Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the proposed International Student Levy aligns with the Government’s International Education Strategy and its target for growth in education exports.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As outlined in the International Education Strategy, the UK aims to both grow the value of education exports to £40 billion per year by 2030, whilst ensuring the sustainable recruitment of high-quality students, in line with the Immigration White Paper.
International higher education (HE) students are only one part of the UK’s wider international education offer, which includes education exports and transnational education provision across the entire sector, from early years to schools, colleges and universities.
Introducing a £925 flat-fee International Student Levy on English HE providers will support sustainable international student recruitment, whilst ensuring students contribute to the communities where they study, with the levy revenue funding the reintroduction of targeted maintenance grants for disadvantaged students.
The UK’s world‑class HE sector will continue to offer an attractive and fulfilling experience to students from around the globe.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to hold universities to account on their duty of care to students.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s position is that a duty of care in higher education (HE) may arise in certain circumstances. Such circumstances would be a matter for the courts to decide, based on the specific facts and context of the case being considered, and will be dependent on the application by a court of accepted common law principles.
The department continues to work closely with students, parents, mental health experts and the HE sector to drive meaningful change in mental health practice through the HE mental health implementation taskforce. The taskforce published its second stage report, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/higher-education-mental-health-implementation-taskforce.
Asked by: Baroness Shawcross-Wolfson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 9 February (HL13942), whether the review of childcare provision will cover (1) the availability of funded childcare places across the country, (2) the adequacy of funding rates provided to settings, and (3) the sufficiency, distribution and qualification levels of the childcare workforce.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Through the department’s Childcare and Early Education Review, we will look at how to improve access to early education and care, making the system simpler for families and delivering a coherent local offer. The Review will focus on improving outcomes for all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and on helping parents participate in the labour market.
Alongside this, the Early Years Funding Consultation is considering how funding is distributed nationally and locally to ensure it remains fair, reflects delivery costs, and supports areas with higher levels of need. We also work closely with local authorities to monitor sufficiency and understand the barriers to delivering funded places.
On workforce, we are expanding funded Early Years Initial Teacher Training places, introducing financial incentives in disadvantaged areas, and will be consulting on routes and professional status to support a strong, sustainable profession.
Asked by: Baroness Shawcross-Wolfson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 9 February (HL13942), whether the review of childcare provision will assess the effect of funded childcare provision on (1) labour market participation, (2) family living costs, and (3) children's outcomes, including school readiness.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Through the department’s Childcare and Early Education Review, we will look at how to improve access to early education and care, making the system simpler for families and delivering a coherent local offer. The Review will focus on improving outcomes for all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and on helping parents participate in the labour market.
Alongside this, the Early Years Funding Consultation is considering how funding is distributed nationally and locally to ensure it remains fair, reflects delivery costs, and supports areas with higher levels of need. We also work closely with local authorities to monitor sufficiency and understand the barriers to delivering funded places.
On workforce, we are expanding funded Early Years Initial Teacher Training places, introducing financial incentives in disadvantaged areas, and will be consulting on routes and professional status to support a strong, sustainable profession.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the extent to which foster carers approved by independent fostering agencies receive equivalent support from local authorities compared with in house foster carers.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Fostering is a challenging role that requires skills and dedication from those who foster, and it is crucial that foster carers receive the support they need to enable them to fulfil this role.
The National Minimum Standards (NMS) for fostering sets out the minimum expectations for the support, supervision and training that all fostering services must provide to foster carers, ensuring consistently high quality care for children. The NMS sets out the expectation that each foster carer receives at least the national minimum allowance for the child in their care.
