Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve support for care leavers in Stoke-on-Trent South constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government recognises that care leavers have some of the worst outcomes in society and is committed to ensuring that children leaving care have stable homes, access to health services, support to build lifelong loving relationships and are engaged in education, employment and training (EET).
To address the challenges care leavers face, the department has established a care leaver Ministerial Board, chaired by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend, the Deputy Prime Minister, which brings together Ministers from key departments to improve support for care leavers across government. We have also introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, to drive forward our commitments on children’s social care, including placing new duties on local authorities to provide ‘Staying Close’ support to care leavers up to the age of 25, where their welfare requires it, and requiring each local authority to publish information about the arrangements it has in place to support care leavers in their transition to adulthood and independent living.
To support care leavers to engage in EET, those who start an apprenticeship are entitled to a £3,000 bursary. Further, local authorities must provide a £2,000 bursary for care leavers who go to university, and care leavers are a priority group for the 16 to 19 bursary if they are studying in further education.
To help care leavers secure and maintain safe and affordable housing, the department is funding local authorities to support care leavers who wish to stay living with their foster families up to the age of 21, and have increased support for young people leaving residential care, with move-on accommodation and ongoing support from a keyworker provided through the ‘Staying Close’ programme.
The department knows that a stable support network and loving relationships are crucial to supporting care leavers to thrive. We are funding family finding, befriending and mentoring programmes across 45 local authority areas, including Stoke-on-Trent, to help care leavers to identify and reconnect with important people in their lives and create safe, stable, loving relationships.
To enable better access to mental health services, the department committed to recruit 8,500 new mental health staff and we are also updating the statutory guidance on promoting the health and wellbeing of children in care and care leavers.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve support for children with (a) autism and (b) SEND in mainstream settings in Stoke-on-Trent South.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach in collaboration with Local Area Partnerships, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
To support this, the department has brought together a group of leading neurodiversity experts in a new Neurodiversity Task and Finish Group, led independently by Professor Karen Guldberg from the University of Birmingham, to work closely with the department to help improve inclusivity and expertise in mainstream settings in a way that works for neurodivergent children and young people.
Additionally, the department’s Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme brings together Integrated Care Boards (ICB), local authorities, and schools, working in partnership with parents and carers to support schools to better meet the needs of neurodiverse children and their families and enable an inclusive school environment. PINS deploys specialists from both health and education workforces into 10% of mainstream primary school settings, which is approximately 1680 schools. PINS is building teacher and staff capacity to identify and meet the needs of neurodiverse children, including those with speech and language needs, through whole-school interventions. The programme is being evaluated, and the learning will inform future policy development around how schools support neurodiverse children.
The department’s Universal SEND Services contract brings together SEND-specific continuing professional development and support for the school and further education workforce. The programme aims to improve outcomes for children and young people, including those with autism. As part of the contract, the Autism Education Trust (AET) provides a range of training and support for staff on autism. Since the contract began in May 2022, over 200,000 professionals have received training from AET training partners.
Following the last Ofsted SEND inspection in January 2024, officials have been working with Stoke-on-Trent City Council to closely monitor progress against the areas for improvement identified by inspectors.
The areas were:
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department plans to give parents of children with SEN to access transport to school in Stoke-on-Trent South constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s home to school travel policy aims to make sure that no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. Local authorities must arrange free home to school travel for children of compulsory school age, 5 to 16, who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance, their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so. There are extended rights to free travel for children from low-income families.
The department is aware that challenges within the wider special educational needs and disabilities system are creating pressure on home to school travel. The government is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, with specialist provision supporting children with the most complex needs, so fewer children need to travel long distances to a school that can meet their needs. This will reduce the pressure on home to school travel. I am keen to understand how well home to school transport supports children to access educational opportunity and will be working with departmental officials on this.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department (a) provides and (b) plans to provide for apprentices who are required to purchase equipment to fulfil their apprenticeship.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeships are jobs and the department expects employers to provide apprentices with the support, tools and resources they need for a high quality experience.
Where additional costs are anticipated, the department provides employers and apprenticeship providers with additional funding to support more apprenticeship opportunities. The department provides two payments of £500 to employers and providers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18, and up to age 24 for apprentices with an education, health and care plan or who have been in local authority care. These payments are used in many cases to support costs such as work equipment, uniforms or travel.
Apprentices may also be eligible for local discounted travel schemes. For example, apprentices over 18, living in a London borough and in the first year of an apprenticeship can get discounted travel with an Oyster photocard. Apprentices aged under 25 who have been in local authority care may be eligible for a £3,000 bursary, as well as wages from their employer. The bursary is not subject to tax and is not treated as income for benefits purposes.
As the department implements the Growth and Skills Levy to expand the range of in-work training available, we will ensure that people from low-income backgrounds are supported to access all opportunities.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to support apprentices who cannot afford public transport to reach their apprenticeship.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeships are jobs and the department expects employers to provide apprentices with the support, tools and resources they need for a high quality experience.
Where additional costs are anticipated, the department provides employers and apprenticeship providers with additional funding to support more apprenticeship opportunities. The department provides two payments of £500 to employers and providers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18, and up to age 24 for apprentices with an education, health and care plan or who have been in local authority care. These payments are used in many cases to support costs such as work equipment, uniforms or travel.
Apprentices may also be eligible for local discounted travel schemes. For example, apprentices over 18, living in a London borough and in the first year of an apprenticeship can get discounted travel with an Oyster photocard. Apprentices aged under 25 who have been in local authority care may be eligible for a £3,000 bursary, as well as wages from their employer. The bursary is not subject to tax and is not treated as income for benefits purposes.
As the department implements the Growth and Skills Levy to expand the range of in-work training available, we will ensure that people from low-income backgrounds are supported to access all opportunities.