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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
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.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether civil servants in her Department must submit their resignation in order to obtain a pension retirement quote from the Civil Service Pensions Scheme.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Civil servants in the department must submit an application to retire (leave the Civil Service) before Civil Service Pensions can provide an accurate retirement quote. This allows the scheme administrator to confirm figures based on the member’s final circumstances at the point of exit.
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 non-statutory guidance entitled First aid in schools, early years and further education updated 14 February 2022, whether she has recently reviewed the adequacy of the number of members of staff in each school who should be first aid trained.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Individual decisions about the provision of first aid training is a matter for early years, schools and colleges as employers. They are best placed to assess the needs of their staff and pupils and to determine the appropriate level of first aid provision.
To support this, the department makes available non-statutory guidance, including 'First aid in schools, early years and further education', which sets out the factors that settings should consider when meeting their duties relating to first aid on and off their premises. This guidance is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/first-aid-in-schools/first-aid-in-schools-early-years-and-further-education.
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 17 October 2025 to Question 77413 on Teachers: Workplace Pensions, how many unresolved cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) cases are outstanding as of 10 March 2026; and of those resolved since 17 October 2025 what is the (a) shortest, (b) mean average and (c) longest time taken to process requests.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As of 11 March 2026, 501 cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) cases were outstanding. There will always be a number of CETV cases in progress at any given time, as new CETV applications continue to be made.
Capita, the scheme administrator, is continuing to work through the most complex cases for members who have retired. 350 of the outstanding cases can only be processed clerically and the estimated average calculation times are between 20 and 30 hours per processed case.
Between 17 October 2025 and 11 March 2026, 1449 CETV cases were completed. Of these cases, in calendar days, the shortest processing length was zero days, applying to automated CETV cases completed on the day they were received. The longest processing length was 960 days, and the average time taken was 44 days.
The case that took 960 days to complete was subject to the government embargo on public pension schemes, as well as the Transitional Protection regulations coming into force on 1 October 2023, and the need to develop new guidance.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans 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.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency does not collect information on places available on courses but publishes data on student entrants across UK higher education (HE) providers. This includes data on students entering courses in different subjects, categorised using the HE Classification of Subjects system. Counts of entrants across all subjects from the 2019/20 to 2023/24 academic years are published in Table 52 of HESA’s student data for all UK providers, which are detailed below.
This data was published in January 2026.
Entrants to UK higher education providers studying Educational Psychology (all modes and levels of study) | ||||||
Subject | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Educational Psychology | 645 | 680 | 710 | 755 | 760 | 695 |
HE providers are autonomous institutions independent from government. This means they are responsible for the decisions that they make regarding which courses they deliver.