Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dentists have been recruited under the dental recruitment incentive scheme in Gloucester.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Within the NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB), seven dentists have been recruited under the dental recruitment incentive scheme. ICBs continue to work with practices in their area to support recruitment to these posts.
This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help increase the availability of childcare in Gloucester.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Giving children the best start in life is key to the government’s Opportunity Mission. Good parenting and high-quality early education provide the foundation for children to achieve and thrive. This government is determined to ensure that parents have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and childcare.
The department is rolling out more government-funded childcare entitlements to help millions of families, working hand in hand with the early years sector to build a system that works for them, parents and above all, children. This includes delivering 3,000 new and expanded school-based nurseries to make high-quality childcare accessible and available. As a first step, primary schools have been able to apply for up to £150,000 of a total £15 million capital funding, with the first stage of the plan set to support up to 300 new or expanded nurseries across England. High-quality, school-based nursery provision is popular with parents, especially families with multiple children. It can help schools upgrade spare space whilst also providing early support to children and families, supporting their transition into primary school. School-based nursery settings have proportionally higher qualified staff and see lower staff turnover, providing more consistency of care for children. Proportionally, school-based nurseries also look after more children with special educational needs and disabilities and offer a higher proportion of places in the most deprived areas.
In the 2024/25 financial year, early years providers are set to benefit from over £2 billion extra investment compared to last year, to support the rollout of 30 hours of government-funded early education from next September, rising in 2027/28 to over £4.1 billion. As announced in the Autumn Budget 2024, the department expects to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements in 2025/26, which is around a 30% increase compared to 2024/25, as we continue to deliver the expansion to eligible working parents of children aged from nine months.
The department has confirmed funding rates for 2024/25 and has also announced a new £75 million expansion grant to support nurseries, childminders and other providers to deliver the 35,000 additional staff and 70,000 places required to meet demand for next September. The government will also deliver the largest ever uplift to the early years pupil premium, increasing rates by over 45% to up to £570 per eligible child per year. This unprecedented increase is an investment in quality early education for those children who need it most, in the areas that need it most, to give them the support they need to be school ready at age five and go on to have the best life chances.
Department hourly funding rates for Gloucester have been confirmed at, £5.47 for 3-4-year-olds, £7.60 for 2-year-olds and £10.33 for under 2s.
This government is committed to delivering the expansion to 30 hours government funded childcare for eligible working families from September 2025 but there will be challenges including providers securing enough staff and places to meet demand, with the capacity needed varying across the country. The department is supporting the sector to attract talented staff and childminders to join the workforce by creating conditions for improved recruitment. We are urging the public to ‘do something BIG’ and start a career working with small children through our national recruitment campaign. Our dedicated website also helps people find out more about gaining qualifications and search for existing job vacancies. Skills Bootcamps for the early years are available and lead to an accelerated apprenticeship, and we are funding Early Years Initial Teacher Training as a route for new and existing staff to gain Early Years Teacher Status. To support childminders to join and stay in the profession, we have implemented new flexibilities to work with more people and spend more time working from non-domestic premises.
The department is working closely with local areas and the early years sector to do everything we can to ensure there are enough places and the sector has the workforce needed to provide those places and to bridge local gaps ahead of September 2025.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to encourage investment in high streets in (a) Gloucester and (b) Gloucestershire.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is committed to rejuvenating high streets, supporting businesses and communities that drive town centre success. High Street Rental Auctions, effective December 2024, give local authorities in England powers to auction rental rights for vacant commercial properties, addressing long-term vacancies.
To further revitalise high streets, the Government is tackling anti-social behaviour, late payments, and crime, empowering communities to utilise vacant properties. Initiatives include, expanding banking hubs, strengthening the Post Office network, and reforming business rates. A Small Business Strategy Paper will be introduced this year to support small businesses.
Gloucester City Council received £1.468 million from UKSPF over three years to enhance community spaces, and support local businesses, including on the high street. Gloucester was awarded £11 million to transform the Greyfriars Quarter around Eastgate Shopping Centre. These aim to create vibrant, sustainable high streets for residents and visitors. Gloucestershire has received an additional £2.308 million from UKSPF which could also be invested in high streets.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people have received funding from the disabled facilities grant in (a) Gloucester and (b) Gloucestershire in the last five years.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Disabled Facilities Grant allocation to Gloucester and Gloucestershire for the last five years has been as follows:
Financial year | Gloucester | Gloucestershire |
2020/21 | £1,276,921 | £6,842,353 |
2021/22 | £1,276,921 | £6,842,353 |
2022/23 | £1,276,921 | £6,842,353 |
2023/24 | £1,388,345 | £7,439,417 |
2024/25 | £1,584,452 | £8,490,250 |
This information is also available through the website of Foundations, the National Body for Disabled Facilities Grants and Home Improvement Agencies here: Disabled Facilities Grant Annual Allocations.
