Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the proportion of funding for commercial early years providers that comes from voluntary contributions.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As the entitlements are expanded, it is vitally important that they remain accessible and affordable for families.
Providers can ask parents to pay for consumables. However, in line with a recent High Court judgment, charges must not be mandatory or a condition of accessing a funded place.
The department publishes data on the proportion of income providers get from parent-paid fees, entitlement funding and other income in our annual provider finances report. The most recent report is for 2023 and is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/673b14b8fc572967fe66a92e/Providers__finances_Evidence_from_the_2023_Survey_of_Childcare_and_Early_Years_Providers.pdf.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the updated school food standards promote the procurement of food from local producers and growers.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is engaging with stakeholders on revising the school food standards, to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history.
Schools are responsible for their school meals service and how and where they choose to buy their produce. Schools can voluntarily follow the government's buying standards.
Additionally, The National Procurement Policy Statement, published in February 2025, underscores the government's commitment to increasing the procurement of food that meets higher environmental standards and upholding ethical sourcing practises across public sector contracts, which we believe our high-quality British producers are well-placed to meet.
Alongside this, the government’s wider food strategy will create a healthier, fairer, and more resilient food system, boosting our food security, improving our health, ensuring economic growth, and delivering environmental sustainability.
As with all aspects of the school food standards review, we will consider our approaches to procurement of locally grown produce.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department calculated the funding rate for each (a) child and (b) age group for early years provision.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The hourly funding rate for the early years entitlements varies to reflect the costs of delivering provision to different ages. The department knows, from listening to the sector and from our own regular research, that the cost of delivery is highest for younger children due to tighter staffing ratios and, consequently, higher staff costs, as staffing makes up the most significant proportion of provider costs.
Each local authority receives an hourly rate for each entitlement, determined by the early years national funding formulae (EYNFF). The EYNFF targets funding to local authorities where it is needed most, reflecting the relative needs of the children and costs of delivering provision in that area. Local authorities are responsible for setting individual provider funding rates in consultation with their providers and schools forum, and fund providers using their own local funding formula.
Further details of how early years entitlements funding is distributed, including a detailed methodology document on the EYNFF and operational guidance, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-funding-2025-to-2026.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to compare best practice in (a) the UK and (b) other countries in the development of its policies on early years provision.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department meets with Ministers and officials from across the UK and other nations to discuss developments, approaches and best practice in the provision of early education and childcare. International evidence, such as the OECD’s Education at a Glance publication, is used to identify high performing and innovative early years systems and inform policy development. England is a member of the British-Irish Council, in which we actively engage to collaborate on a wide range of education matters, including early education and childcare across the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make a comparative assessment of the potential impact of early years education in (a) schools and (b) non-school sites on educational outcomes.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is our ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
The 2024 Department for Education Provider Survey shows that there were 322,000 registered places at school-based nurseries in 2024.
School-based nurseries are one part of this country's childcare and early years market.
Nurseries located on a school site can operate under different delivery models, such as nursery classes run by the school, a private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nursery leasing space on a school’s premises or operating on the school’s behalf, or provision run by a childminder, or group of childminders, leasing space on a school premises.
School-based nurseries are more likely to be led by graduate qualified staff, which is associated with higher quality provision for children. Additionally, the benefits of school-based nursery provision, including transition to school, were highlighted by many teachers working in schools with a nursery in the Kindred Squared school readiness report.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of full-time early years places at school-based nurseries.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is our ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
The 2024 Department for Education Provider Survey shows that there were 322,000 registered places at school-based nurseries in 2024.
School-based nurseries are one part of this country's childcare and early years market.
Nurseries located on a school site can operate under different delivery models, such as nursery classes run by the school, a private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nursery leasing space on a school’s premises or operating on the school’s behalf, or provision run by a childminder, or group of childminders, leasing space on a school premises.
School-based nurseries are more likely to be led by graduate qualified staff, which is associated with higher quality provision for children. Additionally, the benefits of school-based nursery provision, including transition to school, were highlighted by many teachers working in schools with a nursery in the Kindred Squared school readiness report.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) support children in foster care and (b) the work of foster carers (i) in South Norfolk constituency and (ii) nationally.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to ensuring that every child in care grows up with the love, care and support they need to achieve and thrive. All foster carers receive the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) to cover the costs of looking after the children in their care. In the 2025/26 financial year, the NMA is being uplifted by 3.55%.
The government is supporting children in care by expanding the Mockingbird Family Model, which is an innovative evidence-based approach. Relationships are central to the design of the programme which involves six to ten satellite families grouped into a constellation around a hub home carer.
