Department for Education

Since January 2023, schools have been required to comply with strengthened provider access legislation, offering at least six opportunities for pupils to meet providers of technical education or apprenticeships. These encounters offer insights into the courses and qualifications that different providers offer, supporting pupils to make more informed decisions about their next step.

All pupils should have the same opportunities for meaningful provider encounters. The overwhelming majority of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with high levels of needs, can access fulfilling jobs and careers with the right preparation and support. Schools should involve parents/carers, the Special Educational Needs Coordinator and other relevant staff to identify any barriers and support needed, and tailor each provider encounter appropriately.

Where future pathways are limited for learners due to the nature of their specific learning needs and/or physical ability, for example where they are highly likely to proceed into adult social care, it is recognised that it may be necessary for additional flexibility in how these encounters are delivered.

The Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) supports schools, colleges and specialist institutions to meet the requirements of the provider access legislation. The CEC has produced tailored resources for provider access legislation in SEND settings, sharing good practice in developing and delivering tailored encounters within SEND provision. The resources can be found at the following link: https://resources.careersandenterprise.co.uk/resources/provider-access-legislation-pal-send-settings.

Data published by the CEC provides encouraging early evidence that specialist settings are offering more meaningful encounters for their pupils. For example, in the 2022/23 academic year, 69% of schools reported that most young people had been provided with meaningful encounters with Independent Training Providers (up 9% percentage points in 2021/22). This was higher in special schools and alternative provision (90%), an increase of 22% percentage points from the previous year.

2023/24 is the first full academic year that the strengthened legislation has been in place. The department will continue to monitor and review the support in place, the level of compliance, and the impact on young people.

The department expects to provide over £4.1 billion by 2027/28 to facilitate the expansion of funded childcare and to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year overall on free hours and early education entitlements. This is the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever. As the childcare support is gradually rolled out, the department is encouraging consideration and take up through a parent facing campaign called Childcare Choices.

The department is using a range of communications to drive users to the Childcare Choices website to find out more information about the different offers, check eligibility, sign up for updates and to apply. This has included a leaflet campaign distributed to over four million households across the country, as well as GP surgeries and supermarkets. The department has partnered with Peanut and Mumset to provide information on the available and expanded offers and directly communicated to parents through the Childcare Choices newsletter, which now has over 257,000 subscribers.

This has resulted in over 210,000 childcare codes being validated for two year olds to benefit from 15 hours childcare from April 2024. The department is continuing to work with a range of partners to refine and disseminate messaging around the existing and new entitlements as it moves forward using a range of channels.

The number of code validations will continue to grow, meaning even more working parents will have the option to have a family and a career, whilst also helping to grow the economy. The department continues to engage with local authorities and providers regarding the effective working of the code-based system.

The department expects to provide over £4.1 billion by 2027/28 to facilitate the expansion of funded childcare and to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year overall on free hours and early education entitlements. This is the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever. As the childcare support is gradually rolled out, the department is encouraging consideration and take up through a parent facing campaign called Childcare Choices.

The department is using a range of communications to drive users to the Childcare Choices website to find out more information about the different offers, check eligibility, sign up for updates and to apply. This has included a leaflet campaign distributed to over four million households across the country, as well as GP surgeries and supermarkets. The department has partnered with Peanut and Mumset to provide information on the available and expanded offers and directly communicated to parents through the Childcare Choices newsletter, which now has over 257,000 subscribers.

This has resulted in over 210,000 childcare codes being validated for two year olds to benefit from 15 hours childcare from April 2024. The department is continuing to work with a range of partners to refine and disseminate messaging around the existing and new entitlements as it moves forward using a range of channels.

The number of code validations will continue to grow, meaning even more working parents will have the option to have a family and a career, whilst also helping to grow the economy. The department continues to engage with local authorities and providers regarding the effective working of the code-based system.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to give children the right foundation for future progress in school and life. The EYFS defines three characteristics of effective teaching and learning: playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically. Early years settings have the flexibility to utilise different learning approaches and design their own curriculum, based on the EYFS statutory requirements.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to give children the right foundation for future progress in school and life. The EYFS defines three characteristics of effective teaching and learning: playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically. Early years settings have the flexibility to utilise different learning approaches and design their own curriculum, based on the EYFS statutory requirements.

