Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of local authorities which voluntarily provide support for self-employed adoptive parents in each of the last five years.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not collect information from local authorities or regional adoption agencies on the extent to which they provide voluntary support for self-employed adoptive parents.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many child sexual exploitation cases were closed with no action in children's services in (a) Birmingham and (b) the west midlands in the last five years.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not hold the information centrally. Birmingham Children’s Trust and other councils and Children’s Trusts in the West Midlands region may hold this information for their areas.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure continuity of local provision and specialist staffing be during transition, in the context of the number of colleges providing the Level 3 BTEC Forensic and Criminal Investigation.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
On 20 October 2025, alongside the publication of the Post-16 Education and Skills white paper, the department published a consultation on Post-16 level 3 and below pathways, which closed on the 12 January. As part of our consultation, we have been engaging with the sector on transition arrangements. We will set out our response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to protect learners (a) in and (b) planning to enter the BTEC pipeline before first teaching in September 2025.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
On 20 October 2025, alongside the publication of the Post-16 Education and Skills white paper, the department published a consultation on Post-16 level 3 and below pathways, which closed on the 12 January. As part of our consultation, we have been engaging with the sector on transition arrangements. We will set out our response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to tailor the National Year of Reading to engage with (a) teenage boys, (b) early years children and (c) families from disadvantaged communities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department, in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, is leading the National Year of Reading 2026 to tackle declining reading enjoyment. This UK-wide campaign combines a marketing initiative with events in schools, libraries and communities, prioritising boys aged 10 to 16, early years children and families from disadvantaged communities.
Grounded in evidence, the campaign uses the “Go All In” branding to help make reading appealing and relevant, particularly for the priority audiences. The campaign’s message, “If you’re into it, read into it”, encourages individuals to explore reading through their passions, whether music, sport, baking, family time, films, sci-fi, or anything else.
Activities will take place across the year and includes national events, alongside resources for schools and early years, and library engagement through initiatives such as the Summer Reading Challenge. The campaign aims for lasting impact by engaging new audiences, making reading relevant, transforming practice, and building infrastructure. An independent evaluation in 2027 will assess its impact and sustainability beyond the campaign year and will assess its influence on reading behaviours and wider impact on the literacy sector.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that the National Year of Reading leads to improvements in reading enjoyment beyond the campaign period.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department, in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, is leading the National Year of Reading 2026 to tackle declining reading enjoyment. This UK-wide campaign combines a marketing initiative with events in schools, libraries and communities, prioritising boys aged 10 to 16, early years children and families from disadvantaged communities.
Grounded in evidence, the campaign uses the “Go All In” branding to help make reading appealing and relevant, particularly for the priority audiences. The campaign’s message, “If you’re into it, read into it”, encourages individuals to explore reading through their passions, whether music, sport, baking, family time, films, sci-fi, or anything else.
Activities will take place across the year and includes national events, alongside resources for schools and early years, and library engagement through initiatives such as the Summer Reading Challenge. The campaign aims for lasting impact by engaging new audiences, making reading relevant, transforming practice, and building infrastructure. An independent evaluation in 2027 will assess its impact and sustainability beyond the campaign year and will assess its influence on reading behaviours and wider impact on the literacy sector.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with (a) libraries, (b) charities and (c) the wider literacy sector to deliver the National Year of Reading.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department, in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, is leading the National Year of Reading 2026 to tackle declining reading enjoyment. This UK-wide campaign combines a marketing initiative with events in schools, libraries and communities, prioritising boys aged 10 to 16, early years children and families from disadvantaged communities.
Grounded in evidence, the campaign uses the “Go All In” branding to help make reading appealing and relevant, particularly for the priority audiences. The campaign’s message, “If you’re into it, read into it”, encourages individuals to explore reading through their passions, whether music, sport, baking, family time, films, sci-fi, or anything else.
Activities will take place across the year and includes national events, alongside resources for schools and early years, and library engagement through initiatives such as the Summer Reading Challenge. The campaign aims for lasting impact by engaging new audiences, making reading relevant, transforming practice, and building infrastructure. An independent evaluation in 2027 will assess its impact and sustainability beyond the campaign year and will assess its influence on reading behaviours and wider impact on the literacy sector.
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 increase teacher retention.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
A strong retention strategy is at the heart of the government’s pledge for 6,500 more expert teachers, as part of its Plan for Change. The department has already implemented a near 10% pay award over two years and we are offering the Targeted Retention Incentive, worth up to £6,000 after tax for teachers of key subjects in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools.
Last year we accepted in full the School Teacher Review Body’s recommendations on Teaching and Learning Responsibility payments. From September 2026, these additional payments will be paid to teachers based on the proportion of responsibility they carry out, rather than their contracted hours. This change follows calls from the sector and will improve equality of opportunity for part-time workers, better enabling them to move into leadership roles.
In addition to financial incentives, our ’Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service provides a range of resources for schools to review and reduce workload and improve staff wellbeing. This service can be accessed here: https://improve-workload-and-wellbeing-for-school-staff.education.gov.uk/.
We are seeing signs of improvement: the latest School Workforce Census reported one of the lowest leaver rates since 2010, with 1,300 fewer teachers leaving the state-funded sector than the year before, and more teachers are returning to state schools after having previously left than at any point in the last ten years, with 17,274 teachers returning to the classroom.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the equitability of the current national funding formula for the Dedicated Schools Grant, in light of disparities in per-pupil funding between local authorities.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The schools national funding formula (NFF) distributes funding for mainstream schools based on schools’ and pupils’ characteristics.
The purpose of the schools NFF is not to give every school, or local authority area, the same level of per-pupil funding. It is right that schools with lots of pupils with additional needs, such as those indicated by measures of deprivation or low prior attainment, attract extra funding to help them meet the needs of all their pupils.
The formula also includes an area cost adjustment to reflect differences in labour market costs across the country. Staffing costs usually make up 70% to 80% of school expenditure, so it is important that schools’ funding takes into account that these costs vary.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the press release entitled Government modernises exam records with new app, published on 8 January 2026, how the £30m savings figure was estimated; and what the average saving for a state secondary school is estimated to be.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The £30 million saving in the education sector is based on reducing administrative processes in further education and apprenticeships. Extensive user research with colleges identified activities that could be eliminated or streamlined, including photocopying documentation, manually matching emails with applications, and reducing data entry and correction through improved quality. Other efficiencies include removing support time for paperwork, eliminating manual searches for unique learner numbers and reducing checks on prior attainment to simplify enrolment for mathematics and English. These changes will also reduce delays caused by missing documentation and cut follow-up activities linked to incomplete records. Due to the nature of the calculation, the department has not estimated a saving per secondary school.