree that a healthy breakfast at the start of the school day sets children up ready to learn. This is why the department is committed to delivering on the pledge to provide free breakfast clubs in every state-funded school with primary-aged children. Since April 2025, we have delivered over seven million breakfasts and offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country. We are investing a further £80 million to fund approximately 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027.
Alongside the rollout of free breakfast clubs, we are going further in our mission to lift 100,000 children out of poverty by expanding free school meals to children in all households receiving Universal Credit from the 2026/27 school year.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment the Department has made of the potential implications for its policies of the findings of Magic Breakfast’s recent report entitled Root Causes of Child Morning Hunger.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department appreciates the publication of the report and look forward to giving it our full consideration. We agree that a healthy breakfast at the start of the school day sets children up ready to learn. This is why the department is committed to delivering on the pledge to provide free breakfast clubs in every state-funded school with primary-aged children. Since April 2025, we have delivered over seven million breakfasts and offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country. We are investing a further £80 million to fund approximately 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027.
Alongside the rollout of free breakfast clubs, we are going further in our mission to lift 100,000 children out of poverty by expanding free school meals to children in all households receiving Universal Credit from the 2026/27 school year.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish her Department's (a) business case, (b) workforce plan, (c) equality impact assessment and (d) redundancy mitigation measures for the plans to close six offices.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education does not plan to publish the business case, workforce plan, equality impact assessment or redundancy mitigation measures for the department’s plans to close six offices. This is an internal business decision and does not impact the department’s remit, strategy or delivery plans, nor have any direct impact on the sector. As such, it is not appropriate for the department to comment on the plans externally.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government has considered piloting or introducing an exemption to childcare funding rules where a relative is a registered childminder meeting all regulatory requirements.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Parents are free to choose the childcare that is right for them and their children, and childminders are not prevented from caring for related children.
However, the restriction on funding relatives is set out in the Childcare Act 2006. Section 18(4) of this Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative.
Allowing childminders to receive funding for looking after related children would not be an effective use of public money and may have a negative impact on the viability of existing childcare businesses.
A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing childcare for a related child, but this would have to be from local authority funds independent of the dedicated schools grant.
Although childminders cannot receive entitlements funding for related children, flexibilities within staff to child ratios can be used to enable childminders who are caring for related children to avoid limiting the income they can earn.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Department plans to review the eligibility criteria for government-funded childcare for children cared for by qualified and Ofsted-registered relatives.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Parents are free to choose the childcare that is right for them and their children, and childminders are not prevented from caring for related children.
However, the restriction on funding relatives is set out in the Childcare Act 2006. Section 18(4) of this Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative.
Allowing childminders to receive funding for looking after related children would not be an effective use of public money and may have a negative impact on the viability of existing childcare businesses.
A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing childcare for a related child, but this would have to be from local authority funds independent of the dedicated schools grant.
Although childminders cannot receive entitlements funding for related children, flexibilities within staff to child ratios can be used to enable childminders who are caring for related children to avoid limiting the income they can earn.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with schools on the effectiveness of the three-item cap on branded uniform.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Whilst many schools are taking action to reduce costs, too many families still tell us that the cost of school uniform remains a financial burden. This is why we have introduced legislation to limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kit that schools can require.
When determining the level at which to set the limit, we considered the available evidence and engaged with a range of stakeholders, including schools, to ensure we struck the right balance between reducing costs for parents and recognising the benefits that some branded items can bring to school life.
The majority of primary schools, and nearly a third of secondary schools, already successfully operate within the proposed limit. It is therefore right that schools currently asking for large numbers of compulsory branded items are required to remove them.