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 potential merits of providing redress to people impacted by forced adoptions between 1945 and 1976.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This abhorrent practice should never have taken place, and our deepest sympathies are with all those affected.
We take this issue extremely seriously and are considering what more can be done for those who were impacted by historical forced adoption.
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 support Designated Safeguarding Leads in schools in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises the incredibly important role designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) play in keeping children and young people safe in schools. We support them to do this through our robust safeguarding framework, ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (KCSIE), the statutory guidance that all schools and colleges, including schools in Surrey Heath constituency, must have regard to when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
KCSIE is clear that every school must have a DSL who should take lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection. Annex C of the guidance supports DSLs to understand the role and expectations placed on them.
The department regularly reviews KCSIE to see where it needs to be strengthened to ensure it continues to provide the support that DSLs need.
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 support pastoral teams in schools in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Schools have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of their pupils and are best placed to decide what pastoral support to provide based on the needs of their pupils, making the best use of their funding and taking the best available evidence-based advice. The Autumn Budget 2024 confirmed an additional £2.3 billion for the core schools budget for 2025/26 compared to 2024/25. This means that overall core schools funding will reach over £63.9 billion in 2025/26.
Good pastoral support is important to achieving high and rising standards in schools and breaking down barriers to opportunity, helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education.
Specifically in relation to pupil’s mental health and wellbeing, the government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by 2029/30 by expanding NHS-funded Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs). Expansion will be overseen by Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and these teams currently cover 26% of pupils and learners in schools and colleges in Surrey Heartlands ICB, compared to 52% coverage nationally.
The government will also recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults, and open new Young Futures hubs with access to mental health support workers.
To support education staff, 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/.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with Surrey County Council on providing clear guidance for feeder school arrangements for secondary schools in the Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Admission arrangements are set and applied locally. Provided they are lawful and comply with the school admissions code, it is for the school’s admission authority to decide what admissions criteria to set, and how they are applied. The admission authority for a community or voluntary controlled school is the local authority. For a foundation or voluntary aided school, it is the governing body, and for academy schools including free schools, it is the academy trust.
The code enables admission authorities to give priority to children attending named feeder schools, but are prohibited from naming fee-paying independent schools as feeder schools. The selection of a feeder school or schools as an oversubscription criterion must be transparent and made on reasonable grounds.
Once a school’s admission arrangements have been determined, anyone who believes they are unfair or unlawful may submit an objection to the Schools Adjudicator. Where the Adjudicator finds that a school’s admission arrangements are unlawful, they must revise their admission arrangements to give effect to the Adjudicator’s decision, which is binding and enforceable by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education.
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 improve literacy education in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.
The English Hubs programme supports the teaching of phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. Surrey Heath’s nearest English Hub is Whiteknights English Hub.
In the 2025/26 financial year, the government has committed £27.7 million to support and drive high and rising standards in reading and writing.
In the 2025/26 academic year, this funding will deliver a range of support for schools, including new training for primary schools which will be delivered through the English Hubs programme. This will help children progress from the early stages of phonics through to reading fluently by the time they leave primary school. There will also be new support and training for secondary schools to support reading at key stage 3.
The department will also publish a writing framework this summer, which will support schools in delivering high quality writing provision across England.
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 adequacy of literacy education in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.
The English Hubs programme supports the teaching of phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. Surrey Heath’s nearest English Hub is Whiteknights English Hub.
In the 2025/26 financial year, the government has committed £27.7 million to support and drive high and rising standards in reading and writing.
In the 2025/26 academic year, this funding will deliver a range of support for schools, including new training for primary schools which will be delivered through the English Hubs programme. This will help children progress from the early stages of phonics through to reading fluently by the time they leave primary school. There will also be new support and training for secondary schools to support reading at key stage 3.
The department will also publish a writing framework this summer, which will support schools in delivering high quality writing provision across England.
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 help tackle the use of discriminatory language in schools in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is clear that any incident of discrimination and derogatory language is unacceptable and should be dealt with quickly and effectively by schools. All members of the school community are responsible for creating a positive, safe environment in which threats or abuse are not tolerated and everyone is treated respectfully.
The ‘Behaviour in schools’ guidance outlines that school staff should challenge all inappropriate language and behaviour between pupils, never normalising abusive language or behaviour by disregarding it or treating it as ‘banter’.
The relationships, sex and health education curriculum has a strong focus on equality, respect, the harmful impact of stereotyping, and the importance of valuing difference.
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 promote apprenticeships in schools in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There is a range of digital and in-person support available to school and colleges to help them to inform their students about apprenticeships. The Careers and Enterprise Company’s national network of Careers Hubs, helps to co-ordinate employers and local programmes to engage directly with schools and colleges to support their careers education, including to raise awareness of apprenticeship routes into their sectors.
Around 2,000 volunteers, comprising of employers and apprentices, have formed the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN). The ambassadors go into schools and colleges to share their compelling stories and experiences of what apprenticeships can do for young people. The AAN currently has coverage of 70% schools and colleges in England and aims to align an ambassador to every state-funded secondary school and further education college by March 2026.
Additionally, the provider access legislation requires all maintained schools and academies to publish a policy statement setting out opportunities for providers of technical education and apprenticeships to access year 8 to 13 pupils and to make sure the statement is followed.
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 invest in higher education facilities in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Higher education (HE) providers are autonomous and decide where to locate and establish their facilities, providing tangible benefits to their local areas and constituencies.
Providers registered with the Office for Students (OfS) and in the Approved (fee cap) category of registration are allocated targeted grant funding through the Strategic Priorities Grant. The government provides this funding on an annual basis to support teaching and students in HE, including expensive-to-deliver subjects, such as science and engineering, and for students at risk of discontinuing their studies. Of the £1.4 billion recurrent funding distributed by the OfS for the 2024/25 academic year, more than two-thirds is being directed to support the provision of high-cost courses.
Providers in Surrey are in receipt of this funding, including the University of Surrey and Royal Holloway, University of London.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of school children receive free school meals in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department publishes data annually on pupils who are eligible for free school meals in the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ statistics. This includes a school level underlying data file which indicates Parliamentary constituency. The data is available at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2023-24.
Please note that data on Parliamentary constituencies use boundaries as they were when the statistics were published. Constituency boundaries will be updated to the most recent ones in the next ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication in June 2025.