Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of capacity considerations in class sizes for Key Stage 1 and 2 in schools with high levels of SEND; and whether she will consider a needs‑weighted pupil cap to reflect the additional time and support required.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 limits the size of an infant class to 30 pupils per teacher. An infant class is one in which the majority of children will reach the age of 5, 6 or 7 during the school year, i.e. Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
Through the reforms outlined in the Schools White Paper, we will ensure that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) get the right support at every stage of their education.
We are also committed to supporting local areas to create high-quality places that are suitable to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND, by investing at least £3.7 billion in high needs capital funding between 2025/26 and 2029/30. This is to support local authorities to provide places for children and young people with SEND, or who require alternative provision, across early years settings, schools, and colleges.
As well as this, we are providing around £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and Integrated Care Boards, to work together to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer. This is designed to strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings by providing access to professionals such as educational psychologists and speech and language or occupational therapists, providing earlier intervention and support for young people.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether safeguards will be introduced to help ensure that Individual Support Plans (ISPs) do not become resource‑led documents due to limited specialist provision.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice sets out that the provision made for pupils with special educational needs should be recorded accurately and kept up to date. As a result, many settings already keep records of the needs and provision required by children or young people with SEND and communicate these with parents.
The department is introducing a duty on settings to produce an individual support plan for every child or young person with SEND, ensuring help keeps pace with their development, prevents challenges from escalating, and reduces the risk of them disengaging from learning.
Additional funding through an Inclusive Mainstream Fund will be provided to early years, schools and colleges to boost the existing core funding for SEND, with over £500 million per year over the next three years. This funding, alongside their existing core funding, will help equip settings to invest in high-quality, adaptive teaching, targeted evidence-based support, inclusive pedagogy and decision-making, and create safe, calm and accessible learning environments for all. On 25 March, we published the guidance ‘Inclusive mainstream fund: best practice for schools’, which provides examples and case studies of how settings can use this funding to enhance support for children with SEND. The guidance is available at:
Our proposed reforms go further to support educators, with easier access to expert advice through Experts at Hand and evidence-based tools and resources through the National Inclusion Standards.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 11 March (HL14898), what assessment they have made of the cost to the public of multi academy trust chief executives pay in comparison to similar roles in the maintained school sector.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The responsibilities of multi-academy trust chief executives are not directly comparable to those of leaders in the maintained sector.
The department is clear that executive pay must be justifiable, transparent, evidence-based and reflect individual responsibility. Trustees should adhere to these principles in setting pay, supported by our guidance and advice. We are taking steps to respond to instances where we see high salaries compared to peers. This includes tightening the academy trust handbook (ATH) by requiring executive pay increases to be proportionate and justified, to prevent excessive increases for individuals carrying out broadly similar roles.
The department reviews trusts’ annual accounts to identify trusts with outlying levels of executive pay and engages with them to ensure compliance with the requirements of the ATH.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps are being taken to ensure that nursery places are available to children with a range of special needs in Poole constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
We want every child, including those with additional needs, to be able to access a childcare setting where they can get the best start in life. The special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms we announced in February, will give early years settings the training, evidence-based tools and expert input they need to welcome children with diverse needs into their settings and provide the right support from day one. We are investing over £200 million to strengthen the SEND offer in Best Start Family Hubs, including funding a family-facing practitioner in every hub to join up support across early years settings, health visitors and SEND teams.
Alongside this, we will work with local authorities to strengthen their childcare sufficiency planning for children with SEND and improve data on the availability of suitable places. This will provide parents greater confidence that their children can access the early education and childcare they are entitled to.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department's estimate of local authorities’ projected SEND deficits in 2028/29 assumes that 6.8% of pupils will have an EHCP in the academic year 2027/8, 7.3% in academic year 2028/9 and 7.7% in academic year 2029/30.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The Office for Budget Responsibility, as the independent authority, publishes estimates of future spend.
From 2028/29, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) spending will be covered by the overall government departmental expenditure limit budget, meaning local authorities are not expected to fund future SEND costs from general funds once the Statutory Override ends at the end of 2027/28.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department collects on children with dyslexia to improve understanding of the number of children with dyslexia in schools, their support needs in the classroom and their educational outcomes.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Information on the numbers of children with dyslexia is not collected separately by the department. Dyslexia is included within the wider special educational need type of ‘Specific learning difficulties’ (SpLD).
All the information held by the department relating to children with SpLD is provided by schools via the school census. This data is also available for local authorities, enabling them to take informed decisions when supporting the needs of children in their communities.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department requires local authorities to collect in relation to the numbers of children with dyslexia in education in their area.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Information on the numbers of children with dyslexia is not collected separately by the department. Dyslexia is included within the wider special educational need type of ‘Specific learning difficulties’ (SpLD).
All the information held by the department relating to children with SpLD is provided by schools via the school census. This data is also available for local authorities, enabling them to take informed decisions when supporting the needs of children in their communities.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her department is taking to ensure pupils, particularly those with imminent exams, can continue to attend schools safely in the context of the meningitis outbreak.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Children and young people, including those identified as contacts of cases, can and should continue to attend school or college as normal, including sitting exams and qualifications, unless directly advised otherwise by the local health protection team.
Meningococcal disease does not spread easily, and outbreaks of the size seen in Kent are rare. Transmission of meningococcal disease requires close and prolonged contact to spread, including living in the same household, and intimate contact such as kissing or sharing vapes.
A targeted programme of preventative antibiotics and meningitis B vaccination has been introduced to provide longer-term protection for students and young people in the area. Vaccination has been offered to all those who have received preventative antibiotics, and to year 11, 12 and 13 students in schools and colleges in Kent where confirmed or probable cases have been identified. Widening the vaccine offer is a precautionary measure to ensure longer-term protection whilst helping to minimise disruption to school attendance at a critical time in the academic year.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether school children who have been in a classroom, dining hall, shared areas with someone who now has confirmed meningitis are being offered a)antibiotics b)vaccinations.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Children and young people, including those identified as contacts of cases, can and should continue to attend school or college as normal, including sitting exams and qualifications, unless directly advised otherwise by the local health protection team.
Meningococcal disease does not spread easily, and outbreaks of the size seen in Kent are rare. Transmission of meningococcal disease requires close and prolonged contact to spread, including living in the same household, and intimate contact such as kissing or sharing vapes.
A targeted programme of preventative antibiotics and meningitis B vaccination has been introduced to provide longer-term protection for students and young people in the area. Vaccination has been offered to all those who have received preventative antibiotics, and to year 11, 12 and 13 students in schools and colleges in Kent where confirmed or probable cases have been identified. Widening the vaccine offer is a precautionary measure to ensure longer-term protection whilst helping to minimise disruption to school attendance at a critical time in the academic year.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure access for pre-school children with additional needs to nursery places in the Poole constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
We want every child, including those with additional needs, to be able to access a childcare setting where they can get the best start in life. The special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms we announced in February, will give early years settings the training, evidence-based tools and expert input they need to welcome children with diverse needs into their settings and provide the right support from day one. We are investing over £200 million to strengthen the SEND offer in Best Start Family Hubs, including funding a family-facing practitioner in every hub to join up support across early years settings, health visitors and SEND teams.
Alongside this, we will work with local authorities to strengthen their childcare sufficiency planning for children with SEND and improve data on the availability of suitable places. This will provide parents greater confidence that their children can access the early education and childcare they are entitled to.