In South Norfolk, this is being delivered as part of the Foster East Recruitment Hub, which launched in 2024 and comprises 12 neighbouring local authorities, including Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Luton, Thurrock, Southend, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire.
Across England, ten fostering regional programmes are live, working with 64% of all local authorities to collaboratively recruit and retain foster carers who will provide loving homes, local to the children who need them. An additional £15 million was announced to support this programme in the budget and the department intends to move towards full national roll out in the next financial year. The department welcomes discussions with other local authorities about our national expansion plans.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much additional funding her Department has allocated for special educational needs provision by Norfolk County Council since the Autumn Budget 2024.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
Following the Autumn Budget, the department is providing an increase of almost £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion. Of that total, Norfolk County Council is being allocated over £153 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £11.1 million on this year’s DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF). This NFF allocation is an 8% increase per head of their 2 to 18-year-old population, on their equivalent 2024/25 NFF allocation.
As also announced at the Autumn Budget, the department is receiving compensation in recognition of the increase in national insurance contributions paid by schools and other state-funded SEND provision. That funding is additional to the £1 billion increase in high needs funding. Due to timing constraints, it will be provided as a separate grant, alongside the 2025/26 DSG for local authorities, and the department will provide further information on the allocations as soon as possible.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the disparity in progress 8 attainment between students who (a) are and (b) are not eligible for free school meals (i) in South Norfolk constituency and (ii) nationally.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Too many children are held back by their background, with gaps between disadvantaged children and their peers opening early and widening throughout their education. These gaps are not acceptable, which is why the Opportunity Mission will break the link between young people’s background and their success by helping all children achieve and thrive wherever they are in the country.
High and rising standards in every school, delivered though excellent teaching and a shared, knowledge-rich and engaging curriculum, are at the heart of the mission. Great schools need great teachers, and the quality of teaching is the single most important in-school factor in improving outcomes for children, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. That is why the department has moved quickly by beginning work to recruit 6,500 expert teachers and launching the Curriculum and Assessment Review that will look closely at the barriers which hold children back from the opportunities and life chances they deserve, in particular those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged or with special educational needs or disabilities.
New Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams will drive higher standards, supporting all state schools by facilitating networking, sharing best practice and enabling schools to better access support, and learn from one another, in addition to providing bespoke intervention packages to driving up outcomes where standards are slipping.
To further support disadvantaged children, pupil premium funding is allocated to schools to support the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils and is worth over £2.9 billion in the 2024/25 financial year.
Alongside this, in 2025/26, 10.6% (£5.1 billion) of the schools national funding formula (NFF) has been allocated through deprivation factors and 17.8% (£8.6 billion) has been allocated for additional needs overall. Furthermore, in 2025/26, on average, the most deprived schools have attracted the largest per pupil funding amounts through the schools NFF. This will help schools in their vital work to close attainment gaps and break down barriers to opportunity.
The department is also committed to offering free breakfast clubs in all state-funded schools with primary-aged pupils, ensuring every primary school child, no matter their circumstances, is well prepared for school. From April 2025, up to 750 early adopter schools will be funded to provide access to a free, universal breakfast club lasting at least 30 minutes that includes food.
More widely, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education co-chairs the government’s Child Poverty Taskforce which will drive cross-government action on child poverty, starting with the development of an ambitious child poverty strategy, which will be published later this year.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of children and young people who were waiting for an Education, Health and Care Plan decision after (a) less than six months, (b) six months to a year, (c) one to two years, (d) two to three years, (e) three to four years, (f) four to five years and (g) more than five years in the latest period for which data is available, broken down by local authority.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department publishes official statistics on Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans annually, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans. This includes data at local authority level on the rate of EHC plans issued within the deadline of 20 weeks.
The attached table contains details of assessments in 2023 by local authority and by the duration, in days, between the date of the request for assessment and the date of the assessment outcome. This includes those for whom a plan was issued and those with the decision not to issue a plan, but excludes cases where the assessment was withdrawn.
The person-level data collection on EHC plans is in its second year. As a result, we expect the quality of data returns to improve over time, as the collection becomes established. In particular, the recording of the dates of the assessment request and the assessment outcome is subject to data quality issues, which become especially prominent when looking at a low level of granularity. For this reason, cases over two years have been aggregated, and where the date of request is missing or was recorded after the outcome date, this is marked in the table as ‘not available’. The department continues to work with local authorities in understanding and improving the data collection.