Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle disparities in (a) financial allowances, (b) access to legal aid and (c) other forms of support available to kinship carers arising from (i) different kinship care arrangements, (ii) the level of social services involvement and (iii) levels of kinship care support between local authorities.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government announced a £40 million package to trial a new kinship allowance, which will begin in autumn 2025. We will evaluate the pilot to build an evidence base on how best to deliver financial support for kinship families.
Through the Children’s Wellbeing and School’s Bill, we are enshrining the first definition of kinship care in law and mandating local authorities to publish their kinship local offer, increasing their accountability for ensuring all kinship families are getting the information they need.
As set out in statutory guidance, local authorities must publish the support and services available to kinship families in a clear, accessible way. This includes the legal support that may be available to kinship carers and potential kinship carers, including the eligibility and extent of that support.
The government also created the National Kinship Care Ambassador role to advocate for kinship families. The appointee, Jahnine Davis, works with local authorities to help them improve their kinship practice and local policies and ensure they are following national guidance.
The department funds the charity ‘Kinship’ to deliver over 140 peer support groups and a training package that all kinship carers across England can access for free.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to help increase the effectiveness of Sure Start for reducing (a) child hospitalisations and (b) overall child health.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The long-term evaluations of Sure Start show large-scale, holistic interventions can be effective in improving children’s health, reducing hospitalisations, and delivering positive impacts on long-term health and development outcomes.
The Family Hubs and Start for Life programme builds on lessons learned from Sure Start about the benefits of integrated, multi-agency workforce and place-based support to improve baby and child health outcomes. The programme places health services at the heart of support for families, particularly for babies, from conception to the age of two years old.
The Family Hubs and Start for Life programme is being extended in 2025/26, with £126 million being made available for families to deliver on the Plan for Change and to give every child the best start in life.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has she made of the adequacy of (a) the current Free School Meal eligibility criteria and (b) the per-pupil funding available for Free School Meals.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We have now announced that we are extending free school meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. It will lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty and put £500 back in families’ pockets, supporting parents in decisive action to improve lives ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy coming later this year.
Providing over half a million additional children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds with a free, nutritious lunchtime meal every school day will also lead to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning children get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life.
It is important that these meals follow the latest nutritional guidance. We are currently engaging with stakeholders on revising the School Food Standards, to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) schools and (b) school leaders have engaged with A whole-school approach to food e-learning module that was launched 28 October 2024; and whether her Department is collecting data to measure the effectiveness of this training.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Since its launch, 903 users have engaged with the ‘A whole-school approach to food’ e-learning module.
The department receives evaluation data of the training from post-completion user-assessments. 99% of users said they were satisfied with the module and 87% of users felt their knowledge had increased as a result of completing the training.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
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 has taken to (a) increase monitoring of sewage pollution and (b) improve compliance with regulations by water companies.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since 1 January 2025, water companies are required to publish data related to discharges from all storm overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. The Secretary of State has authorised Ofwat to carry out enforcement action for this duty, in accordance with the powers conferred under sections 18 and 141DA (4) of the Water Industry Act 1991.
Ofwat is currently developing guidance, which it will publish in due course, to ensure water companies are meeting this duty. In addition to this, the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 will introduce a matching duty for water companies to publish data related to discharges from all emergency overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. Once commenced, this duty will be enforced in the same way, further enhancing our monitoring of the storm overflow network and increasing transparency.
Furthermore, the Water (Special Measures) Act will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry as a first important step in enabling wider, transformative change across the water sector. This includes powers for Ofwat to set rules on remuneration and governance, and financial reporting, and new powers for the Environment Agency (EA) to impose automatic penalties, and penalties to the lower, civil standard of proof.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether kinship carers will be included within the scope of the parental leave review.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I recognise the vital role that Kinship Carers play in caring for vulnerable children, and the need to support Kinship Carers in the workplace.
As part of our broader commitment to working families, we are conducting a comprehensive review of the parental leave system. Planning work is underway.