The information is not held centrally.

The information is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally.

The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan sets out a vision for a single, national inclusive SEND and AP system where all children, no matter their need, receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. This requires high-quality mainstream provision where children and young people have their needs identified early and can access prompt, evidence-based, targeted support. This should be alongside improved access to timely, high-quality specialist provision, where this is appropriate.

The department continues to monitor the literature and latest research on the impact of inclusion.

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DLUHC is investing £1.2 billion through the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years, including a £109 million top-up for 2024/25, to ensure that families can move out of temporary accommodation and into stable accommodation, as well as reducing the need for temporary accommodation by preventing homelessness before it occurs.

To help schools tackle the challenges facing disadvantaged pupils, including pupils who might be in temporary accommodation or experiencing homelessness, and to improve children’s educational outcomes, the department has provided pupil premium funding since 2011. Pupil premium funding is increasing to over £2.9 billion this financial year which will ensure that the most disadvantaged pupils receive the support they need to succeed at school.

In 2024/25, the department has targeted a greater proportion of schools’ National Funding Formula towards deprived pupils than ever before with over £4.4 billion of the formula allocated according to deprivation in 2024/25, and over £7.8 billion through additional needs factors based on deprivation, low prior attainment, English as an additional language and mobility. This is alongside various support programmes including free school meals, the National School Breakfast Club programme and the Holiday Activities and Food programme. The department is also targeting support at young people who most need help with the costs of staying in post-16 education and training, through the 16-19 bursary and has extended free meals to disadvantaged 16 to 18 year old students attending further education institutions.

The department is prioritising the attendance of vulnerable children in education, including those who are in temporary accommodation, by introducing stronger expectations of schools, trusts, and local authorities to work together to tackle absence set out in guidance that will become statutory in August 2024, including an expectation on schools to identify at-risk pupils and work with families to support absent students and, from September 2024, introducing a mandatory attendance data tool, allowing them to identify pupils at risk of persistent absence and to enable early intervention.

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According to the Community Security Trust, there was an increase of 203% in university-related antisemitic incidents in 2023, which rose from 60 in 2022 to 182 in 2023. Of these 182 incidents, 148, or 81%, occurred in the aftermath of 7 October, and 134, or 74%, overtly referred to Israel and events in the Middle East and included anti-Jewish content or targeting. The department continues to monitor the situation and to support higher education providers to manage incidents.

On 9 May 2024 the Secretary of State chaired a roundtable at 10 Downing Street with Vice-Chancellors from universities across the UK, joined by the Prime Minister and other Ministers. The discussion focused on tackling antisemitism in higher education (HE), including preventing an escalation of protest activity such as that seen in the United States in recent weeks.

On the same day the department announced the intention to provide £500,000 to the University Jewish Chaplaincy, enabling it to rapidly boost the vital support it offers to Jewish students on campus.

In his Autumn Statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £7 million to tackle antisemitism in education. The cornerstone of this package for HE will be a new framework that will enable universities to demonstrate through their processes and practice a commitment to preventing and tackling antisemitic abuse.

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It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.

The government’s International Education Strategy and its recent update make clear that the internationalisation of the higher education (HE) sector cannot come at any cost. Universities must ensure they have appropriate processes in place to manage risk.

The department recognises concerns about overseas interference in the HE sector and regularly assess the risks facing staff and students.

The Integrated Review Refresh, which this government published in March 2023, sets out in clear terms the UK’s policy towards engagement with China and Chinese entities.

Any attempt by any foreign power to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities in the UK, or on campuses abroad, will not be tolerated. This is an insidious threat to democracy and fundamental human rights.

The department passed the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 to further protect the UK’s campuses from interference and other threats to lawful freedom of speech. The Act strengthens existing freedom of speech duties placed upon HE providers in England and creates new routes of redress if these duties are breached.

The department has made the Commencement Regulations to ensure the main provisions of the Act are in place for 1 August 2024.

Where providers are operating campuses abroad, they must take, and should already be taking, reasonably practicable steps to secure freedom of speech within the law on those campuses.

