Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to widen access to technical education for young people in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government provides over £18 billion a year for post-16 education and skills, representing record investment this Parliament. This supports young people across the country, including in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire, to access education and training opportunities.
Support includes additional funding for disadvantaged learners, recognising the extra resources needed to help them engage, progress and succeed. Total 16 to 19 funding will increase to around £9 billion in 2026/27. Financial support through bursaries and adult learner support funding helps students overcome barriers such as travel, equipment and childcare costs.
We are also ensuring a broad range of high-quality academic, technical and vocational pathways, investing up to £1.7 billion in modern college facilities by 2030 and a further £485 million over two years to help colleges address staffing pressures.
In addition, 29 Technical Excellence Colleges (TECs) will receive £295 million this Parliament. Newcastle and Stafford College Group has been selected as one of four Advanced Manufacturing TECs, helping develop specialist skills and support learners into well-paid jobs.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on ensuring children and young people with a visual impairment in a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and b) Staffordshire get the support that they need.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The Department for Education and Department for Health and Social Care ministers are jointly engaging stakeholders to ensure our reforms work in practice. As part of this engagement, I took part in a roundtable earlier this year to discuss visual impairment with representatives from various organisations, including the Royal National Institute of Blind People.
We want every child, including those with special educational needs and visual impairments, to have the best start in life, with help available earlier and locally when families need it. To support this, we are investing £1.8 billion over the next three years for local partnerships to develop and deliver an Experts at Hand offer, giving mainstream settings greater access to specialist education and health professionals, including specialist teachers such as qualified teachers of the visually impaired
Alongside this, we are developing the National Inclusion Standards, which will set out what ordinarily available provision should be in every setting to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. They will also include tools and approaches to identify and respond to needs through the targeted/targeted plus layers of support. Specialist Provision Packages will provide support for those children and young people with the most complex needs.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what specific measures she is taking to support young people into a careers in farming a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Specialist land-based providers, such as South Staffordshire College and Reaseheath College, are supporting around 700 learners aged 16 to 18 in Staffordshire and Newcastle-under-Lyme to complete programmes in agriculture-related subjects, alongside learners completing apprenticeships and adult learners funded through the Adult Skills Fund.
Qualifications available include T Levels in Agriculture, Land Management and Production and Animal Care and Management, designed specifically to support students looking to enter careers in farming. T Levels include a mandatory industry placement, so students get real-world experience of the industry. A range of agricultural apprenticeships are also available.
We will introduce V Levels across England in the Agriculture and Land Management, and Animal Care and Management subject areas, and Occupational Certificates in subjects such as Land-Based Service Engineer and General Farm Worker, for first teaching in 2029/30 to support young people to explore and enter farming careers, subject to final content development.
The Stoke and Staffordshire Careers Hub connects education providers, employers and partners to offer young people valuable exposure to agriculture and food production careers.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions a) Ministers and b) officials in her Department have had with the Soft Power Council.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
Since the Soft Power Council was established in January 2025, it has met four times. Information about the Soft Power Council and its meetings is available on GOV.UK, including meeting dates, terms of reference and abridged minutes of discussions.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support home schooled children with additional needs.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
As part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, the department will introduce mandatory Children Not in School registers in every local authority in England and Wales. When implemented, these registers will support local authorities to identify children who are home educated, including those additional needs such as special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The Act also introduces, for the first time, a statutory support duty on local authorities to provide advice and information to home educating families on the registers who request support. This will establish a consistent baseline of support across all local authorities in England and Wales, including for families of children with additional needs who choose to access this support.
More widely, the Every Child Achieving and Thriving white paper sets out the government's vision for SEND reform to support every child to achieve and thrive.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many a) letters, b) emails and c) written communications were received by her Department from Newcastle-under-Lyme District Borough Council between i) December 2019 and July 2024 and ii) July 2024 and May 2026.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
The department’s correspondence system holds 2 emails and 1 letter received from Newcastle-under-Lyme District Borough Council between December 2019 and July 2024. The system holds no emails or letters received from Newcastle-under-Lyme District Borough Council between July 2024 and May 2026.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking alongside Staffordshire County Council to ensure that more girls and young women take up sport at secondary schools in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Our focus is on ensuring that children and young people have equal opportunities to participate in high-quality PE, sports and physical activities and our new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network will be focused on engaging children who are less likely to be active, including girls.
The department held a market engagement event for the new Network on 7 May 2026, and will be releasing further details in due course prior to starting the procurement for a partner to deliver the new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network.
We know that PE kits and barriers around changing facilities can affect girls’ participation in physical education, particularly in teenage years. The department’s non-statutory guidance on school uniform has been updated to include new content on PE kits.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the benefits to the youngest children in a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and b) Staffordshire of learning through play.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
The government recognises the important role of learning through play in supporting young children’s development and is investing £900 million to enable all local authorities, including Newcastle‑under‑Lyme and Staffordshire, to deliver Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies services. These hubs will be warm, welcoming, inclusive and play-friendly spaces that provide high‑quality home learning and parenting support, encouraging families with children aged 0 to 5 to chat, play and read together, alongside more targeted support where needed. Services include accessible stay‑and‑play sessions and play‑based early language activities, guided by statutory expectations published in March
Evidence shows that high‑quality early education improves outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged children. The Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure children learn and develop well and embeds play as central to children’s development.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to help ensure Staffordshire County Council is able to effectively support children and young people with additional needs in a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Our ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
Departmental officials hold regular meetings and correspond with Staffordshire County Council on SEND as part of monitoring progress against the areas for improvement identified by Ofsted/Care Quality Commission inspectors.
The areas for improvement were:
The department has appointed a SEND Adviser to support and work alongside the Local Area Partnership.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to help ensure Staffordshire County Council is able to effectively support children and young people with additional needs in a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.