The Employment Rights Bill is also making Parental Leave a day one right. This will help kinship carers who have parental responsibility, for example, through a legal guardianship order.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to increase pre-school support for children living in disadvantaged areas.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government’s Plan for Change sets out a commitment to give children the best start in life. Low income families, children with education, health and care plans and looked after children are eligible for 15 hours funded early education from age 2. In addition, eligible disadvantaged children can get early years pupil premium (EYPP). This additional funding supports the delivery of high-quality early education improving disadvantaged children’s outcomes. In December 2024, we announced an unprecedented 45% increase to EYPP.
School-based nurseries are a key part of this government’s Opportunity Mission. We have awarded 300 primary schools £37 million to repurpose spare space for new or expanded nursery provision, which will be opening from September 2025.
In addition, from September 2026, every pupil whose household is in receipt of Universal Credit will be entitled to free school meals.
This means that over half a million children from the most disadvantaged households will become eligible for a free nutritious lunchtime meal every school day. This will lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty and put £500 a year per child back in parents’ pockets to support parents in decisive action to improve lives ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy coming later this year.
We are also investing an additional £126 million in 2025/26 to build up the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. The 75 local authorities on the programme have already opened more than 400 family hubs in some of the most deprived areas in the country.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 19 May 2025 to Question 51319 on Mayors: North of England, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of (a) her Department's funding for devolved services and (b) other forms of Government support for local mayors to reduce (i) economic and (ii) health inequalities in the North West.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We are giving local leaders, including mayors in the North West, the tools they need to deliver growth and raise living standards in their areas by devolving power and money from central government.
This includes strong new powers over housing, planning, transport, energy, employment support and a stronger role in joining up public services locally, backed up with integrated and consolidated funding.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
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 has taken to reduce (a) sewage and (b) microplastic pollution from overflows in (i) Greater Manchester and (ii) Lake Windemere.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Tackling marine litter and plastic pollution is a priority for the UK Government, which is why we are working domestically and internationally to implement measures that will prevent macro-sized plastic litter which are sources of microplastics from reaching rivers, seas and the ocean in the first place.
As part of a historic £104 billion of investment by water companies in England and Wales in Price Review 2024 (PR24), which runs from 2025–2030, United Utilities is required to improve sewage discharges within the Lake Windermere catchment. This includes reducing how often storm overflows discharge from Ambleside Waste water Treatment Works (WwTW), Elterwater Pumping Station (PS), Hawkshead PS and Near Sawrey WwTW. United Utilities will also be improving over 100 storm overflows across the river catchments of the Tame, Mersey, Roch, Croal, Irwell, Glaze and Douglas within Greater Manchester as progress towards meeting environmental targets, including those of the Environment Act 2021.
These improvements will help to reduce discharges of raw sewage which can contain organic pollutants, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, nutrients, and heavy metals, as well as visible litter that is flushed down toilets.
We are also taking forward investigations through the water industry’s Chemical Investigations Programme, to understand how we can reduce the levels of microplastics entering the water environment through treated wastewater. Microplastics have been recognised as a significant standalone issue and the water industry are funding six further investigations between 2025 and 2030.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
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 has taken towards achieving good (a) ecological and (b) chemical status in water bodies within Gorton and Denton constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In his first week, the Secretary of State announced a series of initial steps, which will improve environmental management and protections, also introducing the Water Act 2025 and launching the Independent Water Commision already producing its interim findings to help restore our rivers, lakes and seas to good health.
Within the Gorton and Denton constituency there are five surface water bodies. The main pressures to achieving good status are urbanisation, sewage discharge, industrial or transport discharge, and physical modification of the channel. Specific chemical pollutants such as mercury, PBDEs and the “forever chemical” PFOS are also key concerns.
In accordance with the Water Framework Directive, all five water bodies have mitigation measures to improve their ecological and chemical status and address specific chemical pollutants.