HE providers are independent autonomous organisations and therefore responsible for ensuring they have adequate governance and risk management procedures in place when accepting donations. The department expects the HE sector to be alert to risks when collaborating with any international partners.

Levy paying employers have been able to transfer a proportion of their annual funds to other employers since April 2018, when the maximum transfer allowance was 10%. This was increased to 25% in April 2019 and from 22 April 2024, the department has doubled the levy transfer allowance to 50%.

The table below shows the percentage of levy-paying employers who spent all of their transfer allowance in each financial year from 2018/19 to 2023/24.

Transfers provide levy paying employers with more flexibility about how they spend the funds available to them, including supporting other businesses such as smaller employers, flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and charities to help meet local and sector-specific needs. The department has improved the transfer system, introducing a pledge and match service on GOV.UK, to make it easier to find other employers who wish to take on apprentices with transferred funds. Since the service was introduced in September 2021, over 500 employers have pledged to transfer over £37 million to support apprenticeships in businesses of all sizes, as of 9 February 2024.

The department’s apprenticeships budget is used to fund training and assessment for new apprenticeship starts in apprenticeship levy and non-levy paying employers to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training and any additional payments made to employers and providers.

The table below provides the total value of the department’s apprenticeship budget for England for each financial year since 2017/18.

The budget figure for the 2024/25 financial year reflects the Spending Review 2021 settlement, as well as additional funding that has recently been announced to support apprenticeships, including the growth pilot announced at the Autumn Statement, and the additional funding the Prime Minister announced in March to boost apprenticeships for young people in smaller business and meet overall increased demand for apprenticeships.

​​Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) are now in place in around nearly 8,500 schools and colleges across the country, with 498 expert teams offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issues. MHSTs have achieved their NHS Long Term Plan coverage ambition a year early and more teams are coming. By March 2025, there will be over 600 MHSTs up and running. Further information regarding this can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6641f1e1ae748c43d37939a3/Transforming_children_and_young_people_s_mental_health_implementation_programme_2024_data_release.pdf.

​Data from NHS England shows that since 2018/19, when the first wave of MHSTs were commissioned, there are currently nine MHSTs in Northamptonshire and 99 MHSTs for the London integrated care system region. A link to the data can be found here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/cyp/trailblazers/#_Mental_Health_Support.

Data on the number of MHSTs by constituency is not currently available.​

The government is aware the costs of delivering children’s social care are rising, which is why the department has already taken action and announced a series of additional measures:

• In January 2024, the government set out a support package for local government worth £600 million, including £500 million of ringfenced funding for children’s and adults’ social care services distributed through the Social Care Grant. Councils were advised to invest in areas that will help place children’s social care services on a sustainable financial footing. This includes investment in expanding family help and targeted early intervention, expanding kinship care and boosting the number of foster carers.

• Over financial year 2024/25, a total of £5 billion will be distributed to local authorities through the Social Care Grant, including a £1.2 billion increase from financial year 2023/24.

• Councils in England will see an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £4.5 billion in financial year 2024/25, or 7.5% in cash terms, an above inflation increase, rising from £60.2 billion in 2023/24 to £64.7 billion in 2024/25.

This additional funding illustrates our commitment to support councils in continuing to deliver high-quality services to vulnerable children and families.

But the department knows that rising costs are unsustainable and that whole system reform is needed. It is more important than ever that the department continues with the plans to improve and stabilise the children’s social care system. The department's ambitious strategy, set out in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ will bring about fundamental reform, rebalancing local authority spending from costly acute services to effective earlier intervention, thereby improving outcomes for children and families. More information can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/642460653d885d000fdade73/Children_s_social_care_stable_homes_consultation_February_2023.pdf.

When ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ was published, the department announced an additional £200 million funding for implementation. However, this is only part of the wider picture of spending on children’s social care reform. In total, across the department's programmes, almost £700 million has been committed to start delivering the reforms.

In ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, the department committed to work with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to update, publish and consult on a new funding distribution formula. Departmental officials are working in partnership towards implementing an updated approach to distributing available funding for children and young people’s services, based on an up-to-date assessment of relative need in local authorities.

