Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support the introduction of more vocational education pathways for students in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As announced in the Spending Review, the department is making over £1 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028/29.
This will support and grow the wide range of technical routes and work-based training available for people of all ages, across the country including in Cambridgeshire. This includes:
We have also strengthened legislation to ensure all secondary pupils have multiple opportunities for meaningful encounters with providers of technical education and apprenticeships.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to promote digital literacy education in schools to encourage the responsible use of mobile technology.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Within the computing curriculum pupils are taught to use technology safely, responsibly, respectfully and securely, to keep personal information private, to recognise unacceptable behaviour, and to understand where to seek support.
Within citizenship and relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), pupils learn how to identify misleading and malicious information and to counter the effects of negative and harmful news, events and information online.
The Curriculum and Assessment Review’s interim report states a renewed focus on digital literacy is key to responding to the rise of artificial intelligence. The department will consider how best to implement the Review’s recommendations following the final report.
The department’s ‘Mobile phones in schools’ guidance is clear that schools should prohibit the use of devices with smart technology throughout the school day to prevent disruption to pupils’ learning.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether appointments to the School Support Staff Negotiating Body will be included in the Public Bodies Order in Council; and whether the chair appointment will be classified as a Significant Appointment.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The Chair of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body will be appointed in line with normal practice and the Governance Code on Public Appointments with guidance from the department’s Public Appointments Team.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that schools in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency and (b) Staffordshire are able to offer high quality music education through (i) the national curriculum and (ii) in music education.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
As part of the government’s Opportunity Mission, the department wants to widen access to music education.
Music Hubs continue to play a vital role across England, with grant funding of £76 million for the 2025/26 academic year. This includes nearly £2.2 million for the Hub partnership led by The Music Partnership, covering Shropshire, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford and Wrekin, and includes support for schools in Newcastle-under-Lyme and wider Staffordshire.
The department is also investing £2 million to support the Music Opportunities Pilot over four years, helping disadvantaged children and those with special educational needs and disabilities learn to play instruments or sing to a high standard in schools across 12 pilot areas. This includes Sir Thomas Boughey Academy in Newcastle-under-Lyme. The government established the Curriculum and Assessment Review to seek to deliver a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum, including music. The final report and government response will be published this autumn. Following this, we will legislate so that academies will teach the reformed national curriculum, alongside maintained schools. This will ensure music is an entitlement for pupils in every state-funded school.
Asked by: David Smith (Labour - North Northumberland)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department considers future demographic changes when planning school funding.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
School funding will increase by £4.2 billion over the Spending Review period, meaning core school funding will total £65.9 billion by 2028/29. This additional funding will provide an above real terms per pupil increase on the core schools budget.
The majority of school funding is allocated on a per pupil basis through the National Funding Formula (NFF) on a lagged funding system, where schools are funded on the basis of their pupil numbers in the previous October census. This arrangement helps to give schools more certainty over funding levels and is particularly important in giving individual schools time to adjust to demographic change before experiencing the funding impact.
Local authorities are also allocated funding through the NFF for growth and falling rolls, which they can use to support schools experiencing significant growth in pupil numbers, to support schools facing a temporary drop in pupil numbers, or to help meet the revenue costs of removing or repurposing surplus places.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure adequate provision of apprenticeships in Ashfield constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will provide greater flexibility to employers and learners across the country, including in Ashfield, and support the industrial strategy.
From August, the department will be introducing seven new foundation apprenticeships for young people in targeted sectors, including construction and the built environment, digital, and health and social care. We are also reducing the apprenticeship minimum duration to eight months so that shorter apprenticeships are possible from August. These flexibilities will help more people learn new high-quality skills at work and fuel innovation in businesses across the country.
To support employers to access apprenticeships, the government pays £1,000 to employers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18 years old, and for apprentices aged 19 to 24 years old who have an education, health and care plan or have been in local authority care. We will also provide £2,000 payments to employers for every foundation apprentice they take on and retain. Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to 25 when they earn less than £50,270 a year.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether funding for family hubs will be included in the Child Poverty Strategy.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. The Child Poverty Taskforce meeting in January focused on the crucial role of local services, including family hubs, in reducing the impact of poverty.
Our new publication ‘Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life’ sets out that we are making a significant investment of over £500 million which will build back crucial family services and provide high quality support to parents and children from pregnancy to age five. Proposals include:
This publication is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/giving-every-child-the-best-start-in-life.
The Hubs will help tackle the stain of child poverty ahead of our ambitious Child Poverty Strategy, due to be published in the autumn.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support the uptake of apprenticeships in (a) Eastbourne and (b) East Sussex.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will provide greater flexibility to employers and learners across the country, including in Eastbourne and East Sussex, and support the industrial strategy.
From August, the department will be introducing seven new foundation apprenticeships for young people in targeted sectors, including construction and the built environment, digital, and health and social care. We are also reducing the apprenticeship minimum duration to eight months so that shorter apprenticeships are possible from August. These flexibilities will help more people learn new high-quality skills at work and fuel innovation in businesses across the country.
To support employers to access apprenticeships, the government pays £1,000 to employers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18 years old, and for apprentices aged 19 to 24 years old who have an education, health and care plan or have been in local authority care. We will also provide £2,000 payments to employers for every foundation apprentice they take on and retain. Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to 25 when they earn less than £50,270 a year.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to review how attendance at schools is recorded for students who have been transferred to another school.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Once a pupil has been transferred to another school, their name is deleted from both the admission and attendance registers.
The ’Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance sets out the process clearly for schools in paragraphs 222-224. The guidance was drawn up following full public consultation and can be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf.
This guidance explains the legal process set out in Regulation 9(1)(a) of The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024, which can be accessed here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/208/regulation/9/made.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that early years providers are not disadvantaged by restrictions on charging flexibility for funded childcare hours.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is this government’s ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
Government funding for the entitlements does not cover consumables like meals, nappies or sun cream or additional activities, such as trips, so providers are able to ask parents to pay for these things.
However, in line with a recent high court judgment, these charges must not be mandatory or a condition of accessing a funded place. The high court judgement is accessible here: https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/admin/2025/224. The government’s guidance sets out requirements for the delivery of the early education and childcare entitlements in line with the law.
The statutory guidance emphasises transparency at the heart of how the entitlement should be passed on to parents, including that any costs should be clearer on invoices and websites. Providers have until January 2026 to update their information in line with transparency requirements.