Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have issued guidance to local authorities in England about special school expansion and historical special educational needs and disability deficits; and if so, whether they will publish it.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department has issued guidance relevant to special school expansion in high needs provision capital allocations. This sets out how councils should assess need, plan delivery routes for new capacity, and, where appropriate, expand or refurbish existing special schools, while also strengthening mainstream inclusion through inclusion bases.
Guidance on Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficits has also been published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as part of the Local Government Finance Settlement. The explanatory note confirms that High Needs Stability Grant payments, covering up to ninety per cent of high needs related DSG deficits accrued up to the end of the 2025/26 financial year, will only be released once a Local Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Reform Plan has been approved. This requirement was reiterated in the material circulated alongside the Local SEND Reform Plan commission.
All documents are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the success of Government initiatives launched between 2010 and 2024 in narrowing the attainment gap in schools.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Despite the efforts of dedicated staff, our school system is not serving all children well, with unacceptable disparities in attainment existing across all phases of education and all areas of the country.
Disadvantaged children, especially white working-class children, and those with special educational needs and disabilities are not succeeding as they should.
The attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and all other pupils remains high and persistent at both primary and secondary.
The ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ white paper establishes the department’s plan to improve the outcomes of all children and young people.
When children born under this government finish secondary school, it is our ambition that all children achieve higher standards and the disadvantage gap will be halved, equating to 30,000 more disadvantaged young people passing their English and maths GCSEs than today.
To deliver this we will provide family support to help more disadvantaged children arrive at reception school ready, strengthen teacher recruitment and retention, broaden the curriculum and offer high-quality enrichment opportunities.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 11 March (HL14898), what assessment they have made of the cost to the public of multi academy trust chief executives pay in comparison to similar roles in the maintained school sector.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The responsibilities of multi-academy trust chief executives are not directly comparable to those of leaders in the maintained sector.
The department is clear that executive pay must be justifiable, transparent, evidence-based and reflect individual responsibility. Trustees should adhere to these principles in setting pay, supported by our guidance and advice. We are taking steps to respond to instances where we see high salaries compared to peers. This includes tightening the academy trust handbook (ATH) by requiring executive pay increases to be proportionate and justified, to prevent excessive increases for individuals carrying out broadly similar roles.
The department reviews trusts’ annual accounts to identify trusts with outlying levels of executive pay and engages with them to ensure compliance with the requirements of the ATH.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the effectiveness of their guidance for tackling low school attendance and lost learning.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the last academic year, around 1.5 million children are persistently absent, missing a day a fortnight, and 171,000 are severely absent, missing 50% of time in school or more (compared to 150,000 the previous year). These levels are unacceptably high, and the government is strongly committed to reversing the trend, but it will take time to unwind the legacy.
The department’s ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’ guidance became statutory in August 2024 and is based on our engagement with the strongest schools, trusts and local authorities across the country. We review all guidance on an ongoing basis and make changes as necessary.
Schools also have access to an attendance toolkit, developed in collaboration with the sector. The toolkit provides practical resources to support schools to identify the drivers of absence and adopt effective practice to improve attendance.
The department regularly publishes attendance data which shows how pupil attendance is changing over time. The data can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/pupil-attendance-in-schools. Thanks to the efforts of the sector, overall absence is moving in the right direction, with children attending over 3.1 million more days this year compared to last, and over 100,000 fewer children persistently absent. However, this still leaves around one in five pupils currently missing 10% or more of school.
That is why we are working with the sector to bring breakfast clubs to all primary schools so that every child is in on time and ready to learn, rolling out Attendance and Behaviour hubs providing support to schools to help them improve, and tackling mental ill-health among young people by providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support all schools in England to appoint a designated pupil mental health lead.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
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 helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education.
Over 90% of schools report having a designated mental health lead. The department provides guidance and practical resources on promoting and supporting pupils’ mental health and wellbeing in schools. For example, a resources hub and a toolkit to help choose evidence-based early support for pupils. These can be found here: https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/, and here: https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/.
The government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.
As at March 2025, 10,100 schools and colleges were supported by an MHST. By April 2026, we estimate an additional 900,000 pupils in schools and learners in further education in England will be covered by an MHST, around 6 million in total, or 60% of all pupils and learners, up from around 5 million in April 2025.
The government will also recruit an additional 8,500 mental health staff to treat children and adults and open new Young Futures hubs with access to mental health support workers.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many schools in England have mental health support teams.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
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 helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education.
Over 90% of schools report having a designated mental health lead. The department provides guidance and practical resources on promoting and supporting pupils’ mental health and wellbeing in schools. For example, a resources hub and a toolkit to help choose evidence-based early support for pupils. These can be found here: https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/, and here: https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/.
The government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.
As at March 2025, 10,100 schools and colleges were supported by an MHST. By April 2026, we estimate an additional 900,000 pupils in schools and learners in further education in England will be covered by an MHST, around 6 million in total, or 60% of all pupils and learners, up from around 5 million in April 2025.
