Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support the retention of (a) primary and (b) secondary school teachers in Sutton Coldfield constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to re-establishing teaching as an attractive profession, which is why the department announced a 4% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools from September 2025, on top of a 5.5% pay award for 2024/25, resulting in a near 10% pay award since this government came to power.
The department also announced targeted retention payments worth up to £6,000, with eligible teachers of chemistry, computing, mathematics and physics in The Royal Sutton School in Sutton Coldfield constituency qualifying for these.
To further boost retention, the department worked with the sector to develop the ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, which contains a range of supportive resources for schools to review and reduce workload, and improve staff wellbeing.
The education staff wellbeing charter, which sets out commitments from government, schools and colleges to improve staff wellbeing and workload, has over 4,200 signatories, including two schools in Sutton Coldfield.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to reduce educational inequalities for secondary school pupils in the West Midlands.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter where they are from. However, the government knows educational inequalities exist at every phase of education across the country. This is not acceptable in the West Midlands, or nationally.
Through our Plan for Change, we are tackling these inequalities and have set a milestone of a 75% of 5 year-olds reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage profile assessment by 2028. The department will invest close to £1.5 billion over the next three years to raise quality, close gaps, and break down barriers to opportunity for every child.
We are also rolling out free breakfast clubs in every state-funded primary school, expanding free school meals to all children on Universal Credit from September 2026 and have delivered record increases to the early years pupil premium.
This is alongside our work to drive high and rising standards in every school, including new regional improvement in standards and excellence teams, the Curriculum and Assessment Review and our commitment to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools and in our colleges.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the number of pupils that miss education due to long term illness at (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools in the West Midlands.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department collects data on children missing education from local authorities. The latest data, including breakdowns by geography, characteristic and length of time missing education, has been available since 12 December 2024 and can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education/2024-25-autumn-term.
The department does not yet publish data on physical health or mental health as a primary reason for children missing education. However, these fields have been added to the aggregate termly local authority data collection for the first time, beginning autumn 2025 and will be included in the next official statistics release.
Data on pupil absence is collected via the school census, and the latest publication is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england/2024-25-autumn-term. Reasons for absence are included in the publication, including the illness rate.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of parents with (a) three and (a) four year old children used their entitlement to 15 hours of free childcare in Sutton Coldfield constituency in 2024.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The government wants all children, regardless of background, to have access to high quality early education and childcare. The Best Start in Life strategy sets out our plan to work with local authorities to increase take-up of the 15 hours of early education and childcare offer for two, three and four year-olds, ensuring low-income families, children with special educational needs and disabilities and children in care receive the early education they are entitled to. We will engage directly with local authorities where take-up is lowest, supporting families through Best Start Family Hubs to take up their funded hours, addressing local variation in performance and tracking data through the new Local Government Outcomes Framework.
Information on the number and proportion of eligible children registered for 15 hours of free childcare is available and published annually in the accredited official statistics release ‘Funded early education and childcare’, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare/2025. This has been available since 17 July 2025. Information on the local authority of the child is collected and published, but this information is not available at a constituency level.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support schools to recruit qualified Maths teachers in the West Midlands.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
High quality teaching is the most important in-school factor for improving children’s outcomes, which is why the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers in our maintained schools and colleges, over the course of this Parliament.
The department’s measures to encourage talented trainees into mathematics teaching include bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free. Retaining these teachers is also key and for 2024/25 and 2025/26, we are offering retention payments worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics teachers working in disadvantaged schools in the first five years of their careers.
This investment is starting to deliver. In the West Midlands specifically, there has been a 20% increase in candidates accepting offers to teach mathematics compared to last year (4 percentage points higher than the total national mathematics increase) and an increase of 340 teachers (headcount) in secondary schools between 2023/24 and 2024/25.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Best Start Family Hubs are planned for the West Midlands.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring every child has the best start in life and the chance to achieve and to thrive are the foundation stones of the government’s Opportunity Mission.
