Lord Watson of Invergowrie

The Government expects UK businesses to undertake due diligence so that human rights issues are considered in their operations and supply chain relationships, in line with the OECD Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This Government will continue to assess and monitor the effectiveness of the UK’s existing measures, alongside the impacts of new tools that are emerging to ensure we can best promote responsible business practices, including in the fashion sector.

Under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, commercial businesses who operate in the UK with a turnover of £36 million or more must make an annual statement on the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their supply chains.

The government is grateful to Place2Be for their work and findings in ‘School for All: Solutions for School Attendance’. Several of the recommendations that are made in the report are already being implemented by the department.

The government understands how vital mental health support is for enabling pupils to attend school and it is committed to supporting schools to embed this through a whole school and college approach. The department has provided grants for all schools and colleges to train a senior mental health lead, which over 70% of schools have now accessed. Additionally, the department is committed to delivering access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. The government will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, which includes access to mental health support workers, and it will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.

The department agrees that there should be a whole family approach to attendance from schools to build strong relationships and collaboration. The ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which became statutory in August 2024, encompasses a ‘support first’ approach, setting clear expectations that schools and local authorities should work with families to address barriers to attendance in a sensitive way. Moreover, the department recently announced an additional investment of £15 million to expand mentoring into 10 new areas over the next three years, providing further support for persistently absent pupils and their families on a one-to-one basis to help identify and address their barriers to education.

From September 2024, it also became mandatory for all schools in England to share their daily attendance data with the department. Schools, trusts and local authorities can access a data tool to identify and intervene where pupils may be at risk of becoming persistently absent. Although the department recognises the intent behind having a specific mental health absence code, there are concerns that creating an additional code is unhelpful in practice and could place a burden on schools. Recent changes to the school register codes, however, have introduced other codes that will be beneficial to children with special educational needs and disabilities or facing mental health challenges.

Additionally, tackling child poverty is at the heart of breaking down barriers to opportunity and improving the life chances for every child. This government’s new Ministerial Taskforce will drive cross-government action on child poverty, starting with overseeing the development of an ambitious Child Poverty Strategy, which will be published in spring next year and will help to tackle a key driver of severe absence.

This government’s vision is for the early education and childcare system to give every child the best start in life. The department’s long term intention is to reform the early years system as the foundation of opportunity and life chances for children, underpinned by a properly rewarded and motivated workforce.

Sir David Bell’s review was conducted for the Labour Party prior to the general election. The findings and recommendations are informative for the department’s approach, and the department will set out more detail in due course.

At present, the department is working to ensure that its approach to lifelong learning will be as effective as possible, enabling people to gain the skills they need to support their careers.

The government recognises that lifelong learning is a core part of a sustainable higher education system which provides opportunities for all and offers learners greater flexibility in an ever-evolving economy.

We will make further announcements about this work shortly.

In July, my Right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced a short review of post-16 qualification reforms at level 3 and below. This review will begin immediately. It will examine the current planned reforms and look at how the department can ensure all young people have access to high-quality technical and vocational qualifications at level 3.

This rapid review will be conducted by the department and will engage with a wide range of stakeholders and providers who currently deliver qualifications at level 3 and below to inform the review. More details on this will be communicated to the sector shortly.

The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Education and NHS England to consider how to deliver our commitment of access to a specialist mental health professional in every school. We need to ensure that any support meets the needs of young people, teachers, parents, and carers. This includes considering the role of existing programmes of support with evidence of a positive impact, such as mental health support teams in schools and colleges.

The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Education and NHS England to consider how to deliver our commitment of access to a specialist mental health professional in every school. We need to ensure that any support meets the needs of young people, teachers, parents, and carers. This includes considering the role of existing programmes of support with evidence of a positive impact, such as mental health support teams in schools and colleges.

The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Education and NHS England to consider how to deliver our commitment of access to a specialist mental health professional in every school. We need to ensure that any support meets the needs of young people, teachers, parents, and carers. This includes considering the role of existing programmes of support with evidence of a positive impact, such as mental health support teams in schools and colleges.

There were almost 8,500 schools and colleges participating in the mental health support team programme in 2023/24, which equates to 34% of the schools and colleges in England.

Assuming the average number of schools or colleges and pupils or learners per mental health support team remains constant, we estimate that coverage would increase to 54% of pupils or learners and 42% of schools or colleges by March 2025.

An interim report, titled Early evaluation of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme: a rapid mixed-methods study, was published in June 2023 and highlights the impacts of mental health support teams on improving pupil mental health and improving teacher mental health. A copy of the report is attached.

Data regarding the latest coverage of the mental health support team programme is routinely collected and published by the Department for Education.

This government is committed to tackling modern slavery, ensuring that victims are provided with the support they need to begin rebuilding their lives and that those responsible are prosecuted. We recognise the valuable role that digital tools can play in supporting businesses to assess and manage this risk.

We encourage industry-led innovation to identify and manage modern slavery risks and comply with the reporting requirements under S54 of the Modern Slavery Act. The Tech Against Trafficking workstream under the Global Business Coalition Against Human Trafficking is an excellent example of this, where businesses have put competition aside to work together on digital tools to help eradicate modern slavery.

Under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, commercial businesses who operate in the UK and have a turnover of £36m or more must report annually on the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. The Home Office published statutory guidance in 2015 to support businesses to draft high quality modern slavery statements and we are currently working with a diverse group of stakeholders to update this.

We encourage businesses to upload their modern slavery statements to the online modern slavery statement registry. This is a powerful tool for transparency, bringing together modern slavery statements into one place on GOV.UK. The registry now hosts over 16,400 modern slavery statements and over the last year there have been an average of 22,500 public searches for the registry every month. We are currently developing a public facing data dashboard that will support businesses and members of the public to analyse the data held on the registry in more detail.