We have committed to reviewing and updating the NMS as part of our wider programme of reforms. The government’s action plan published in February 2026, ‘Renewing Fostering: Homes for 10,000 More Children’, sets out our approach to recruiting more foster carers, and strengthening support for foster families. This includes the development of an enhanced training and support package for foster carers, which will be rolled out from 2026/27.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in the context of recent uncertainty about the future of the ASGSF, what steps her Department is taking to ensure consistent, high quality therapeutic support for adopted children and their families and Regional Adoption Authorities (RAAs) is continued beyond 2028.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government has carefully considered the impact of changes to adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) funding as part of the wider Spending Review process. That is why we have confirmed continued funding through to 2027/28, alongside consultation on reform, to ensure families continue to receive support while we improve how it is delivered.
The current consultation, available at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/adoption-and-special-guardianship-support-fund-team/adoption-support-that-works-for-all/supporting_documents/adoption-support-that-works-for-all-consultation-document-feb-2026pdf recognises that while many adopted and kinship children thrive, support can be slow, fragmented and inconsistent when needs arise. It sets out a vision for a more predictable and joined-up system, with universal and targeted early help, clearer support pathways and stronger multi‑disciplinary working across social care, health and education where people need more intensive support. The consultation is also a key opportunity for stakeholders to share their views on what support is effective for children. A report on the outcomes of the consultation, together with next steps, will be published later this year.
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 recent assessment her Department has made of the availability of post-16 provision in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department works closely with the Lincolnshire councils and local further education (FE) colleges to ensure there is sufficient post-16 provision in Lincolnshire.
The department works with local authorities to assess significant change applications from schools for new post-16 provision or to close existing provision to ensure that any closure proposals do not create 16 to 19 sufficiency challenges within an area.
In October 2025, we published the ‘Post-16 education and skills white paper’, setting out reforms to the skills system. This includes the introduction of V Levels to sit alongside A and T Levels, the Further Study pathway, supported by a new Foundation Certificate, to support students to progress onto V, T or A levels and also the Occupational pathway. This is supported by a new Occupational Certificate, assisting students develop skills to go into apprenticeships or employment.
Asked by: Baroness Coussins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of recent departmental closures and restructuring announcements from the Universities of Leicester, Nottingham, Heriot-Watt and Essex, what plans they have to ensure the short-term and long-term sustainability of language degrees in higher education.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department is aware that some universities are making difficult decisions about their provision. As autonomous institutions, universities are free to choose which courses they deliver. While the government is supportive of language provision, we play no role in the delivery of these specific schemes.
As education is a devolved matter, it would not be appropriate for the government to comment on provision at Scottish universities.
We want to ensure that all children and young people have access to a high-quality language education. In response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, we set out our commitment to strengthen the languages pipeline, including at A level and degree.
Teacher recruitment in modern languages is kept under review. Incentives, bursaries and training reforms aim to support a sustainable pipeline, recognising that universities play an important but independent role in this.
The government continues to assess national capability needs in security, diplomacy, defence and trade, ensuring language skills requirements are understood across departments.
The department has published our plan for higher education reform through the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, which sets out our ambition for a world leading sector that supplies the skills our labour market needs.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of establishing a national register for foster parents.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Fostering services are required to maintain their own records and registers of approved foster carers in line with the National Minimum Standards and associated regulations.
We recently published the ‘Renewing Fostering: Homes for 10,000 More Children’ action plan which sets out our ambitious plans to strengthen fostering. At the same time, we launched a call for evidence, which sought views on how to improve the foster care system, including questions on a national fostering register.
We are currently analysing the responses to this call for evidence. These insights will help us consider the potential merits, benefits and practical implications of introducing a national register for foster carers as part of future policy development.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what funding they have provided in the current financial year to support chess in schools in England.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In line with my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s announcement last year, we intend to invest up to £250,000 per year for 3 years (a total of £750,000) from the 2026/27 financial year to partner with an organisation to deliver a national chess in schools programme. This programme will aim to increase pupils’ participation in chess in schools across all nine regions of England.
It will prioritise mainstream primary and secondary schools with higher proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals, as well as special schools and alternative provision settings, and will include work to improve access for girls and pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.