Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support (a) schools and (b) local authorities to provide education, care and health plans for children with special educational needs in Yeovil constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The duty to conduct education, health and care (EHC) needs assessments, and to issue EHC plans if required, rests with the local authority.
The department monitors and works closely with local authorities that have issues with the EHC needs assessment and plan process. Where there are concerns about a local authority’s capacity to make improvements, we ensure that the cause of problems is identified and an effective recovery plan is implemented.
A joint local area inspection of Somerset’s special educational needs and disabilities services, undertaken by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) in March 2020, identified nine areas of significant weakness. Following actions taken, the CQC and Ofsted revisited in November 2022 and confirmed that sufficient progress had been made in seven areas, including the timeliness and quality of EHC plans. Somerset produced an Accelerated Progress Plan to address the two remaining areas. With specialist support from special educational needs and disabilities advisors, sufficient progress was made on these areas and the plan was stepped down in February 2025.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with industry bodies on strengthening (a) apprenticeships and (b) training routes in the hospitality sector to support small and medium-sized businesses in Yeovil constituency.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government offers a range of training options, including apprenticeships and BTECs, to support employers of all sizes in the hospitality sector to benefit from and develop the skilled workforces they need.
Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) give small and medium businesses a stronger role in identifying local skills issues and working collaboratively with skills providers and other local stakeholders to resolve them. From October, Business West and Somerset Chamber of Commerce will begin the process of developing a new 3-year LSIP for Somerset, which includes the Yeovil constituency.
The department and Skills England engage regularly with the hospitality sector, including industry bodies such as UK Hospitality, regarding training for the sector and the government’s plans for skills.
To support apprenticeships in small and medium-sized enterprises the government pays full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan or have been, or are, in local authority care, when they undertake apprenticeships with non-levy paying employers.
The government also continues to pay £1,000 to both employers and providers for apprentices aged 16 to 18, and for apprentices aged 19 to 24 who have an EHC plan or have been, or are, in local authority care.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to ensure the provision of high-quality library services in primary schools in Yeovil constituency by the end of this Parliament.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
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.
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 Dormant Assets strategy, published on 2 June 2025, announced that more than £130 million from the Dormant Assets scheme will be allocated to support the provision of services, facilities or opportunities to meet the needs of young people. Some of this will be used to invest in helping to foster a culture of reading for pleasure amongst disadvantaged children and young people in the spaces and places that matter to them, including schools, youth clubs and other settings like early years providers and libraries, through targeted intervention and increased access to reading material.
Additionally, the English Hubs programme is dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, and they deliver the Transforming School Reading Cultures programme, as part of the English Hubs continuous professional development offer. For schools in the Yeovil constituency, the local English Hub is Cornerstone Hub.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential impact of education, health and care plans on neurodivergent school children in rural communities.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department is determined to restore confidence in the system of support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), so that all children and young people get the chance to achieve and thrive in their education. Our aim is to improve educational outcomes.
The department is working with and listening to parents, local authorities, SEND organisations, education settings and others on how best we can strengthen the SEND system. We want to deliver better support for these vulnerable children and young people and their parents, and we are committed to getting this right. We will continue with this engagement over the summer, in preparation for consultation on a Schools White Paper in the autumn.
We have made no decisions yet on the future of education, health and care plans. There will, however, always be a legal right to additional support for children and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to reduce provision of support for children with SEND in Yeovil constituency in the next four years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department is determined to restore confidence in the system of support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), so that all children and young people get the chance to achieve and thrive in their education. Our aim is to improve educational outcomes.
The department is working with and listening to parents, local authorities, SEND organisations, education settings and others on how best we can strengthen the SEND system. We want to deliver better support for these vulnerable children and young people and their parents, and we are committed to getting this right. We will continue with this engagement over the summer, in preparation for consultation on a Schools White Paper in the autumn.
