Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to tackle the impact of low levels of literacy on the economy through interventions in early years education.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The department recognises a strong foundation in early language, reading and writing is crucial for children to achieve and thrive.
We are:
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure that children in poverty receive early years support.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The government’s Plan for Change commits to giving children the best start in life. From age 2, children from low-income families, those with education, health and care plans, and looked-after children are eligible for 15 hours of funded early education. Disadvantaged children may also receive the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP), which supports high quality early education. In December 2024, EYPP funding was increased by 45%.
As part of the Opportunity Mission, £37 million has been awarded to 300 primary schools to create or expand nurseries, opening from September 2025.
From September 2026, all pupils in school-based settings whose families receive Universal Credit will be entitled to free school meals. This will benefit over 500,000 children, lift 100,000 out of poverty, and support families ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy.
Additionally, £126 million will be invested in 2025/26 to expand the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. Already, 75 local authorities have opened over 400 family hubs in some of the country’s most deprived areas.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to boost (1) literacy, and (2) communication skills, of children aged 0–5 years old.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Giving young children the best start in life is the foundation of the government’s Opportunity Mission. The department has set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn. We will measure progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage profile assessment by 2028.
To support early language and literacy skills, the department is:
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to provide support to families with (1) children in early years, and (2) school-age children, in poverty.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The Child Poverty Taskforce will publish a fully funded strategy this autumn, tackling the root causes of poverty across four themes: increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, boosting financial resilience, and strengthening local support, especially in the early years.
Family hubs offer vital services from birth to age 19, or to 25 with special educational needs and disabilities; supporting health, education, and wellbeing, particularly for families in poverty. In 2025/26, £126 million will be invested through family hubs and Start for Life to give every child the best start in life.
An additional £57 million for the Start for Life services was announced in January, covering mental health, infant feeding, breastfeeding, and access to local services.
Early education support includes 15 funded hours for disadvantaged 2-year-olds and all 3 and 4-year-olds. A 45% uplift to the Early Years Pupil Premium was announced in December 2024 to improve outcomes.
Through the Spending Review, the government is expanding free school meals, which are expected to lift 100,000 children out of poverty, and has committed to free breakfast clubs and limiting branded school uniform requirements specifically for school aged children.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits of joining up early education, family support, health services, and community and voluntary organisations to create an integrated early years system.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Children’s early years are crucial to their development, health and life chances.
As set out in the Plan for Change, antenatal classes, health visitors, parenting support, baby and toddler groups and access to affordable, high quality early education and childcare are all vital to guiding parents, improving the home learning environment and supporting child development. Evaluations of Sure Start demonstrate significant positive impacts on a range of outcomes for children and families of providing an integrated parenting support offer, and early findings from the Evaluation Innovation Fund suggest Family Hubs are having positive impact on child development.
Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, the department is building a joined-up system of support from pregnancy through early childhood, with over 500 hubs now open across the country. Local authorities should consider existing infrastructure and local need when deciding where to locate services. Libraries and community spaces can, and often do, form part of family hub networks.
At the Spending Review, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer committed to continuing to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme.
Departmental officials are working through the Spending Review settlement and will share more detailed plans in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to support libraries and other community spaces that host early years services.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Children’s early years are crucial to their development, health and life chances.
As set out in the Plan for Change, antenatal classes, health visitors, parenting support, baby and toddler groups and access to affordable, high quality early education and childcare are all vital to guiding parents, improving the home learning environment and supporting child development. Evaluations of Sure Start demonstrate significant positive impacts on a range of outcomes for children and families of providing an integrated parenting support offer, and early findings from the Evaluation Innovation Fund suggest Family Hubs are having positive impact on child development.
Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, the department is building a joined-up system of support from pregnancy through early childhood, with over 500 hubs now open across the country. Local authorities should consider existing infrastructure and local need when deciding where to locate services. Libraries and community spaces can, and often do, form part of family hub networks.
At the Spending Review, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer committed to continuing to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme.
Departmental officials are working through the Spending Review settlement and will share more detailed plans in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what ministerial meetings have been held in relation to (1) school library funding, and (2) school libraries as mechanisms for critical literacy development.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
School libraries complement public libraries by giving pupils access to a range of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school. The national curriculum states that teachers are expected to encourage pupils to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information, as part of developing their literacy skills.