The department will spend close to £1.5 billion over the next three years on improving family services and early years education to begin the hard work needed to deliver these changes.
We will fund Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority to ensure that children and families who need support the most, especially those from low-income backgrounds or with additional vulnerabilities, can access it. These hubs will be open to all families but will be located in disadvantaged communities where support is most needed.
Local authorities will identify family hub sites and the numbers of hubs and services delivered will vary depending on local needs.
The department will be providing guidance to local authorities in time to support service delivery from April 2026.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding she has allocated to expand (a) vocational and (b) technical training routes in the West Midlands.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government is making a substantial investment in skills, with £3 billion of additional funding across the Spending Review period, including an additional £1.2 billion a year by 2028/29.
This includes continuing to invest in apprenticeships and the growth and skills offer to meet priority skills gaps identified by Skills England and the needs of business.
This builds on previous rounds of 16-19 funding agreed for 2025/26 of over £400 million extra funding and making available additional funding of over £190 million in the 2025/26 financial year for the 2025/26 academic year.
The department will spend over £1.4 billion through the Adult Skills Fund (ASF) in the 2025/26 academic year. West Midlands Combined Authority’s devolved ASF budget for the 2024/25 academic year was £133.7 million.
We have also made £155 million available to support schools, colleges and local authorities with increased National Insurance contributions.
The recent Infrastructure Strategy confirmed almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26, to improve the condition of the school and college estate.
This increased funding and investment for skills in England will help to boost the provision of vocational and technical education and training in all areas of the country, including the West Midlands.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Sutton Coldfield constituency have access to mental health support teams.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding mental health support teams (MHSTs) by the end of 2029/30, so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. As well as providing targeted, low intensity support directly to young people and their parents or carers, MHSTs work in schools and colleges to reduce barriers to accessing mental health services and support a holistic approach to mental health and emotional wellbeing.
In April 2025, around five million pupils and learners were covered by an MHST. We estimate an additional 900,000 pupils in schools and learners in further education in England will be covered by April 2026, which is around six million in total, or 60% of all pupils and learners.
In Sutton Coldfield, all but one of the seven secondary schools were reported to be receiving support from an MHST in April 2025, with cover representing 39% of all pupils and learners in schools and colleges in the constituency. No primary schools are yet covered by an MHST. Further expansion is underway in the Birmingham and Solihull integrated care system this financial year.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the provision of SEND services in Sutton Coldfield constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The constituency of Sutton Coldfield falls under Birmingham City Council.
A recent inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of the Birmingham Local Area Partnership’s arrangements for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) took place from 23 June 2025 to 27 June 2025. The report is not yet published.
The Ofsted and CQC inspection in June 2018 identified 13 areas of weakness. A revisit in May 2021 deemed that sufficient progress had been made in one area of weakness. The department issued a statutory direction in October 2021, requiring the local authority to take specific actions to improve their SEND provision and appointed a SEND commissioner to work with the local area. A SEND advisor has also been deployed to drive improvement.
Departmental officials continue to work closely with Birmingham City Council, and the commissioner reports that progress is evident and measurable.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support the work of foster carers in Sutton Coldfield constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby
Birmingham local authority, which includes Sutton Coldfield constituency, receives support from Fosterlink. This government-funded service provides diagnostic support to councils’ fostering recruitment and assessment services. Fosterlink’s work with Birmingham identified strengths and areas for development, making recommendations for improvements. Foster carers in Sutton Coldfield can also access ‘Fosterline’, a free helpline for current and prospective foster carers.
More broadly, as part of children’s social care reform, we are providing £15 million of funding in 2025/26 to recruit and retain more foster carers. We will provide an additional £25 million for fostering covering the 2026/27 and 2027/28 financial years. As part of this model, we are supporting foster carers and children by expanding ‘The Mockingbird Family Model’. Evaluation shows that Mockingbird improves carer retention, meaning that local authorities have a greater number of suitable fostering places available.