We have made no decisions yet on the future of education, health and care plans. There will, however, always be a legal right to additional support for children and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether residents in Yeovil constituency will be consulted on changes to the provision of education, health and care plans.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department is determined to restore confidence in the system of support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), so that all children and young people get the chance to achieve and thrive in their education. Our aim is to improve educational outcomes.
The department is working with and listening to parents, local authorities, SEND organisations, education settings and others on how best we can strengthen the SEND system. We want to deliver better support for these vulnerable children and young people and their parents, and we are committed to getting this right. We will continue with this engagement over the summer, in preparation for consultation on a Schools White Paper in the autumn.
We have made no decisions yet on the future of education, health and care plans. There will, however, always be a legal right to additional support for children and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that every student leaves school with CPR training in Yeovil constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
All state-funded schools, including those in Yeovil, are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education curriculum, as part of relationships, sex and health education (RSHE). This includes dealing with common injuries, calling the emergency services and administering CPR, including developing an understanding of the purpose of defibrillators.
The department is currently reviewing the RSHE curriculum, including establishing whether any additional content is needed.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support research into dyscalculia.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
High-quality teaching is the most important in-school factor for improving outcomes for all children, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and we are committed to ensuring that all pupils receive excellent support from their teachers, including those with dyscalculia.
We have commissioned evidence reviews from University College London to identify the most effective tools, strategies and approaches for teachers and other relevant staff in mainstream settings to identify and support children and young people (age 0-25) with different types of needs, including cognition and learning needs such as dyscalculia.
The ‘What Works in SEND’ programme will soon begin researching educational needs assessment tools used by schools to identify the needs of neurodivergent children.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve the (a) identification and (b) support for neurodivergent girls at school.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
This government’s ambition is that all children with special educational needs receive the right support to succeed in their education.
We have established a neurodivergence task and finish group, chaired by Professor Karen Guldberg from Birmingham University, to provide an expert view and make recommendations on how to best meet the needs of neurodivergent children and young people within mainstream education settings. Additionally, the Expert Advisory Group (EAG) for inclusion, led by Tom Rees, is providing sector-led advice on inclusive education practice.
The department introduced the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme in 2024. The programme deploys health and education specialists to build teacher and staff capacity to identify and better meet the needs of neurodivergent children in mainstream primary schools and was delivered in over 1650 (around 10%) of all mainstream primary schools in its first year.
Building on this success, the programme has been extended for the 2025/26 financial year to a further cohort of around 1200 additional mainstream primary schools.
The programme is being evaluated, and learning from delivery of PINS approach is informing policy development around how schools support neurodivergent children.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support secondary school children with dyscalculia in (a) Yeovil constituency, (b) Somerset and (c) England.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
This government’s ambition is to deliver an excellent, inclusive education for every child with a world class curriculum and highly trained, expert teachers. In November 2024, the department established the Neurodivergence Task and Finish Group, who will make recommendations on the best ways to support and meet the needs of neurodivergent children and young people in mainstream education settings. We have also commissioned evidence reviews from University College London, which will highlight the most effective tools, strategies and approaches for teachers and other relevant staff in mainstream settings to identify and support children and young people with different types of needs.
The Maths Hubs programme, which is funded by the department, is a school-led network aimed at improving the teaching of mathematics for all pupils in publicly-funded schools. It covers primary, secondary and special schools and uses a mastery-based teaching approach, which aims to secure understanding of key concepts. This includes training for teachers on techniques such as avoiding cognitive overload by breaking the learning down into small manageable steps, using representations to expose mathematical structure and ensuring that learning is sequenced in a coherent manner so it makes sense to pupils. Boolean Maths Hub works with schools, academies and colleges to support the continuous improvement of mathematics education across the west of England, including Somerset.
The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics offers a Further Education Mastery Specialist Programme for post-16 GCSE mathematics resit and Functional Skills Maths teachers. This programme, delivered through Maths Hubs, aims to develop teachers' expertise in teaching for mastery approaches and enable them to support others in their institutions.