There are a number of strong links between reading for pleasure and attainment, as well as other positive effects, such as improved text comprehension and grammar, increased general knowledge and character development.
It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils. Headteachers have autonomy to decide how best to spend the core schools funding that is allocated to them by the department. The Autumn Budget 2024 announced an additional £2.3 billion for schools for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25, bringing the total core schools budget to almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26.
The government’s reading framework offers non-statutory guidance for teachers and school leaders, including helpful guidance for schools on how to organise their school library, book corner or book stock to make reading accessible and attractive to readers.
My hon. Friend, the Minister for School Standards, meets with a wide range of individuals and organisations to discuss matters within her portfolio, including English and literacy in schools.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve media literacy education in schools by providing additional resources, including through (1) delivering teacher training, and (2) improving curriculum support.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
I refer the noble Lady to the answer of 01 May 2025 to Question 47185.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings set out in the report Eroding the right to family life: human rights violations in Britain’s child protection systems, published by the Children and Families Truth Commission on 15 November, and whether they will produce guidance to ensure that local authorities intervene early, fulfil their duty to provide support services to families in need, and regularly review care plans to ensure that children in the child protection system can be reunited with their families at the earliest possible opportunity.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Local authorities are required to provide services for children in need for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting their welfare.
All local authorities must adhere to statutory guidance including ‘Working together to safeguard children 2023’, which is attached and can also be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2. The guidance is clear that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children relies on providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge.
Ofsted inspects whether local authorities are delivering appropriately for children.
On 18 November 2024, the department published ‘Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive’, which is attached and can also be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67375fe5ed0fc07b53499a42/Keeping_Children_Safe__Helping_Families_Thrive_.pdf. This sets out this government’s approach to reforming the system of support for children and families, including rebalancing the system toward earlier intervention through the national roll out of family help and child protection reforms. The local government finance policy statement published on 28 November 2024, by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government confirmed that the rollout of these reforms will be supported by £500 million of funding from April 2025. The statement is accessible here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-finance-policy-statement-2025-to-2026/local-government-finance-policy-statement-2025-to-2026.
Family Help is a seamless, non-stigmatising offer of support delivered by multi-disciplinary community-based teams. It combines the strengths of targeted early help and section 17 work, with an emphasis on whole-family working and greater flexibility on who leads work with families, ensuring children and families receive the right support at the earliest opportunity, crucially improving their outcomes and also reducing costs to public services.
Through the £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme and Family Networks pilot running in ten local authorities, the department is testing models and approaches to parental support and advocacy, so that parents feel empowered to have a strong voice when navigating the child protection process. Through the same programme, we are also testing stronger multi-agency approaches to support families. This includes new Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams and Lead Child Protection Practitioners, who are qualified social workers with strong expertise in child protection and assessments. These teams will see local authority, police, and health and other relevant agencies work together in an integrated way to help families overcome challenges, stay together wherever possible, and thrive whilst keeping children safe.
The introduction of Family Help and reforms to child protection from April 2025 will produce a fundamental shift in the way the department is able to respond to children and families who need help. The changes will form part of an improved end-to-end system that offers a seamless system of support, ensuring children and families access the right support at the right time, delivered by the right person.
More detailed guidance on these reforms will be published in the new year which will confirm the changes we expect local authorities and their partners to deliver, including minimum expectations for delivery and opportunities for local flexibility.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding by the charity Contact that a third of eligible disabled children do not access free school meals for reasons that may be linked to their disability, such as being too unwell to attend school or being unable to eat the meals due to dietary or sensory requirements; what steps they are taking in response; and, in particular, whether they intend to offer a voucher scheme to such children during term time.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Schools have a duty to provide nutritious, free meals to pupils that meet the eligibility criteria, including being a registered pupil of a state funded school. Free School Meal (FSM) provision should be made to eligible pupils either on the school premises or at any other place where education is being provided. The department expects schools to act reasonably in ensuring that their food provision accounts for medical, dietary and cultural needs. The department has published statutory guidance (attached), which describes steps a school may take, including the establishment of individual healthcare plans which may include special diets.
Local authorities are funded to support children with special educational needs, including those who are unable to attend school on a long-term basis. The department has published guidance to provide more information, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/illness-child-education. The department continues to keep its guidance under review to ensure that free school meal eligibility supports those who most need them.