Asked by: Claire Hazelgrove (Labour - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, What steps she is taking to support schools in helping prevent knife crime among young people.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Last month, the department published its plan to half knife crime, working across government to achieve a sustained reduction. The department’s focus is on strengthening schools’ ability to prevent violence, reducing children’s vulnerabilities, and improving collaboration between schools and local partners.
Alongside this, we launched the Safety In and Around Schools Partnership, which will support around 250 schools in areas most affected by knife crime, strengthening safety, improving awareness of risks, and increasing access to local support services. Updated guidance on pupil premium funding also enables this to be used for violence reduction initiatives, making it easier for school leaders to invest in preventative approaches.
Asked by: Claire Hazelgrove (Labour - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, What steps she is taking to enable more young people to access extracurricular and youth activities outside school hours.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review’s report, and the Schools White Paper, committed to set out a core enrichment offer through our upcoming Enrichment Framework that every school and college, in every community, should aim to provide. This includes access to civic engagement, arts and culture, nature, outdoor and adventure, sport and physical activities and developing wider life skills, and can include delivery within the school day, or beyond it, for example, at after-school clubs or weekend activities.
Last year, the government published ‘Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy’, a 10 year plan to ensure every young person across the country has somewhere to go, someone who cares for them and a community they feel part of. It is backed by over £500 million of funding over the next 3 years from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for outside of school activities, support when and where young people need it, more safe spaces to connect with peers and trusted adults, and better local youth offers. It also includes a clear ambition to halve the participation gap in enriching activities between disadvantaged young people and their peers by 2035.
Asked by: Claire Hazelgrove (Labour - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy and availability of therapeutic support for adoptive families; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy and effectiveness of signposting to support services available for adoptive families.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This financial year, the department has invested £50 million into the adoption and special guardianship support fund. We have approved applications for nearly 14,000 children since April for both therapy and specialist assessments. We continue to review the impact of the changes to funding made in April 2025.
The department continues to work closely with stakeholders to ensure clear and effective communication. This commitment is reflected in the fund’s growth, with applications increasing by around 10% annually since its inception and over 55,000 individual children supported to date.
Regional adoption agencies serve as central hubs for advice, connecting families to local services, training opportunities, peer support groups, and providing direct referrals to specialist services.
In addition, we work in collaboration with Adoption England to identify and promote best practice across the sector.
Asked by: Claire Hazelgrove (Labour - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of childcare for children under the age of two.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The government’s Plan for Change sets out a commitment to give children the best start in life, breaking the link between background and opportunity.
In the 2025/26 financial year alone, we plan to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements. This is a more than 30% increase compared to 2024/25, as we roll out the expansion of the entitlements, so eligible working parents of children aged from nine months can access 30 hours of funded childcare.
Since September 2024, eligible parents have been able to access 15 hours of government-funded childcare (over 38 weeks a year) from the term after their child turns 9 months. This will double to 30 hours from September 2025.
The department continues to monitor the sufficiency of childcare places. The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children.
Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
Asked by: Claire Hazelgrove (Labour - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure adequate levels of financial education in schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Financial education currently forms a compulsory part of the National Curriculum for mathematics (at key stages 1 to 4) and citizenship (at key stages 3 and 4). The primary mathematics curriculum includes arithmetic knowledge that supports pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, calculations with money and percentages. In secondary mathematics, pupils are taught topics such as how to calculate compound interest, which is relevant for personal finance. In citizenship, pupils are taught the function and uses of money, how to budget and manage credit and debt, as well as concepts like insurance, savings and pensions.
High and rising school standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life. The government‘s ambition is for a broad, rich and cutting-edge curriculum that equips children and young people with the essential knowledge and skills required to thrive as citizens, in work and throughout life. This is why the government announced a Curriculum and Assessment Review on 19 July 2024, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE.
The Curriculum and Assessment Review group has launched a call for evidence. The review group has set out a number of key questions and themes where it would particularly welcome evidence and input from the sector and stakeholders to help direct the focus of the review and engagement with the sector over the autumn term.
The views of young people, parents, teachers, lecturers, leaders and other education staff and experts are pivotal to the recommendations, so that the panel can draw on the wealth of expertise and experience across the sector. Anyone can access and respond to the call for evidence.
Asked by: Claire Hazelgrove (Labour - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the difficulties faced by parents in accessing free childcare places for children under 9 months old.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Ensuring every child has the best start for life is a central priority for this government, including putting in place early family support services to help families to thrive in children’s first crucial months of life.
Children under 9 months are not eligible for government-funded childcare hours. Since September 2024, eligible working parents of children aged from nine months can access 15 hours of government-funded early education and childcare a week, over 38 weeks a year. This is available the term after the child turns nine months and the child's parent has a positive determination of eligibility from HMRC. So far over 200,000 parents have secured a place, and the department expects this to continue to rise in the coming weeks.