Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support people with Down's syndrome get into mainstream schools and further education colleges.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools and colleges, as well as ensuring special settings cater to those with the most complex needs, restoring parents’ trust that their child will get the support they need. This includes strengthening accountability for inclusivity, including through Ofsted, and encouraging schools to set up resourced provision or special educational needs (SEN) units to increase capacity in mainstream schools.
High-quality teaching is central to ensuring that all pupils, including those with Down’s Syndrome or other types of SEND, are given the best possible opportunity to achieve. The department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers over the course of this parliament. To support all teachers, the department is also implementing a range of teacher training reforms to ensure teachers have the skills to support all pupils to succeed, including those with SEND.
On 1 September 2024, the government introduced a new mandatory leadership level qualification for special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) in mainstream schools. The qualification will play a key role in improving outcomes for pupils with SEND, including Down’s Syndrome, by ensuring SENCOs consistently receive high-quality, evidence-based training on how best to support children with SEND.
High needs funding will also increase by almost £1 billion in 2025/26, compared to 2024/25. The department has also announced £740 million of capital funding to create more specialist places including in mainstream schools.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to resuming recruitment for a task group to implement the recommendations of the Buckland Review of Autism Employment, published on 28 February.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In our plan to Make Work Pay, we committed to raising awareness of neurodiversity in the workplace.
Our forthcoming employment White Paper considers how to improve employment outcomes and experiences for disabled people and people with health conditions. We are exploring how we can build on the earlier, independent, Buckland Review which was focused more narrowly on autism and employment, to improve understanding and support for all neurodivergent people at work.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to expanding the recommendations of the Buckland Review of Autism Employment, published on 28 February, across neurodiversity more widely.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In our plan to Make Work Pay, we committed to raising awareness of neurodiversity in the workplace.
Our forthcoming employment White Paper considers how to improve employment outcomes and experiences for disabled people and people with health conditions. We are exploring how we can build on the earlier, independent, Buckland Review which was focused more narrowly on autism and employment, to improve understanding and support for all neurodivergent people at work.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many schools registered to deliver language intervention programmes in (1) 2021, (2) 2022, and (3) 2023, and how many completed the full work programme in each of those years.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
The department works with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to support building the evidence base for early language interventions. In July 2024, the department announced that funded support for the 11,100 schools registered for the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme (two thirds of English state primary schools) would continue for the 2024/25 academic year. NELI is the most robustly evidenced early language programme in the UK, helping children who need extra support with their speech and language development to make four months of additional progress and seven months for those on free school meals.
To support early language skills, the department has invested over £20 million in NELI. The department does not hold the exact number of children who have completed NELI since 2020, but an estimate is based on the data included in EEF’s 'NELI Scale-up: Evaluation Report - Year 2', as attached. The programme has screened more than 650,000 children in the last four years and supported more than 210,000 four and five-year-olds since the pandemic. Broken down by academic year, this is:
2020/21: 35,000
2021/22: 59,000
2022/23: 58,000
2023/24: 59,000
The Stronger Practice Hubs, which provide advice, share good practice and offer evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners, have also collaborated with the EEF to fund and make places available on several early language programmes. This is helping to strengthen and add to the evidence base of early years professional development programmes. The department does not hold data on the number of children who have benefitted from these programmes.
The number of new schools who registered to deliver NELI in each academic year since 2020 are as follows:
2020/21: 6,668
2021/22: 4,418
2022/23: 26
2023/24: no new school registration undertaken
For registered schools, the government has continued to fund the intervention so that schools can deliver the programme to new cohorts of reception children, where they are identified with below or well-below average language levels. We do not hold figures on how many of these schools completed the full work programme in each of those years.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many children have completed language intervention programmes each year since such programmes were first funded by the Government in 2021.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
The department works with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to support building the evidence base for early language interventions. In July 2024, the department announced that funded support for the 11,100 schools registered for the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme (two thirds of English state primary schools) would continue for the 2024/25 academic year. NELI is the most robustly evidenced early language programme in the UK, helping children who need extra support with their speech and language development to make four months of additional progress and seven months for those on free school meals.
To support early language skills, the department has invested over £20 million in NELI. The department does not hold the exact number of children who have completed NELI since 2020, but an estimate is based on the data included in EEF’s 'NELI Scale-up: Evaluation Report - Year 2', as attached. The programme has screened more than 650,000 children in the last four years and supported more than 210,000 four and five-year-olds since the pandemic. Broken down by academic year, this is:
2020/21: 35,000
2021/22: 59,000
2022/23: 58,000
2023/24: 59,000
The Stronger Practice Hubs, which provide advice, share good practice and offer evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners, have also collaborated with the EEF to fund and make places available on several early language programmes. This is helping to strengthen and add to the evidence base of early years professional development programmes. The department does not hold data on the number of children who have benefitted from these programmes.
