Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help reduce mortality rates amongst young adults who have recently left the care system.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government commissioned the review of early deaths of care leavers to examine the unacceptably high number of deaths among care-experienced young people and to drive action to address it. The review’s central finding reinforces the government’s focus for care reform: too many care-experienced people enter adulthood lonely. That is why we have set out a comprehensive programme to prioritise building and maintaining relationships.

This includes over £25 million of funding this financial year to continue the rollout of the Staying Close programme. New duties from 30 September also require councils to publish how they will support care leavers into adulthood and introduce corporate parenting across government departments and key public bodies to ensure policies and services provide better support for care leavers.

For a young person, Staying Close means keeping somewhere settled to live rather than being moved along at 18 and having a network of people around them as they move into adulthood. Staying Close now runs in 47 local areas and will become a national duty for local areas, with full rollout expected by 2029. The Staying Close programme also includes funding for a mental health worker in each local authority to work directly with young people and upskill their teams.

To better prevent future deaths, we will explore how the Child Protection Authority could amplify learning across areas.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress she has made on tackling gender health inequality in relation to a) the quality of maternity wards, b) wait times for gynaecology services and c) acknowledgement of severe menopause symptoms.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 7 September in response to Question 21372, which, for ease of reference, has been reproduced below:

“The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England, published in April 2026, places tackling medical misogyny at its core, recognising that women have been dismissed for far too long and that this must change.

The strategy takes a systemic approach to addressing medical misogyny and ensuring women’s voices and experiences shape care. This includes putting women’s lived experience, including pain and whether they felt listened to, at the heart of how National Health Service quality is defined, measured, and improved. For the first time, women’s feedback on pain management will directly influence NHS accountability, and patient reported experience measures will be embedded in core women’s health pathways.

The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy strengthens escalation and feedback routes, building on Jess’s Rule and Martha’s Rule, so women can challenge when symptoms persist or they feel they are not being listened to.  Jess’s Rule ensures that patients who have been seen by a general practitioner three times without a clear diagnosis will have their care rethought. Similarly, Martha’s Rule allows hospital inpatients and their families to seek an urgent review of their condition if it is rapidly deteriorating.

The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy also introduces a new measure of how often women have to repeat their story to different professionals, supporting better continuity through the diagnostic journey”.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help reduce the attainment gap between children on Free School Meals and their peers.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

‘Every child achieving and thriving’ establishes the department’s plan to deliver improved outcomes for all children, regardless of their background or where they live. Our ambition is for all children to achieve higher standards and for the disadvantage gap to be halved.

The department’s approach is comprehensive and includes rebuilding early family support, improving teacher recruitment and retention so every child benefits from high-quality teaching, broadening the curriculum alongside access to high-quality enrichment, and launching two place-based missions, Mission North East and Mission Coastal, to drive improvement in areas where outcomes remain stubbornly low.

The government has introduced the Enrichment Expansion Programme funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and delivered in partnership with the department, which will work with over 400 schools in the most disadvantaged areas.

The department is also taking steps to support schools and parents to work in partnership by establishing minimum expectations for parental engagement. Successful parental engagement can have a particularly significant impact for the most disadvantaged.

On English and maths, the department is funding the RISE English and Maths Hubs programmes to help schools improve teaching practice and pupil outcomes.

Additionally, we are providing around £3.2 billion of pupil premium funding in the 2026/27 financial year to help raise the educational outcomes of disadvantaged 5 to 16-year-olds. We will also introduce government funded pupil premium strategy reviews for schools that need additional support. These targeted reviews will equip school leaders to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children.

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Ms Abena Oppong-Asare (Chair); Lewis Cocking; Andrew Cooper; Chris