Whilst the government is not able to implement funding reform in this spending period, the department remain committed to updating the funding formula for children’s services to better direct resources to where they are most needed, and work will continue across government to that end.

The government remains disengaged from the National Union of Students (NUS) while the NUS continues to take robust action against antisemitism within its membership.

The department is pleased to see that the NUS is implementing the recommendations from the Tuck Report and will continue to monitor its progress carefully.

On 9 May 2024, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, chaired a roundtable at 10 Downing Street with Vice Chancellors from leading universities across the UK and was joined by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, and other Ministers to discuss tackling antisemitism in higher education (HE). The discussion focused on tackling antisemitism in HE, including preventing an escalation of protest activity such as that seen in the United States in recent weeks.

On the same day the department announced the intention to provide £500,000 to the University Jewish Chaplaincy, enabling it to rapidly boost the vital support it offers to Jewish students on campus.

In his Autumn Statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £7 million to tackle antisemitism in education. The cornerstone of this package for higher education will be a new framework that will enable universities to demonstrate through their processes and practice a commitment to preventing and tackling antisemitic abuse.

Recruitment and retention are crucial to every curriculum subject. The department recognises that high-quality religious education (RE) relies on well trained, confident teachers. The department will be offering a £10,000 bursary for RE trainee teachers that are starting Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in the 2024/25 academic year. The latest data available to date for this 2023/24 academic year highlights that 246 candidates have accepted an ITT offer in RE. At the same point in the cycle in the 2022/23 academic year, 145 candidates had accepted an ITT offer in RE. This represents a 59% increase.

The department centrally holds some of the information requested.

In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for Education and Skills Funding Agency, Standards and Testing Agency and Teaching Regulation Agency, at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics and https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/civilservicestatistics.

The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty”.

The department centrally holds some of the information requested.

In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for Education and Skills Funding Agency, Standards and Testing Agency and Teaching Regulation Agency, at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics and https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/civilservicestatistics.

The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty”.

The department centrally holds some of the information requested.

In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for Education and Skills Funding Agency, Standards and Testing Agency and Teaching Regulation Agency, at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics and https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/civilservicestatistics.

The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty”.

Apprenticeships are jobs with training that are open to anyone aged 16 and over. The apprenticeship levy was introduced to support employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training. The department’s annual budget for apprenticeships in England has increased to over £2.7 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. This budget is ringfenced for spend on apprenticeships training and assessment only to meet employer demand for high-quality apprenticeships and cannot be used for other purposes.

To ensure that every child, regardless of their background, can excel at school and achieve their full potential, the department has targeted a greater proportion of the schools national funding formula towards deprived pupils than ever before. In total, 10.2%, over £4.4 billion, of the formula will be allocated according to deprivation factors in the 2024/25 financial year and 17.8%, or £7.8 billion, will be allocated for additional needs overall. This will help schools in their vital work to close attainment gaps and level up educational opportunities.

The pupil premium grant, introduced in 2011, also offers direct funding to schools to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged 5 to 16 year olds in state-funded schools in England. The department increased the premium pupil funding to over £2.9 billion this financial year to ensure the most disadvantaged pupils receive the support they need to succeed at school.

The department is providing funding to ensure that every 16 to 18 year old has a place in further education or training if they want one. The department invested over £7 billion on 16 to 19 programme funding during the 2023/24 academic year, which included over £590 million to support students who are economically deprived and to account for low prior attainment in English and mathematics. Over £35 million has also been allocated in the 2023/24 academic year to provide free meals for 16 to 19 year olds in further education. Additionally, the department allocated over £159 million of bursary funding to institutions in the 2023/24 academic year to help disadvantaged 16 to 19 year olds with costs such as travel, books, equipment and trips, which is nearly 12% higher than published allocations for the 2022/23 academic year.

Decisions on pay ranges are based on recommendations by the School Teachers’ Review Body, which is the independent body that advises on teachers’ pay and conditions.

The geographical areas covered by the different ranges were defined some years ago to reflect a practical approach to compensate teachers working in London. The Review Body has not recommended any changes since then, although the department will consider these issues in the future.