The number of new schools who registered to deliver NELI in each academic year since 2020 are as follows:
2020/21: 6,668
2021/22: 4,418
2022/23: 26
2023/24: no new school registration undertaken
For registered schools, the government has continued to fund the intervention so that schools can deliver the programme to new cohorts of reception children, where they are identified with below or well-below average language levels. We do not hold figures on how many of these schools completed the full work programme in each of those years.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government which providers of language intervention programmes for schools they support with funding.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
The department works with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to support building the evidence base for early language interventions. In July 2024, the department announced that funded support for the 11,100 schools registered for the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme (two thirds of English state primary schools) would continue for the 2024/25 academic year. NELI is the most robustly evidenced early language programme in the UK, helping children who need extra support with their speech and language development to make four months of additional progress and seven months for those on free school meals.
To support early language skills, the department has invested over £20 million in NELI. The department does not hold the exact number of children who have completed NELI since 2020, but an estimate is based on the data included in EEF’s 'NELI Scale-up: Evaluation Report - Year 2', as attached. The programme has screened more than 650,000 children in the last four years and supported more than 210,000 four and five-year-olds since the pandemic. Broken down by academic year, this is:
2020/21: 35,000
2021/22: 59,000
2022/23: 58,000
2023/24: 59,000
The Stronger Practice Hubs, which provide advice, share good practice and offer evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners, have also collaborated with the EEF to fund and make places available on several early language programmes. This is helping to strengthen and add to the evidence base of early years professional development programmes. The department does not hold data on the number of children who have benefitted from these programmes.
The number of new schools who registered to deliver NELI in each academic year since 2020 are as follows:
2020/21: 6,668
2021/22: 4,418
2022/23: 26
2023/24: no new school registration undertaken
For registered schools, the government has continued to fund the intervention so that schools can deliver the programme to new cohorts of reception children, where they are identified with below or well-below average language levels. We do not hold figures on how many of these schools completed the full work programme in each of those years.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce stress for children in poverty in schools and other educational settings in order to improve their mental health outcomes, and how they will assess the effectiveness of interventions in this area.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
Child poverty has gone up by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family. This not only harms children’s lives now, but it also damages their future prospects and holds back the economic potential of the country.
My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced the appointment of my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education to be the joint leads of a new ministerial taskforce to begin work on a child poverty strategy. The government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, to tackle the root causes and give every child the best start at life.
This government is committed to improving mental health support for all children and young people. This is critical to breaking down barriers to opportunity and learning. The right support should be available to every young person that needs it, which is why the government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school.
The government will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to speed-up access to treatment for children and adults.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve access to community-based mental health support for low-income families with children.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is unacceptable that many children and young people are not receiving the mental health care and support they need, and we know that waiting times for mental health services are far too long. We are determined to change that.
As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, the Government will recruit 8,500 additional staff across children and adult mental health services, introduce a specialist mental health professional in every school, and roll out Young Futures hubs in every community.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with international partners about securing Red Cross access to hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Government strongly supports and advocates for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) being given access to hostages. Ministers and senior officials have discussed this in multiple meetings with ICRC officials in the UK and overseas. In line with their mandate, the ICRC has called for the immediate release of all the hostages and for access to them whilst in captivity. So far, the ICRC has been denied access to the remaining hostages in Gaza. The ICRC has no means to compel conflict parties to provide it access and requires agreement from the respective parties to the conflict to visit hostages. The ICRC facilitated the release of 105 hostages as part of the deal agreed between Hamas and Israel in November 2023. The Government continues to call for a humanitarian pause to allow for the release of the remaining hostages.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government in what format Armed Forces personnel receive advice about their pensions when they leave the services.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Shadow Minister (Defence)
The single Services provide holistic support to their respective leavers and signpost to the services available to them. Although individual units may have their own bespoke processes, the Tri Service Resettlement policy (JSP 534) available at the link below explains the minimum level of support.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/tri-service-resettlement-manual-jsp-534
All Service leavers are given the opportunity to attend a Financial Aspects of Resettlement Brief by the Forces Pension Society. Briefs can be attended at any point in a Service person's career, however priority is given to Service leavers with nine months or less to discharge. Briefings are tailored, where numbers permit, to different rank groups, and spouses are welcome to attend.
All Service leavers are issued a Service Leavers' Guide designed to provide help and advise on a range of topics to assist with planning the transition to civilian life, and contains pension information and signposting. This was last reviewed in September 2023 and can be found at the following link:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/651c1168e4e658000d59d888/Service_Leavers_Guide_-_Sep_23.pdf
On discharge, Service leavers also receive a letter from the Joint Personnel Administration Centre (JPAC) detailing their pension entitlement and when this will be paid.
Further information and guidance relating to the Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS) is readily available on gov.uk at the following link:
www.gov.uk/guidance/pensions-and-compensation-for-veterans
The Armed Forces Pension Calculator can be accessed at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/armed-forces-pension-calculator