Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to add young carers to the daily attendance reporting to help improve their attendance.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The department wants to ensure that young carers have the best life chances by supporting them in their education. They were first added to the School Census in the 2022/23 academic year. This change has raised both awareness and the profile of young carers in schools. It has, for the first time, provided hard data on both the numbers of young carers in schools and their education.

The department expects the quality of the data returns to continue to improve as the collection becomes established. 72% of schools did not record any young carers in 2024.

The department produces guidance, which is periodically reviewed with the sector, to ensure that our data asks are clear and that schools understand how to record all elements of the School Census, including identification of young carers. Further, the School Census has embedded validation rules to maintain the quality of the data which mean that for all pupils, schools must respond to say whether or not the child has been identified as a young carer. We will continue to work closely with the sector, including organisations that work directly with schools in the support of young carers, to encourage better identification, recording and support for young carers in schools.

The department’s expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, were made statutory on 19 August 2024. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance. The ‘support first’ ethos of the attendance guidance is that pupils and families, including young carers, should receive holistic, whole-family support to help them overcome the barriers to attendance they are facing. This includes holding regular meetings with the parents of pupils who the school, and/or local authority, consider to be vulnerable to discuss attendance and engagement at school. Schools are expected to recognise that absence is a symptom and that improving a pupil’s attendance is part of supporting the pupil’s overall welfare.

The daily attendance data collection has been established to ensure consistent recording and monitoring of pupil attendance, support the identification of absence patterns, and help schools and local authorities provide appropriate interventions. We will continue to monitor the quality of school census data on young carers for consideration for future inclusion in the daily collection.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the recording of young carers in the school census.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The department wants to ensure that young carers have the best life chances by supporting them in their education. They were first added to the School Census in the 2022/23 academic year. This change has raised both awareness and the profile of young carers in schools. It has, for the first time, provided hard data on both the numbers of young carers in schools and their education.

The department expects the quality of the data returns to continue to improve as the collection becomes established. 72% of schools did not record any young carers in 2024.

The department produces guidance, which is periodically reviewed with the sector, to ensure that our data asks are clear and that schools understand how to record all elements of the School Census, including identification of young carers. Further, the School Census has embedded validation rules to maintain the quality of the data which mean that for all pupils, schools must respond to say whether or not the child has been identified as a young carer. We will continue to work closely with the sector, including organisations that work directly with schools in the support of young carers, to encourage better identification, recording and support for young carers in schools.

The department’s expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, were made statutory on 19 August 2024. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance. The ‘support first’ ethos of the attendance guidance is that pupils and families, including young carers, should receive holistic, whole-family support to help them overcome the barriers to attendance they are facing. This includes holding regular meetings with the parents of pupils who the school, and/or local authority, consider to be vulnerable to discuss attendance and engagement at school. Schools are expected to recognise that absence is a symptom and that improving a pupil’s attendance is part of supporting the pupil’s overall welfare.

The daily attendance data collection has been established to ensure consistent recording and monitoring of pupil attendance, support the identification of absence patterns, and help schools and local authorities provide appropriate interventions. We will continue to monitor the quality of school census data on young carers for consideration for future inclusion in the daily collection.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to require train companies to refund passengers by the same payment method with which the ticket was originally purchased.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

Under the National Rail Conditions of Travel which set out the contract which applies when a passenger buys a ticket to travel on the National Rail Network, train companies are required to offer to refund passengers by the same payment method with which the ticket was originally purchased.

Found: Lord Hampton Current interests • Teacher at Mossbourne Community Academy, Hackney Lord Harlech

Found: present: Baroness Manningham-Buller (The Chair); Lord Evans of Rainow; Baroness Garden of Frognal; Lord Hampton

Found: these gaps.183 Amendment 9 was not put to a division.184 Baroness Barran, Lord Aberdare and Lord Hampton

Found: Bus Services (No. 2) Bill [HL] 22 LORD HAMPTON LORD MOYLAN _ After Clause 30, insert the following

Found: LORD HAMPTON LORD MOYLAN _ After Clause 30, insert the following new Clause— “Implementing a Vision

Found: LORD HAMPTON _ After Clause 30, insert the following new Clause— “Implementing a Vision Zero programme

Found: LORD HAMPTON _ After Clause 30, insert the following new Clause— “Implementing a Vision Zero programme

Found: LORD HAMPTON ★_ After Clause 30, insert the following new Clause— “Implementing a Vision Zero programme

Found: these gaps.183 Amendment 9 was not put to a division.184 Baroness Barran, Lord Aberdare and Lord Hampton

Found: BARONESS PIDGEON LORD HAMPTON BARONESS GREY-THOMPSON 49_ After Clause 27, insert the following new

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