Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of mental health staff that will be placed in schools; and what assessment he has made of the level of qualification that will be required by those staff members; and how those staff members will be funded.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working closely with local commissioners to deliver mental health support teams in schools in England so they cover 100% of pupils by 2029/30. NHSE have estimated that around 2,400 Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHP) are placed throughout the 600 current operational Mental Health Support Teams. Actual numbers will vary slightly at a local level, according to need. The average coverage of schools per team can change from year to year and an extensive independent evaluation is due to publish in 2026 that will inform future roll-out.
EMHP undertake a year-long training course to qualify. They can train for a postgraduate or graduate diploma, depending on whether they already have a degree qualification.
Annual National Health Service day-to-day spending will increase by £29 billion in real terms, via a £53 billion cash uplift, by 2028/29, compared to 2023/24. This will take the NHS resource budget to £226 billion by 2028/29, the equivalent to a 3% average annual real terms growth rate over the Spending Review period.
In the Spending Review announcement, we have confirmed that we will fulfil the Government’s commitments to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health staff by the end of the Parliament.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, (a) which stakeholders he has consulted and (b) what data sources he has used to develop the basis of the adult social care resource formula.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is important that the Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula accurately reflects the relative need for services to ensure funding is allocated to the places that need it most and to enable all local authorities to focus on improving adult social care outcomes.
The Department commissioned independent academics at the Adult Social Care Research Unit to develop an update to the current Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula. This update reflects a more up to date assessment of relative adult social care need in England and is being consulted on as part of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Local Government Funding Reform consultation. The Adult Social Care Research Unit’s research report is available at the following link:
https://ascru.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_06_16_Revision-of-ASC-RNF-2024.pdf
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the assessment framework used for commissioning the adult social care resource formula focuses on outcomes.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is important that the Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula accurately reflects the relative need for services to ensure funding is allocated to the places that need it most and to enable all local authorities to focus on improving adult social care outcomes.
The Department commissioned independent academics at the Adult Social Care Research Unit to develop an update to the current Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula. This update reflects a more up to date assessment of relative adult social care need in England and is being consulted on as part of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Local Government Funding Reform consultation. The Adult Social Care Research Unit’s research report is available at the following link:
https://ascru.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_06_16_Revision-of-ASC-RNF-2024.pdf
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will take steps to encourage businesses to use pin pads that are accessible to people with sight impairments.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government expects people who provide goods, services, and facilities to members of the public, to anticipate the requirements of disabled customers and the adjustments that may have to be made for them, in line with the Equality Act 2010.
In April, the Minister of State for Social Security and Disability and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury jointly wrote to UK Finance, the leading trade association for the UK banking sector, to urge further progress on ensuring touchscreen card terminals remain accessible for blind and partially sighted consumers. As well, the British Standards Institution has developed and published a British Standard that provides guidelines for the adoption of an inclusive approach to the design of products.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to extend the time limit on exceptions to council tax premiums for category G properties to cover the full period for which a property is being actively marketed for sale for (a) long-term empty homes, (b) second homes and (c) leasehold retirement properties.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has published guidance on the implementation of council tax premiums and exceptions to those premiums. This is available gov.uk here. The government does not have any plans to change the exceptions to the council tax premiums.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that multi academy trust executives are paid appropriately; and what action was taken by the 37 trusts her Department issued with outlier pay challenge letters in October 2024.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The 37 academy trusts listed in the October 2024 publication on GOV.UK were engaged with on executive pay to ensure compliance with the Academy Trust Handbook.
The Academy Trust Handbook requires that:
Following provision of evidence from the academy trusts, all 37 were found to be compliant with the Academy Trust Handbook.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many claims to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund were rejected as a result of the total fund limit being reached in 2024-2025; and how many claims made in 2024-25 exceeded the new limits for individual claims in 2025-26.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
No claims to the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) were rejected as a result of the total fund limit being reached in 2024/25.
Applications exceeding £3,000 were made for 4,832 children in 2024/25. This figure may include some double counting, if more than one application exceeding £3,000 was made for the same child, as could be the case if an application for match-funding was being made.
However, the department’s systems do not enable it to make an accurate calculation of the number of children for whom two or more separate applications under £3,000 were made, but which together totalled more than £3,000. This could, as a result, lead to some under-counting of children in this category.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic pressure his Department has exerted on the El Salvador government to ensure that the human rights of detainees at the Terrorism Confinement Centre in Tecoluca are protected.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK continues to urge the authorities in El Salvador to establish an exit strategy from the current State of Exception and ensure respect for human rights, including ensuring that prisoners are treated in line with international human rights standards and afforded the protections to which they have a right under El Salvador's Constitution. The UK reaffirmed this in its statement during El Salvador's Universal Periodic Review at the Human Rights Council in January this year, calling on El Salvador to ensure the right to fair trial, with the guarantee of legal representation for defendants, and the release of individuals detained without clear evidence.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that people who receive the limited capability for work and work-related activity element of Universal Credit contribute an adequate share of child maintenance responsibilities.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The child maintenance calculation is designed to be fair for the paying parent, while ensuring they contribute a significant proportion of their income to support their children.
A banding system ensures that the very lowest earners and those on prescribed benefits pay a flat rate of £7 per week. Those that can afford to make a bigger contribution do so at a rate that reflects what they earn.
For child maintenance calculation purposes, a paying parent who is in receipt of Universal Credit and also has earned income will not be considered as being in receipt of benefit. Their liability to pay child maintenance will therefore be calculated based upon the income they receive.
The department is reviewing the calculation to make sure it is fit for purpose. This has included updating the underlying research and considering how we ensure the calculation reflects current and future societal trends.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 15144 on Teachers: Workplace Pension, what the updated planned timetable is for resolving the backlog of people waiting for cash equivalent transfer value details from Teachers’ Pensions.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The scheme administrator has made significant progress to reduce the backlog of Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) figures that built up whilst the necessary guidance was developed following the Transitional Protection (McCloud) remedy taking effect.
The backlog of 3,062 at the end of October 2024 has been reduced to 472 as of 3 June. The current outstanding figure includes recent applications and as such there will always be a number of outstanding CETVs at any given time.
The scheme administrator is now working through the more complex cases for members who have not retired who have scheme flexibilities to take account of, which must be processed clerically as a result.
Addressing the remainder of the backlog remains a key priority for both the department and the scheme administrator and it is anticipated that these outstanding cases will be completed before October 2025.