Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to consult on the revised citizenship programmes of study.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
We are revising the national curriculum following the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review. We will make citizenship compulsory in key stages 1 and 2 so that primary aged children are introduced to key content on media literacy, financial literacy, law and rights, democracy and government, and climate education. We will publicly consult on all national curriculum programmes of study from summer 2026 and fully implement the new full national curriculum for first teaching from September 2028.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department will publish the guidance issued to local authorities in the 1990s on the inclusion of part‑time teachers in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme following maternity leave.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for North East Hampshire to the answer of 21 January 2026 to Question 103065.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for School Standards during the oral question on EHCP Backlog: Cambridgeshire of 2 March 2026, Official Report, column 565, how much Cambridgeshire County Council has been allocated of the £200 million funding directly provided to support councils' capacity to deliver EHCPs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
To ensure all local authorities have the capacity to undertake meaningful transformation planning and delivery over this spending review period while maintaining current special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services, we will provide £200 million in support for the transformation of local authority SEND services. This funding will be provided to local authorities in a single payment alongside funding for Experts at Hand, with a proportion allocated to transformation which includes a focus on strategic planning in local SEND reform plans, commissioning, leadership capacity and engaging with the education sector. We will publish methodology documents to explain how the funding will be distributed, and indicative allocations for local authorities, including those for Cambridgeshire County Council, for 2026/27 in due course.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria will be used to evaluate the success of the Government’s SEND reforms.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Every child deserves an education that meets their needs, one that is academically stretching, where every child feels like they belong, and that sets them up for life and work.
Driving inclusion in schools will improve outcomes for all children. Our reforms will restore parents’ trust in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system. We will be investing £4 billion more over three years to support implementation, including £1.8 billion so every community has experts on hand, with £1.6 billion going directly to schools for early intervention and over £200 million to train every teacher.
The department regularly publishes statistics on pupils with special educational needs, including information on educational attainment, destinations, absence, exclusions and characteristics.
We are consulting on proposals to reform the SEND system, and will set out in more detail how we will evaluate policy after the consultation closes. We will set clear expectations of our public services and hold them to account for delivering.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department monitors the impact of budget pressures on SEND outcomes.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s assessment of the impact of pressures on the outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is available in our consultation document ‘SEND Reform: putting children and young people first’, published 23 February.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support schools in improving pupil attendance in areas with high absence rates.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Absence is a key barrier to opportunity. For children to achieve and thrive, they need to be in school. In the Schools White Paper, the department set a national commitment to improve the attendance rate to over 94% by 2028/29, equivalent to 100,000 pupils attending school full time and represent the fastest rate of improvement in over a decade.
Our statutory ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’ guidance requires schools to appoint an attendance champion, have a published attendance policy, and work with local authorities.
The department provides real-time data tools and attendance toolkits, which help schools, trusts and local authorities identify the drivers of absence and adopt effective practice to improve attendance to pre‑pandemic attendance levels.
In January, we launched our new regional improvement for standards and excellence attendance and behaviour hubs, which can support over 3000 schools, including enhanced support for up to 500 schools, helping schools build strong relationships with parents and helping teachers form strong relationships of trust with students.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2026 to Question 108602 on School Milk, what steps her Department is taking to ensure schools and Local Authorities are aware of the expectation that they make reasonable adjustments for children who do not drink dairy milk.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The School Food Standards regulate the food and drink provided at both lunchtime and at other times of the school day. They allow schools the freedom to provide plant-based drinks as needed, including plain soya, rice or oat drinks enriched with calcium, and combination and flavoured variations of these drinks.
Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. The accompanying statutory guidance makes clear to schools what is expected of them in taking reasonable steps to fulfil their legal obligations and to meet the individual needs of pupils with medical conditions, including allergies.
We are currently consulting on revised statutory guidance on ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’. The consultation can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposal-on-support-for-pupils-with-medical-conditions-at-school’. This seeks views on proposals to strengthen how schools meet their duties, including improvements to allergy safety and broader medical condition management. Our aim is to ensure that every child can access education safely and confidently, regardless of their health needs or allergy.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether any civil servants hired by her Department were recruited over another person on the basis of a protected characteristic in each of the last three years.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Civil Service recruitment must follow the rules set out in legislation within the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaGA) 2010, which outlines the requirements to ensure that civil servants are recruited on merit, via fair and open competition.
Compliance with CRaGA is overseen by the independent Civil Service Commission, which publishes recruitment principles setting out the detailed rules departments must follow.
For departments who use Civil Service Jobs to manage their recruitment, applicants are asked to provide diversity data on a voluntary basis only and no details are shared with hiring managers.
The positive action measures in the Equality Act 2010 allows employers to take proportionate action that aims to reduce disadvantage, meet different needs and increase participation.
Employers who choose to use positive action can help people who share a particular protected characteristic to overcome certain barriers under the measures. However, employers need to ensure they do this in a way which does not unfairly disadvantage other groups as this could amount to ‘positive discrimination’, which is unlawful.
Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the proportion of secondary school pupils in England completing CPR training as required under the Health Education curriculum; and what steps the Department for Education is taking to support schools in ensuring consistent delivery of CPR training and to promote participation in national initiatives such as Restart a Heart month.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All state funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education set out in the Relationships, Sex and Health education (RSHE) statutory guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.
The RSHE guidance requires primary schools to teach basic first aid, such as dealing with common injuries. In secondary schools, pupils learn additional skills, including cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and how and when to use a defibrillator.
Schools have flexibility in how they deliver this content, including which resources they choose to use and whether to participate in initiatives such as Restart a Heart month.
The department does not collect data on how many pupils have completed CPR training; schools are responsible for determining how best to meet curriculum requirements and ensure appropriate first aid education.
The government has commissioned Oak Academy to make lesson materials freely available.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what preparations her Department has made for a School Sports Strategy; and what recent steps she as taken towards the new approach announced in June 2025.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced on 19 June 2025 that the government will establish a new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network to ensure all children and young people have access to high-quality PE and extracurricular sport, helping young people develop an interest in sport that continues beyond the school environment.
To deliver this, the department is preparing to procure a national partner to lead the new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network. This partner will work with government, Sport England and national governing bodies to make links across provision for children and young people to strengthen support to schools and increase access to opportunities. We expect to have the national partner in place by autumn 2026.
In parallel, we are modernising the PE curriculum. The Association for Physical Education is leading a group of expert drafters to develop a new curriculum that develops children’s physical capability and supports lifelong participation in sport and physical activity.