Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the current Education, Health and Care Plan system in supporting children and young people with Auditory Processing Disorder.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, including those with Auditory Processing Disorder, deserve the best possible educational experience.
The department will develop National Inclusion Standards that set out evidence-informed tools, strategies and approaches for educators to draw on to identify and support children and young people with additional needs, before those needs escalate. Schools cannot deliver inclusion alone, and the department is working with the NHS to expand access to expert interventions and therapies by making better use of the specialist workforce. We are providing £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and Integrated Care Boards, to work together to develop a new Experts at Hand offer in every local area. Through Experts at Hand, schools will have direct access to support, advice, training and specialist expertise from professionals such as speech and language therapists and specialist teachers.
For children and young people with complex needs, we are developing Specialist Provision Packages, which will deliver comprehensive, evidence-based support for children, across a range of needs, recognising where children and young people need more specialist provision. These packages will be developed by sector experts and tested with parents and professionals to provide a consistent, high-quality special educational needs and disabilities offer for children and young people.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve the support available for children and young people with Auditory Processing Disorder as part of the planned SEND reforms.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, including those with Auditory Processing Disorder, deserve the best possible educational experience.
The department will develop National Inclusion Standards that set out evidence-informed tools, strategies and approaches for educators to draw on to identify and support children and young people with additional needs, before those needs escalate. Schools cannot deliver inclusion alone, and the department is working with the NHS to expand access to expert interventions and therapies by making better use of the specialist workforce. We are providing £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and Integrated Care Boards, to work together to develop a new Experts at Hand offer in every local area. Through Experts at Hand, schools will have direct access to support, advice, training and specialist expertise from professionals such as speech and language therapists and specialist teachers.
For children and young people with complex needs, we are developing Specialist Provision Packages, which will deliver comprehensive, evidence-based support for children, across a range of needs, recognising where children and young people need more specialist provision. These packages will be developed by sector experts and tested with parents and professionals to provide a consistent, high-quality special educational needs and disabilities offer for children and young people.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including content on contemporary antisemitism within the existing mandatory Holocaust material in the school curriculum.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The purpose of Holocaust education in history is to teach about why and how the Holocaust happened. This will include teaching about antisemitism in this historical context due to the centrality of antisemitism to the Nazi’s ideology. Such teaching can provide schools with a basis for teaching about contemporary antisemitism in lessons beyond history, for example in citizenship.
The department supports teachers through our Educate Against Hate website, which provides teachers with a range of free, quality-assured resources, including on building resilience to antisemitism, teaching about tolerance and rejecting discrimination.
We have also committed £7 million to fund projects and programmes to improve confidence and resilience in tackling antisemitism in education. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has also asked Sir David Bell to undertake an independent review into antisemitism in schools and colleges, which will be published this autumn.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2026 to Question 1246 on Department for Education: Workplace Pensions, if she will give civil servants the right to rescind applications to retire in circumstances where they have done so to receive an accurate retirement quote.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
Civil servants in the department may request to withdraw a retirement application, and such requests are always considered on a case-by-case basis. The retirement process is intended for those who are actively planning to retire, rather than for the purpose of obtaining illustrative benefit estimates.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, (a) when and (b) how secondary schools will receive additional funding for new books in secondary school libraries.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
At the Autumn Budget 2025, £5 million was announced for books and reading materials for secondary schools in England to support reading for pleasure.
This funding will be split between all state‑funded secondary schools in England with key stage 3 and key stage 4 cohorts. The department has been engaging with the sector and industry to consider how best to distribute the funding and support schools maximise value for money.
The department intends to issue the funding during the National Year of Reading 2026. Schools will have autonomy and flexibility over when to spend their allocation. The department recognises the importance of certainty for schools and librarians and will provide further information as soon as decisions on distribution and allocations are finalised.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has assessed the adequacy of the the Step Up to Social Work bursary to enable single working parents on Universal Credit to participate in the programme.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The bursary for Step Up to Social Work programme students aims to support learners while they train. However, the department understands that the current climate may present some additional challenges.
The department fully funds all aspects of the programme and provides students with a bursary of £21,995. We are committed to supporting learners and want to ensure that trainees are equipped with the right resources to successfully complete the programme and become qualified social workers.
Programme students are unlikely to be eligible for Universal Credit, as the bursary amount exceeds what would otherwise have been payable by way of Universal Credit. However, students are also entitled to 15 hours childcare, which is a universal offer for all families in England with 3 to 4 year-olds, as well as the 15 hours early education entitlement for 2 year-olds in receipt of additional support if they meet the eligibility criteria for this entitlement.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 20 April 2026 to Question 125150 on Department for Education: Workplace Pensions, whether civil servants who submit applications to retire to receive an accurate retirement quote can rescind that application.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
Civil servants in the department can request to withdraw their application to retire, and such requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she will take to increase the number of places available for educational psychology courses at universities in England.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is investing £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists over two cohorts who started their studies in 2024 and 2025 as part of the Educational Psychology Funded Training scheme. This is in addition to the £10 million already being invested in the training of more than 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure an adequate number of specialist training places for religious education teachers in Hertfordshire.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
There have been noticeable increases in religious education (RE) ITT recruitment recently. Between 2023/24 and 2025/26, postgraduate ITT recruitment for RE increased by 71%. 492 RE trainees started courses in 2025/26, compared to 287 two years ago.
We will publish postgraduate initial teacher training (PGITT) recruitment needs for the 2026/27 academic year in due course. PGITT recruitment need is estimated by the teacher workforce model each year, and is used to monitor and measure recruitment for specific subjects. PGITT trainee need is calculated to account for a broad range of factors including historic recruitment, economic forecasts, teacher retention and wider forms of teacher recruitment. The Find teacher training courses website lists training opportunities in England, including 28 RE courses with placement schools in a 10-mile radius of Hertfordshire.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has considered the potential merits of requiring all staff working in schools to be trained in mental health first aid principles.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
To support education staff, the department provides a range of guidance and practical resources on promoting and supporting pupils’ mental health and wellbeing. For example, a resource hub for mental health leads, and a targeted support guide and hub to help choose evidence-based targeted support for pupils.
The government has also committed to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding mental health support teams, so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.
Beyond this, schools have the flexibility to decide what pastoral support and training they provide to best meet the individual needs of their pupils.