Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure bachelors degree courses represent value for money.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Students and the taxpayer rightly expect a good return on their significant investment in higher education (HE). However, the Student Academic Experience Survey report 2025, published this month by the Higher Education Policy Institute and Advance HE, shows that only 37% of students think they are getting ‘good’ or ‘very good’ value for money.
Value for money is also about ensuring graduates contribute to the economy and society through the skills they acquire, and we know from the September 2024 report from Skills England, ‘Driving Growth and Widening Opportunities’, that many of England’s businesses are dependent on graduate skills. Yet the latest release of the Graduate Labour Market Statistics shows that only 67.9% of working age graduates are in high skilled employment.
This government is determined to change this and to ensure that our HE system delivers value for money. Sir David Behan’s Independent Review of the Office for Students (OfS) recommended that the OfS refocus its work on four key priorities: the quality of HE, the financial sustainability of HE providers, acting in the student interest, and protecting how public money is spent. The government has accepted the Review’s recommendations and will continue to work with the OfS to hold providers to account for the quality of students’ experiences and the outcomes they achieve.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish details of the Growth and Skills levy for businesses.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will offer greater flexibility to employers and learners and support the industrial strategy.
From August 2025, the department will be introducing new foundation apprenticeships for young people in targeted sectors, as well as shorter duration apprenticeships. These flexibilities will help more people learn new, high-quality skills at work and fuel innovation in businesses across the country.
From April 2026, the department will also be introducing short courses in areas such as digital, artificial intelligence and engineering as part of the growth and skills offer.
The department will set out more detail on the growth and skills offer in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 July 2025 to Question 63093 on Nurseries: Fylde, what steps her Department took to advertise the opportunity to participate in the programme to schools in Fylde at the last round of allocations; and if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the advertisement process.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To promote the School-Based Nursery Capital Grant 2024/25, the department published detailed information on GOV.UK and the Education Hub, supported by social media posts. We held two webinars for schools and one for local authorities to explain the programme and answer questions. Additional communications were shared in a variety of ways with local authorities and stakeholders to help cascade information to schools.
The programme received 642 applications, which was more than double the number of available grants. The North West, where Fylde is located, submitted 115 applications (18% of the total), the highest of any region and above its 15% share of primary schools nationally.
The government has committed nearly £370 million to further expand school-based nursery places, with next steps to be announced shortly. Schools in Fylde are encouraged to stay in touch with their local authority about upcoming opportunities to create or expand school-based nursery provision.
The department is reviewing its communications to inform future rounds.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve educational outcomes for young people educated at home.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All children deserve an education that allows them to achieve and thrive, whether they are educated at school or otherwise.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill includes a package of measures to support children not in school, including those who are home educated. Mandatory Children Not in School registers in every local authority in England and Wales, will help improve outcomes for home educated children by supporting local authorities to identify all children not in school in their areas. Measures to make the School Attendance Order process more efficient will minimise the length of time that any child may spend receiving an unsuitable education, thus improving outcomes for children where home education is not working.
The Bill also introduces the first ever duty on local authorities to provide support for home educating families on their registers, upon request ensuring those families have access to reliable advice and information on their child’s education.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of the 3,000 (a) new and (b) expanded school-based nurseries will be in Fylde.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
At the Spending Review, the department announced almost £370 million of further funding to create tens of thousands of places in new and expanded school-based nurseries to ensure more children can access the high-quality early education they deserve and get the best start in life.
The department is currently planning the next phases of the programme, and we will be announcing the next steps shortly. We encourage eligible schools in Fylde to engage with their local authority and explore opportunities to participate in future rounds of funding.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of funding for SEND provision in mainstream schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision sits with local authorities.
The department provides local authorities with capital funding to support them to meet this duty and has published allocations for £740 million in High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2025/26 financial year.
Of this £740 million, Lancashire County Council has been allocated £19.6 million.
This funding can be used to adapt schools to be more accessible, to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support is available to local authorities to meet demand for SEND provision.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision sits with local authorities.
The department provides local authorities with capital funding to support them to meet this duty and has published allocations for £740 million in High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2025/26 financial year.
Of this £740 million, Lancashire County Council has been allocated £19.6 million.
This funding can be used to adapt schools to be more accessible, to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the number of places at schools equipped to accommodate special educational needs.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision sits with local authorities.
The department provides local authorities with capital funding to support them to meet this duty and has published allocations for £740 million in High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2025/26 financial year.
Of this £740 million, Lancashire County Council has been allocated £19.6 million.
This funding can be used to adapt schools to be more accessible, to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an estimate of the cost of hiring new teachers due to changes in employer National Insurance contributions for schools in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The increase in National Insurance Contributions (NICs) costs was taken into account when calculating the additional funding the department is providing to support schools with the 2025 pay awards in the financial year 2025/26. Schools in Lancashire will be receiving £16.6 million to support them with their NICs costs and the department will publish allocations for the pay grant in the autumn. From 2026/27, funding in respect of NICs costs will be incorporated into schools’ core budgets through the national funding formula.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the teaching of CPR in schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
All state-funded schools in England are required to teach first aid as part of statutory health education, which is taught as part of relationships, sex and health education (RSHE). It includes basic first aid and dealing with common injuries, such as head injuries. Pupils in secondary schools are taught further first aid, for example how to administer CPR and the purpose of defibrillators. Schools can teach topics beyond those covered in the statutory guidance and have flexibility to respond to local issues.
We are currently reviewing the statutory RSHE curriculum, which includes considering whether any additional content is needed, and will be publishing revised guidance shortly.