Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the proposed national maternity and neonatal action plan will include specific measures to assess and support parent–infant relationships, particularly in the period prior to discharge from maternity and neonatal units.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, chaired by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, will translate the recommendations of Baroness Amos’ independent investigation into National Health Service maternity and neonatal care into a national action plan. The investigation’s final report will be published in June. While its final recommendations cannot be pre-empted, the taskforce’s terms of reference state that all aspects of maternity and neonatal care will be considered when developing its national action plan.

More widely, we are investing £200 million into the Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies programme to strengthen Healthy Babies support in the critical 1,001 days, giving families access to enhanced perinatal mental health, parent-infant relationship, and infant feeding services, to help build the foundations for every baby’s emotional, social, and cognitive development.

On improving neonatal outreach, the NHS England Improving Postnatal Care Toolkit, published in January 2026 and available on the NHS.UK website, helps integrated care boards and local trusts optimise maternal and infant health. It requires commissioners to integrate neonatal and community care, reduce health inequalities, and recommends robust clinical handovers between neonatal units and local general practices and health visiting.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the proposed national maternity and neonatal action plan will include provisions to ensure continuity of care between discharge from neonatal units and community services, including health visiting and family hubs.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, chaired by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, will translate the recommendations of Baroness Amos’ independent investigation into National Health Service maternity and neonatal care into a national action plan. The investigation’s final report will be published in June. While its final recommendations cannot be pre-empted, the taskforce’s terms of reference state that all aspects of maternity and neonatal care will be considered when developing its national action plan.

More widely, we are investing £200 million into the Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies programme to strengthen Healthy Babies support in the critical 1,001 days, giving families access to enhanced perinatal mental health, parent-infant relationship, and infant feeding services, to help build the foundations for every baby’s emotional, social, and cognitive development.

On improving neonatal outreach, the NHS England Improving Postnatal Care Toolkit, published in January 2026 and available on the NHS.UK website, helps integrated care boards and local trusts optimise maternal and infant health. It requires commissioners to integrate neonatal and community care, reduce health inequalities, and recommends robust clinical handovers between neonatal units and local general practices and health visiting.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether their Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies programme will recommend the adoption of holistic family centre frameworks, such as Ei Smart, as part of efforts to support babies and families with the transition from neonatal units to family hubs.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

In March 2026, we published Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies guidance, setting out a series of expectations to enable local authorities to design their support offer for families tailored to local need. While the guidance is not prescriptive about what provision local authorities should introduce, it sets expectations that targeted support should be provided for families facing health inequalities, including those who have required neonatal care.

Some local authorities are already using programme funding to focus on families with babies who have had a period in neonatal care. For example, in Lincolnshire the Family and Baby project has been introduced which operates from neonatal units and provides early, relationship-based support to improve attachment, infant development, and parental wellbeing.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 29 April (HL16444), when they intend to confirm the individual budgets for providers of the Dance and Drama Awards Scheme for the 2026–27 academic year.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No information about the timing of Dance and Drama Award allocations for the 2027/28 academic year is available at this time.

Individual Dance and Drama Award funding allocations for the 2026/27 academic year were issued to providers on 5 June 2026.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government when providers will be notified of the Dance and Drama Awards allocations for the 2027–28 academic year.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No information about the timing of Dance and Drama Award allocations for the 2027/28 academic year is available at this time.

Individual Dance and Drama Award funding allocations for the 2026/27 academic year were issued to providers on 5 June 2026.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government when providers will be notified of the Music and Dance Scheme award allocations for the 2027–28 academic year.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Music and Dance Scheme will be allocated future funding of £37.8 million for the 2026/27 academic year. This is a £1.3 million increase to the £36.5 million commitment for the 2025/26 academic year.

We recognise the pressures faced by all our providers and due consideration has been given to longer-term funding. We therefore intend to confirm funding for 2027/28 academic year before the end of this calendar year.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government when providers will be notified of the Music and Dance Scheme award allocations for the 2026–27 academic year.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Music and Dance Scheme will be allocated future funding of £37.8 million for the 2026/27 academic year. This is a £1.3 million increase to the £36.5 million commitment for the 2025/26 academic year.

