Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the availability of holiday club places in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Through our Plan for Change, the department is committed to giving every child the best start in life. We have confirmed over £600 million for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme for the next three financial years from 2026/27, which equates to just over £200 million each year. In addition, we are providing local authorities with £12.9 million of funding in the 2026/27 financial year to help ensure sufficiency of school-age childcare. This includes supporting the delivery of sufficient holiday childcare by fostering links between holiday childcare and the HAF programme to maximise opportunities to create efficiencies and deliver a sustainable school-age childcare market.
It is the duty of local authorities, under The Childcare Act 2006, to secure sufficient childcare provision to meet the needs of working parents in their area for children up to the age of 14 (or 18 for disabled children). Local authorities have flexibility in how they deliver provision to best meet local needs.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has been made of whether children’s social care practice adequately supports parents who have experienced trauma, including childhood abuse, to recover and safely parent.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The children’s social care national framework (2023) is statutory guidance that sets direction for children’s social care practice. It describes expectations for practitioners working sensitively with whole families, including to identify and address the impact of trauma. Ofsted plays a crucial role in upholding children’s social care standards. In November 2025, Ofsted confirmed they will update their Inspecting Local Authority Children’s Services inspection framework from April 2026 and continue to align inspection with the national framework.
The department has also confirmed the national rollout of Family Help, multi-agency child protection and family group decision making reforms, delivered through the Families First Partnership programme. These services will prioritise supporting the whole family and intervening at the earliest opportunity to prevent problems escalating, including where there are experiences of trauma. This will require excellent place-based service design driven by local authorities working effectively with local partners, including health, police and education providers, and listening closely to families.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment has been made of the extent of regional disparities in access to post adoption (a) therapeutic and (b) practical support services.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The adoption and special guardianship support fund is available nationwide. It funds post-adoption support interventions including therapeutic support for adopted children and their families.
Adoption England recently completed a review of regional post-adoption support. The review is available here: https://www.adoptionengland.co.uk/sites/default/files/2025-06/ASGSF%20Options%20Appraisal.pdf. The report finds that families experiences differ by region due to local delivery models and provider capacity.
The department invested £8.8 million in Adoption England this year to improve adoption support across the country. This includes the development of a national core offer of support for the first 12-18 months of a placement. Practical support, such as peer groups and parenting programmes, are commissioned locally to reflect local need.
Adopted children and their families can also make use of universal provision including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and Families First, a local authority-led early help service that provides practical and emotional support to families, including parenting advice and access to community resources, to prevent issues from escalating.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what oversight exists to ensure that local authorities engage constructively with parents who raise concerns on (a) fair process and (b) statutory obligations.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities must engage constructively with parents when concerns arise about fair process or statutory duties. Oversight is provided through several mechanisms. First, parents can use the statutory three-stage complaints procedure for children’s services, which includes independent review. If they remain dissatisfied, they may escalate to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which investigates maladministration and recommends remedies to ensure fairness and compliance.
Ofsted inspections also assess how effectively authorities involve parents and meet legal obligations.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to review the statutory framework governing post adoption support to help prevent avoidable family breakdowns.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is not currently planning to review the statutory framework for post adoption support.
We are funding Adoption England £8.8 million this year to develop consistent and high quality adoption support provision across the country. This includes implementing a new framework for an early support core offer for the first 12 to 18 months after placement, rolling out a new Adoption Support Plan book for all new adoptive families, and developing a national protocol to be used for all adoption support service teams and local authority front door safeguarding services to ensure that parents receive support when they need it most and help prevent family breakdown.
The department will set out plans to launch a public engagement process in 2026 to better understand how well the adoption and special guardianship support fund is working, what the evidence tells us and what further evidence is required, and importantly what is working well for families and why.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to review the (a) funding and (b) accessibility of the Adoption Support Fund, particularly for families with (i) complex or (ii) high risk placements in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This financial year, the department has invested £50 million into the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF). We have approved applications for nearly 14,000 children since April, for both therapy and specialist assessments. We continue to review the impact of the changes to funding made in April 2025. The ASGSF was formed specifically to meet the needs of complex and high-risk placements.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to educate schoolchildren about the dangers of radicalisation ideologies online.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has strengthened statutory guidance on ‘Keeping children safe in education’ to address online safety, and has updated the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum to strengthen teaching on online safety, wellbeing, and misogyny. We support teachers on how to do this with freely available resources and will pilot a teacher support grant in 2026 – to build a workforce that is equipped and empowered to take on these challenges.
The department also provides comprehensive guidance and resources through the Educate Against Hate website, helping teachers protect children from extremism and radicalisation. Media literacy is embedded in compulsory subjects such as RSHE, computing, and citizenship, equipping pupils to navigate online relationships, identify harms, and critically assess information. To address misogynistic radicalisation, we have published guides to build confidence and manage difficult conversations on incels, the manosphere, and algorithms. We are investing an additional £11 million to support the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy and will be piloting three programmes to support teachers implement the RSHE curriculum in the best possible way; to encourage healthy relationships in children; and to tackle harmful sexual behaviours.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the capacity of schools to implement additional (a) safeguarding and (b) behavioural intervention responsibilities in (i) Surrey and (ii) Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Safeguarding children in schools is an absolute priority for this government, and all schools, including those in Surrey Heath, have a critical role to play in protecting children and keeping them safe. We support them to do this via the statutory guidance ‘Keeping children Safe In Education’ (KCSIE), to which all schools and colleges must have regard when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
The guidance provides a strong safeguarding framework and is clear on the actions a school or college should take if there are any concerns about a child or young person’s wellbeing and/or safety. This includes child-on-child sexual violence and harassment
In particular, Part 5 of this guidance provides robust guidance on managing reports of child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment and provides advice on a whole-school approach to preventing abuse.
In addition, all schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy which outlines effective strategies that will encourage good behaviour. It is for school leaders to develop and implement a policy that works for their own schools and school community. The department publishes guidance to support school leaders and staff to help manage behaviour, including ‘Behaviour in Schools’, ‘Suspension and Permanent Exclusion’, ‘Searching, Screening and Confiscation’, and ‘Mobile Phones in School’.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the resources available to schools to ensure safeguarding incidents involving peer-on-peer abuse are addressed in schools in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Safeguarding children in schools is an absolute priority for this government, and all schools, including those in Surrey Heath, have a critical role to play in protecting children and keeping them safe. We support them to do this via the statutory guidance ‘Keeping children Safe In Education’ (KCSIE), to which all schools and colleges must have regard when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
The guidance provides a strong safeguarding framework and is clear on the actions a school or college should take if there are any concerns about a child or young person’s wellbeing and/or safety. This includes child-on-child sexual violence and harassment
In particular, Part 5 of this guidance provides robust guidance on managing reports of child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment and provides advice on a whole-school approach to preventing abuse.
In addition, all schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy which outlines effective strategies that will encourage good behaviour. It is for school leaders to develop and implement a policy that works for their own schools and school community. The department publishes guidance to support school leaders and staff to help manage behaviour, including ‘Behaviour in Schools’, ‘Suspension and Permanent Exclusion’, ‘Searching, Screening and Confiscation’, and ‘Mobile Phones in School’.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that adoptive families caring for multiple children from the same birth family receive (a) tailored and (b) sustained support in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As part of the criteria for the adoption and special guardianship support fund, all children must have an assessment of their individual needs completed within three months of the application submission. This ensures that any support commissioned by the local authority or Regional Adoption Agency is tailored to their circumstances.
Where families adopt multiple children from the same birth family, each child is assessed separately, and each child has their own Fair Access Limit.