Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to make education more inclusive of disabled children in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
We want to drive a consistent and inclusive approach to supporting all children and young people in every part of the country to achieve and thrive in education, through early identification of need, access to the right support at the right time, high quality adaptive teaching and effective allocation of resources.
On 12 December, the government announced a £3 billion investment to deliver around 50,000 specialist places for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The funding will be distributed to local authorities for them to spend on new places in mainstream settings (including SEN units), on adaptations to mainstream settings to make them more inclusive, or on special schools where required. This investment will help to make education inclusive by design, so every child, in every corner of the country can have their needs met where they live.
We will bring forward our full vision for an inclusive education system in the Schools White Paper in the new year.
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 increase the number of vocational qualifications for post-16 learners in (a) Surrey and (b) Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Post-16 education and skills white paper, published on 20 October, set out our vision for a world-leading skills system which breaks down barriers to opportunity, meets student and employers’ needs; widens access to high-quality education and training; supports innovation, research, and development; and improves people’s lives.
The department has set out our plans to introduce V Levels, which will sit alongside A levels and T Levels, and will become the only pathway for vocational qualifications at level 3 for 16 to 19-year-olds. We will also introduce two clear post-16 pathways at level 2 for further study and for occupations. We have launched a consultation on these measures, which will close on 12 January 2026.
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 access to (a) affordable and (b) flexible childcare provision through childminders in (i) Surrey and (ii) Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is our ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
The department has implemented new flexibilities for childminders that will help them to join and stay in the profession, giving them the flexibility to work with more people and spend more time working from non-domestic premises if they prefer.
Childminders can contribute to the delivery of the expanded entitlements and may also benefit from an expected increase in demand for places. While we do not retain constituency level data, the hourly funding rates for Surrey are £12.89, £9.01 and £6.25 for children under two years old, aged two, and aged three to four respectively. We will work with local authorities and others to ensure that childminders and other early years providers are paid monthly for the funded hours they provide, making their income more stable. We will also keep working with Jobcentre Plus to encourage more people to become childminders.
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 the financial sustainability of childminding roles in (a) Surrey and (b) Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is our ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
The department has implemented new flexibilities for childminders that will help them to join and stay in the profession, giving them the flexibility to work with more people and spend more time working from non-domestic premises if they prefer.
Childminders can contribute to the delivery of the expanded entitlements and may also benefit from an expected increase in demand for places. While we do not retain constituency level data, the hourly funding rates for Surrey are £12.89, £9.01 and £6.25 for children under two years old, aged two, and aged three to four respectively. We will work with local authorities and others to ensure that childminders and other early years providers are paid monthly for the funded hours they provide, making their income more stable. We will also keep working with Jobcentre Plus to encourage more people to become childminders.
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 support families to read with children before they start (a) nursery and (b) school in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The government is investing £500 million in the national rollout of Best Start Family Hubs, which will be available in every local authority by 2028. These hubs bring together services for families with children aged 0 to 19, with a particular focus on support in the early years, recognising the Plan for Change’s ambition to give every child the best start in life and improve child outcomes by age 5.
A key priority is strengthening the home learning environment, because what happens at home makes the biggest difference. The services provided by Best Start Family Hubs will help families to build simple, everyday routines to chat, play and read more with their children, such as sharing stories at bedtime and visiting local libraries.
We also work with trusted voluntary and community partners, including the National Literacy Trust, to provide books, resources and activities that make reading fun and accessible. Alongside this, the National Year of Reading will launch in January, offering practical resources to help parents read with their children before nursery and 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 she is taking to help improve child protection services in (a) Surrey and (b) Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is working closely with local authorities and their partners to improve multi-agency child protection and safeguarding. Officials meet regularly with Surrey County Council, including to discuss local child protection delivery.
We are providing £2.4 billion over the next three years for the Families First Partnership programme to support local areas to embed reforms across Family Help, multi-agency child protection, and family group decision-making. Effective multi-agency child protection arrangements are vital to prevent children from slipping through the cracks.
These teams will bring multi-agency expertise and a clear focus to identify and respond decisively to all forms of significant harm from inside and outside the home and online.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will deliver the biggest overhaul of children’s social care in a generation. It puts multi-agency child protection teams on a statutory footing, improves information sharing within and across agencies, and ensures education and childcare settings are part of local safeguarding arrangements.
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 she has made of the adequacy of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
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. 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.
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 she has made of trends in the number of (a) suspensions and (b) exclusions among pupils with SEND in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department trusts headteachers to use their professional judgement, based on the individual circumstances of the case, when issuing a sanction and in the most serious cases exclusion may be necessary.
The department regularly analyses and publishes pupil suspension and permanent exclusion data to address disproportionate impacts and remains committed to providing earlier intervention in mainstream schools, focusing on pupils most at risk of exclusion to ensure every child can achieve and thrive.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help increase levels of attainment in schools in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed.
Through the government’s Plan for Change, the department is giving every child the best start in life and has set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn. This is backed by an investment close to £1.5 billion over the next three years on improving family services and early years education.
Building on this work, the department is driving high and rising standards in every school to strengthen attainment and outcomes for all children.
This includes regional improvement for standards and excellence teams, recruiting an additional 6,500 teachers across secondary and special schools, and colleges, and a refreshed high quality curriculum and assessment system.
Alongside this, we are working to address barriers to learning, including rolling out free breakfast clubs and tackling school absence in all schools, including in Surrey Heath, as well as tackling child poverty through our historic Child Poverty Strategy that will lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030.
We know there is further work to do, which is why our upcoming Schools White Paper will set out our vision for a school system that drives educational excellence for every child, no matter their background or circumstances.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve education on (a) sexual consent and (b) relationships in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department published updated relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance in July 2025. It includes a focus on building healthy relationships skills from the start of primary school and sets out that secondary schools should cover the role of consent, including how to recognise, respect and communicate consent and boundaries in both platonic and romantic relationships.
Pupils should be taught the law about the age of consent, that they have a choice about whether to have sex, and their capacity to give, withhold or remove consent at any time, even if initially given. They should also be taught that that there are a range of strategies for identifying, resisting and understanding pressure in relationships from peers or others, including in relation to sex, and how to avoid putting pressure on others.