We recognise the pressures faced by all our providers and due consideration has been given to longer-term funding. We therefore intend to confirm funding for 2027/28 academic year before the end of this calendar year.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Armed Forces Covenant extends to Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel.

Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a unique asset to Government, which we continue to invest in, working closely across Government to ensure the seafarers who work for the RFA have the employment conditions that reflect their essential work.

The Armed Forces Covenant Legal Duty extends to members of the Regular forces and Reserve forces, as well as Veterans and their families (including the bereaved). Each of these four groups is specifically defined within the relevant legislation.

In the spirit of the Covenant, organisations who have signed the Armed Forces Covenant pledge are encouraged to consider the needs of other groups within the wider Armed Forces community if individual circumstances merit it. This includes members of the RFA that have seen duty on defined military operations.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what they mean by “enhanced parent–infant relationship support” in the updated Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies guidance; and how equivalent support will be defined, delivered, and funded in local authorities that are not in receipt of that programme funding.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Through the Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies guidance, we have a set a series of expectations for local authorities to support them to design their local service offer. The enhanced perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationship support is intended to build on existing provision within the system. Local authorities are empowering the workforce to be able to confidently identify and address need. They are providing high-quality support in a range of ways, such as virtually, one-to-one, and through peer support, and working across the system to strengthen referral pathways.

Through the 10-Year Health Plan, we commitment to rolling out Healthy Babies to match expansion of Best Start Family Hubs. While we do not expect local authorities who are not receiving funding to provide equivalent support to those that are, through the guidance we have set ambitions that we encourage them to work towards, which will lay the foundations for roll out. This includes equipping staff to offer emotional and wellbeing support, promote early attachment and connect families to appropriate services.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce will include (1) representatives of families with lived experience of neonatal care, and (2) professionals with expertise in ‘baby voice’ who are able to represent the baby’s perspective in the formation and prioritisation of services.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Family voices are key to the work of the National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce. Families with a wide range of lived experience of maternity and neonatal care are represented on both the taskforce and within the Expert Reference Groups (ERGs) that are supporting the taskforce’s work.

Membership of the taskforce currently includes a representative from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine, providing expertise in neonatal care. There are also currently several professionals with backgrounds in neonatology on the Workforce, Clinical and Academic ERG. These include Dr Adam Smith-Collins, a Consultant Neonatologist of the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, Professor James Boardman, a Professor of Neonatal Medicine of the University of Edinburgh, Dr Jideofor Menakaya, a Consultant Neonatologist Paediatrician of the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Jonathan Cusack, a Consultant Neonatologist of the Leicester Neonatal Service, and Shazia Hoodbhoy, a Consultant Neonatologist of the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Found: : Lord Alderdice Baroness Blackstone Lord Bruce of Bennachie Lord Darroch of Kew Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Lord Alderdice Baroness Blackstone Baroness Crawley (remote) Lord Darroch of Kew Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Baroness Blackstone; Lord Bruce of Bennachie; Baroness Crawley; Lord Darroch of Kew; Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Wimbledon Lord Alderdice Baroness Blackstone Lord Bruce of Bennachie Baroness Crawley Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Wimbledon Lord Alderdice Baroness Blackstone Lord Bruce of Bennachie Baroness Crawley Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Wimbledon; Lord Alderdice; Baroness Blackstone; Baroness Crawley; Lord Darroch of Kew; Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Wimbledon; Lord Alderdice; Baroness Blackstone; Baroness Crawley; Lord Darroch of Kew; Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Baroness Blackstone Lord Bruce of Bennachie Baroness Crawley Lord Darroch of Kew Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Alderdice; Baroness Blackstone; Lord Bruce of Bennachie; Baroness Crawley; Lord De Mauley; Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Wimbledon; Lord Alderdice; Baroness Blackstone; Lord Bruce of Bennachie; Baroness Crawley; Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Blackstone Lord Bruce of Bennachie (remote) Baroness Crawley Lord Darroch of Kew (remote) Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Baroness Blackstone; Lord Bruce of Bennachie; Baroness Crawley; Lord Darroch of Kew; Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Bennachie (remote) Baroness Blackstone Baroness Crawley (remote) Lord Darroch of Kew Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie

Found: Baroness Blackstone; Lord Bruce of Bennachie; Baroness Crawley; Lord Darroch of Kew; Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie