Asked by: David Smith (Labour - North Northumberland)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) free breakfast clubs and (b) the free school meal expansion on poverty in North Northumberland constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty, which is why the department is taking action to expand access to free breakfasts and lunches in schools.
Free breakfast club places are already being offered in six early adopter schools in North Northumberland.
Furthermore, Department for Work and Pensions data shows that 3,690 children in North Northumberland will be eligible to receive free school meals when provision is extended to all household in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. Overall, this measure will lift 100,000 children out of poverty.
Asked by: David Smith (Labour - North Northumberland)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department considers future demographic changes when planning school funding.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
School funding will increase by £4.2 billion over the Spending Review period, meaning core school funding will total £65.9 billion by 2028/29. This additional funding will provide an above real terms per pupil increase on the core schools budget.
The majority of school funding is allocated on a per pupil basis through the National Funding Formula (NFF) on a lagged funding system, where schools are funded on the basis of their pupil numbers in the previous October census. This arrangement helps to give schools more certainty over funding levels and is particularly important in giving individual schools time to adjust to demographic change before experiencing the funding impact.
Local authorities are also allocated funding through the NFF for growth and falling rolls, which they can use to support schools experiencing significant growth in pupil numbers, to support schools facing a temporary drop in pupil numbers, or to help meet the revenue costs of removing or repurposing surplus places.
Asked by: David Smith (Labour - North Northumberland)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, by what process schools can apply for (a) rebuilds and (b) other capital spending following the funding commitments in the Spending Review 2025.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
School buildings are integral to high and rising standards and need to be fit for the future.
The government has announced almost £20 billion of investment for the School Rebuilding Programme through to 2034/35, delivering rebuilding projects at over 500 schools across England within the existing programme, with a further 250 schools to be selected within the next two years. We plan to set out further details about the selection process later this year.
At the 2025/26 budget, the government increased capital investment to improve the condition of school buildings across England to £2.1 billion, almost £300 million more than 2024/25. More information on allocations and successful Condition Improvement Fund bids for 2025/26 can be found on GOV.UK.
£31 billion of capital funding for the education estate was announced at the Spending Review in June 2025 for the period the 2026/27 financial year to the 2029/30 financial year. As part of the 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy, the government also committed to increase annual capital maintenance investment per year through to 2034/35. Further details on funding commitments and any application processes for capital funding will be announced on GOV.UK in due course.
Asked by: David Smith (Labour - North Northumberland)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of Berwick Academy's need for a rebuild; and whether she has received a business case outlining a proposed rebuild from Northumberland County Council.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Berwick Academy is the body responsible for the school buildings and has not put forward a nomination for the School Rebuilding Programme (SRP). The department is aware that Northumberland County Council has plans to invest in Berwick Academy as part of a wider school reorganisation in the area but we are yet to receive a business case or further detail.
The government has given a long-term commitment for capital investment through to 2034/35 to improve the condition of schools and colleges across England. We are investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and renewal of the school and college estate, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26.
This is in addition to investment of almost £20 billion in the SRP through to 2034/35, delivering rebuilding projects at over 500 schools across England within the existing programme, with a further 250 schools to be selected within the next two years.
The department plans to set out further details on the process for selecting additional schools for the rebuilding programme later this year.
Asked by: David Smith (Labour - North Northumberland)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has for reforming education, health and care plans for children with special educational needs; and what steps she plans to take to ensure that children who require additional support in school receive adequate levels of assistance, in the context of the provisions in the (a) Children and Families Act 2014 and (b) Special educational needs and disability code of practice.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for North Northumberland, to the answer of 02 June 2025 to Question 54205.
Asked by: David Smith (Labour - North Northumberland)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support local authorities with (a) preventative and (b) early-years support for ECHPs in the North East.
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 or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed and thrive in their education and as they move into adult life.
Early intervention is critical to prevent unmet needs from escalating. To support early years educators to meet emerging needs, the department has launched new training resources to help educators support children with developmental differences. We have also announced 1,000 further funded training places for Early Years Special Educational Needs Coordinators in the 2025/26 financial year, which will be targeted at settings in the most disadvantaged areas.
The department, in partnership with NHS England, continues to improve access to speech and language therapy in early years settings and primary schools through the Early Language and Support for Every Child pathfinder project. This is being delivered through nine regional pathfinder partnerships within the department’s change programme. In the North East, this is being led by Hartlepool Local Authority.
The department’s North East Regions Group also maintains regular engagement with all 12 local authorities in the area, providing tailored support to individual authorities, as well as regionally.
Asked by: David Smith (Labour - North Northumberland)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with local authorities to help reduce the time taken for ECHP tribunals to be heard in the North East.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department is working closely with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to help reduce the time families wait for appeal hearings about education, health and care (EHC) plan appeals.
MoJ recently recruited 70 new judges and increased administrative staffing by 10% to help process appeals. The use of judicial case management powers to settle cases earlier has also been expanded, and the Tribunal Procedure Committee have recently amended its rules to allow individual judges to determine whether appeals against a refusal to conduct an EHC needs assessment should be conducted in writing (known as ‘on paper’), which is quicker than a full oral hearing.
The tribunal always prioritises phase transfer appeals for children and young people who are moving school/placement in September and offers parents and young people the opportunity to have appeals heard throughout school holidays and paper hearings when there is capacity.
As the tribunal are hearing 99.5% of appeals remotely, all regions across England are served equitably.
Asked by: David Smith (Labour - North Northumberland)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to help ensure that eligible families have access to the Support for Families with Disabled Children programme.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Each year, the Support for Families with Disabled Children (SFDC) programme provides individual grants to approximately 60,000 low-income families raising a disabled or seriously ill child. The department is pleased to support the SFDC programme and we expect applications to the scheme to re-open shortly.
Asked by: David Smith (Labour - North Northumberland)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department last made an estimate of the proportion of pupils who are eligible but not registered for means-tested free school meals.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The new government has a central mission to break down barriers to opportunity for every child.
The government has inherited a trend of rising child poverty and widening attainment gaps between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers. Child poverty has increased by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family. The government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty by tackling the root causes and giving every child the best start at life. To support this, a new Ministerial taskforce has been set up to develop a Child Poverty Strategy, which will be published in spring 2025. The taskforce will consider a range of policies in assessing what will have the greatest impact in driving down rates of child poverty.
The department does not make a formal assessment of the proportion of children who are eligible to receive FSM but who are not registered. The last assessment conducted in 2013 suggested that 89% of eligible pupils were registered for FSM. As with all policies, the government keeps the approach to FSM under review.