It is for local authorities to decide how to spend their allocation and deliver adaptations to eligible disabled and older people. Government does not hold data on how many people have received Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) funding.
Government recognises how important home adaptations are in enabling older and disabled people to live as independently as possible in a safe and suitable environment. This is why on 3 January 2025 government announced an immediate £86 million in-year uplift to the DFG, taking the funding total to £711 million for 2024-25. This will allow 7,800 more eligible people to make vital improvements to their home allowing them to live more independent lives and reducing hospitalisations.
Furthermore, government announced an £86 million additional investment in the DFG for the 2025-26 financial year at the Autumn Budget (bringing total funding for 2025-26 to £711 million).
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support public libraries in Gloucester.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Public libraries are funded by local authorities and each local authority is responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within available resources.
I understand that Gloucestershire had 32 local authority-run static libraries as of December 2023, with five of those libraries located in Gloucester itself.
The government is committed to getting local government back on its feet. The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26 makes available £69 billion for local government, which is a 3.5% real terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support small businesses impacted by flooding in Gloucester.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My thoughts remain with householders and business owners impacted by flooding after the recent heavy rainfall, flooding is a devastating experience for all those affected.
Government support in the aftermath of flooding is only provided in exceptional circumstances. At present, overall, the scale of impacts is not sufficiently significant for the Flood Recovery Framework to be activated in any area. However, officials continue to review impacts data and stand ready to support as appropriate.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle (a) fly tipping and (b) littering in Gloucester.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local councils are usually best placed to respond to littering and fly-tipping problems, in a way tailored to the community in which they occur. They have a range of enforcement tools at their disposal including fixed penalty notices and prosecution. We are reviewing how we can further support local authorities to tackle these issues.
We are also considering how to most effectively deliver our manifesto commitment to force fly-tippers and vandals to clean up the mess that they have created. We will provide further details in due course.
In the meantime, Defra will continue to chair the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group through which we work with a wide range of stakeholders such as local authorities, the Environment Agency and National Police Chiefs Council, to promote and disseminate good practice with regards to preventing fly-tipping.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve children's oracy in Gloucester.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High and rising school standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best life chances.
The government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review will seek to deliver a cutting-edge curriculum that ensures children and young people leave compulsory education ready for life and ready for work, building the knowledge, skills and attributes young people need to thrive.
The department agrees that children’s oracy is very important. The Education Endowment Foundation has found that the average impact of oral language interventions is approximately an additional six months’ progress over the course of a year. Approaches that focus on speaking, listening and a combination of the two all show positive impacts on attainment, most notably on reading outcomes. Impact in early years (seven months additional progress) and primary schools (six months additional progress) tends to be higher than in secondary schools (six months additional progress).
In the early years, developing language skills is vital to enable children to thrive.
The department has also invested over £20 million in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI), improving the language skills of reception age children needing extra support with their speech and language development. More than 170 primary schools in Gloucestershire have benefited from this support.
The English Hubs Programme is dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, with a focus on phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. The English Hub for schools in Gloucester is Mangotsfield English Hub. Further information can be found here: https://www.mpenglishhub.co.uk/.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour in Gloucester.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.
The Government’s Plan for Change, announced by the Prime Minister on 5 December, committed to a zero-tolerance approach to ASB. This will include a dedicated lead officer in every force working with communities to develop a local anti-social behaviour action plan. We will also put 13,000 neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities so that residents have a named officer they can turn to when things go wrong.
This Government will strengthen the powers available to the police to tackle ASB. We recently announced Respect Orders, which will be introduced in the forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill. Respect Orders can be applied for by police and local councils and are issued by the courts. They will enable courts to place wide-ranging restrictions on the behaviour of the most persistent and disruptive ASB offenders. Breach will be a criminal offence meaning officers can arrest and take action quickly to disrupt ongoing ASB. Breaches will be heard in the criminal courts who will have a wide range of sentencing options, including community orders, unlimited fines and, for the most severe cases, up to two years’ imprisonment.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help tackle retail crime in Gloucester.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
In the last year of the previous government shoplifting soared to a twenty-year high, with more and more offenders using violence and abuse against shopworkers. We will not stand for this.
Everybody has a right to feel safe on the job and the Government is committed to tackling retail crime.
We will end the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to shop theft of goods of and under £200. This will remove any perception that offenders will escape punishment.
We will also introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.
As set out in the Autumn budget 2024, we will also provide law enforcement with over £7 million over the next three financial years to help support police in tackling retail crime.