The government will also recruit an additional 8,500 mental health staff to treat children and adults and open new Young Futures hubs with access to mental health support workers.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of (1) academy schools which have converted but are not sponsor led, (2) local authority maintained community schools, and (3) local authority maintained foundation, voluntary-aided or voluntary-controlled schools are "stuck"; and what assessment they have made of these figures.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government has defined a stuck school in its consultation on school accountability reform, which was published on 3 February 2025, as a school which was graded ‘requires improvement’ or equivalent at its most recent graded Ofsted inspection and was also graded below ‘good’ at its previous inspection. The consultation also proposes how to define stuck schools in future, subject to the outcome of Ofsted’s separate consultation on improving the way it inspects education.
As at 1 March 2025, there are a total of 566 academy schools, including free schools, which meet the definition of ‘stuck’ schools (5% of all academies) of which 207 are converter academies (2.7% of all convertor academies). Additionally, there are 91 local authority maintained schools meeting the ‘stuck’ schools definition (0.9% of all local authority maintained schools), of which 48 are community schools (0.8% of all community schools) and 43 are voluntary or foundation schools (1.0% of all voluntary or foundation schools). It should be noted that some stuck schools that are now academies were local authority maintained schools at the time of their most recent inspection and subsequently converted as a result of intervention.
The government is committed to high and rising standards for all children, regardless of the type of school they attend. We are already deploying regional improvement for standards and excellence teams to both maintained schools and academies which meet the current definition of stuck and have not had a change of responsible body since their most recent inspection.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many "stuck" schools there were on 28 February; and how many there were under the former definition of such schools at the latest date for which data are available.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government has defined a stuck school in its consultation on school accountability reform, which was published on 3 February 2025, as a school which was graded ‘requires improvement’ or equivalent at its most recent graded Ofsted inspection and was also graded below ‘good’ at its previous inspection. The consultation also proposes how to define stuck schools in future, subject to the outcome of Ofsted’s separate consultation on improving the way it inspects education.
As at 1 March 2025, there are a total of 566 academy schools, including free schools, which meet the definition of ‘stuck’ schools (5% of all academies) of which 207 are converter academies (2.7% of all convertor academies). Additionally, there are 91 local authority maintained schools meeting the ‘stuck’ schools definition (0.9% of all local authority maintained schools), of which 48 are community schools (0.8% of all community schools) and 43 are voluntary or foundation schools (1.0% of all voluntary or foundation schools). It should be noted that some stuck schools that are now academies were local authority maintained schools at the time of their most recent inspection and subsequently converted as a result of intervention.
The government is committed to high and rising standards for all children, regardless of the type of school they attend. We are already deploying regional improvement for standards and excellence teams to both maintained schools and academies which meet the current definition of stuck and have not had a change of responsible body since their most recent inspection.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their definition of a "stuck" school; when this definition was adopted; and how it differs from previous definitions.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government has defined a stuck school in its consultation on school accountability reform, which was published on 3 February 2025, as a school which was graded ‘requires improvement’ or equivalent at its most recent graded Ofsted inspection and was also graded below ‘good’ at its previous inspection. The consultation also proposes how to define stuck schools in future, subject to the outcome of Ofsted’s separate consultation on improving the way it inspects education.
As at 1 March 2025, there are a total of 566 academy schools, including free schools, which meet the definition of ‘stuck’ schools (5% of all academies) of which 207 are converter academies (2.7% of all convertor academies). Additionally, there are 91 local authority maintained schools meeting the ‘stuck’ schools definition (0.9% of all local authority maintained schools), of which 48 are community schools (0.8% of all community schools) and 43 are voluntary or foundation schools (1.0% of all voluntary or foundation schools). It should be noted that some stuck schools that are now academies were local authority maintained schools at the time of their most recent inspection and subsequently converted as a result of intervention.
The government is committed to high and rising standards for all children, regardless of the type of school they attend. We are already deploying regional improvement for standards and excellence teams to both maintained schools and academies which meet the current definition of stuck and have not had a change of responsible body since their most recent inspection.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many "stuck" schools as of 28 February were (1) academy schools, or (2) local authority maintained schools.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government has defined a stuck school in its consultation on school accountability reform, which was published on 3 February 2025, as a school which was graded ‘requires improvement’ or equivalent at its most recent graded Ofsted inspection and was also graded below ‘good’ at its previous inspection. The consultation also proposes how to define stuck schools in future, subject to the outcome of Ofsted’s separate consultation on improving the way it inspects education.
As at 1 March 2025, there are a total of 566 academy schools, including free schools, which meet the definition of ‘stuck’ schools (5% of all academies) of which 207 are converter academies (2.7% of all convertor academies). Additionally, there are 91 local authority maintained schools meeting the ‘stuck’ schools definition (0.9% of all local authority maintained schools), of which 48 are community schools (0.8% of all community schools) and 43 are voluntary or foundation schools (1.0% of all voluntary or foundation schools). It should be noted that some stuck schools that are now academies were local authority maintained schools at the time of their most recent inspection and subsequently converted as a result of intervention.
The government is committed to high and rising standards for all children, regardless of the type of school they attend. We are already deploying regional improvement for standards and excellence teams to both maintained schools and academies which meet the current definition of stuck and have not had a change of responsible body since their most recent inspection.