Asked by: Alex Barros-Curtis (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure more vocational pathways are available in Cardiff West.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education and skills policy is devolved in Wales. The Welsh Government is responsible for vocational education and training provision in Cardiff West.
The department has regular conversations with counterparts in the Welsh Government in relation to education policy, including on vocational pathways.
Asked by: Alex Barros-Curtis (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help reduce costs to parents related to returning to school in September 2026.
Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As part of the government’s work to reduce child poverty and ease cost pressures on families, the department has put in place a major package to support families with back-to-school costs.
Over 3 million children from families receiving Universal Credit will now benefit from free school meals, marking a major contribution to the government’s work to lift over a half a million children out of poverty, the biggest reduction in a single Parliament since records began.
This is alongside 1400 more free breakfast clubs opening across the country, saving families up to £654 per child per year on childcare costs, and new limits on expensive branded school uniforms, which could save some families up to £50 per child on the back-to-school shop.
Families benefiting from free school meals, free breakfast clubs and cheaper uniforms could save up to £1,200 a year, while eligible working parents using government-funded childcare could save up to £8,000 a year.
Asked by: Alex Barros-Curtis (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the National Year of Reading having engaged over 2.1 million children so far.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Reading for pleasure is hugely important and brings a wide range of benefits, from increased wellbeing, confidence and empathy to better vocabulary and aptitude for learning. That is why this government, in collaboration with our delivery partner, the National Literacy Trust (NLT), has declared 2026 the National Year of Reading, a UK-wide campaign to inspire a love of reading, combining a universal campaign with a targeted focus on priority groups who are least likely to read for pleasure.
The department is pleased that the campaign has attracted significant attention, momentum and engagement since its launch in January. The department’s ambition is that it will make a lasting change to the reading habits of the nation to address the decline in reading for pleasure and unlock one of the most powerful tools for equity and opportunity, a love of reading that lasts a lifetime. The department is pleased that the NLT’s recent reading report shows children’s reading enjoyment increased in 2026 for the first time in five years.
An independent evaluation will be published in 2027 and will examine how the campaign has influenced reading behaviours, connected with audiences and shaped attitudes towards reading.