David Williams

After 14 years of indifference and cultural vandalism, this government is committed to making sure that arts and cultural activities will no longer be the preserve of a privileged few.

DCMS supports its Arms Length Body, Arts Council England (ACE), to improve accessibility to culture. For example, ACE is working in partnership with other arts councils in the UK and Ireland to develop All In, an access scheme dedicated to removing barriers and improving the experience of D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent people when attending creative and cultural events. This scheme aims to increase overall attendance by making it easier for people with access requirements to find and book tickets; and develop standards for creativity and culture to promote quality and consistency across the UK and Ireland. There will be a pilot of the scheme this autumn, ahead of a wider roll-out in the second half of 2025.

Claybody Theatre, which receives funding from ACE as a National Portfolio Organisation, makes arts more accessible to the people of Stoke-on-Trent, North and beyond. Claybody brings theatre to non-traditional venues in local communities, as well as delivering audio drama in virtual spaces. ACE also provides funding for ‘The Lost Note’ project, an immersive theatre project for family audiences that reworks the idea of the seasonal grotto. Working with local neurodivergent and autistic young people from Water Mill School and Fegg Hayes Futures, both based in Stoke-on-Trent North, the project will see children create stories and songs for a series of performances over nine days in January 2025.

As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people in their area. This government is aware that after 14 years of decline, many local authorities are struggling with budgets and this has had a direct impact on young people across the country.

That is why, on 17 October 2024, the Secretary of State committed to a new National Youth Strategy, co-produced with young people and the youth sector to support a generation to succeed. We will provide further updates to the House in due course.

On 17 October, the Secretary of State committed to a new National Youth Strategy, co-produced with young people and the youth sector to support a generation to succeed. Further details will be shared in due course.

This government has a driving mission to break down barriers to opportunity. Too many young people face difficulties progressing beyond secondary education and we want to ensure that more people from disadvantaged backgrounds can undertake apprenticeships.

The department has begun work to develop new foundation apprenticeships, providing high quality entry pathways for young people. We will engage with relevant stakeholders to inform our thinking to maximise its positive impact on young people, including those in disadvantaged areas. More detail on foundation apprenticeships will be set out in due course.

The department continues to pay additional funding to employers and training providers to support them to take on young apprentices, apprentices with learning difficulties and disabilities, and care leavers.

Every child deserves the opportunity to achieve and thrive but, at the moment, far from every child is being given that chance. The current special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision system has lost the confidence of families and children with SEND are being failed on every measure. The department is planning to work with the teachers, parents, children, therapists and councils that for so long have been trying so hard but have been set up to fail by a broken system. This work forms part of the government’s Opportunity Mission, which will break the unfair link between background and opportunity. This begins with giving every child, including those with SEND, the best start in life.

The department wants to ensure that, where required, education, health and care (EHC) plan assessments are progressed promptly and, if needed, plans are issued as quickly as possible so that children and young people can access the support they need.

The department publishes annual data from the SEN2 survey in relation to the processes associated with an EHC plan, including the timeliness of assessments and where agreed, the issuing of an EHC plan. The department closely monitors the information from the annual SEN2 data release and uses it to inform discussions with local areas.

Local authorities identified as having issues with EHC plan timeliness are subject to additional monitoring by the department who work with the specific local authority. Where we have concerns about the local authority’s capacity to make the required improvements, we have secured specialist SEND Advisor support to help identify the barriers to EHC plan process timeliness and put in place practical plans for recovery.

We know that local authorities have been impacted by increased demand for EHC plans and workforce capacity to meet this demand, so more efficient and effective service delivery, alongside communication with schools and families, is central to the recovery.

When inspections indicate that there are significant concerns with local authority performance, the department will intervene directly. This may mean issuing an Improvement Notice, Statutory Direction and/or appointing a commissioner, the deployment of which is considered on a case-by-case basis. We also provide support and challenge, for example from SEND Improvement Advisers and Sector Led Improvement Partners, to address the challenges local authorities face and improve services for children.

Early language skills are vital to enable children to thrive in early years and later in life, including for all aspects of later attainment in school.

The department has provided funding for settings to undertake evidence-based continuous professional development programmes, including those focused on speech, language and communication, via a national network of Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs. This has involved working closely with the Education Endowment Foundation to build the evidence pipeline in early speech and language interventions.

The department has invested £28.7 million to enable 75 local authorities, including Stoke, to establish home learning environment services through Family Hubs, to tackle the pandemic’s impact on children’s education and enable investment in speech and language interventions.

The department also works in partnership with NHS England to deliver the Early Language Support for Every Child pathfinders, as well as working with partners to deliver an Early Language Local Innovation and Excellence programme, which includes implementation of published Speech and Language Communication pathway guidance and an Early Language Identification Measure.

Subsequently, the department has invested over £20 million in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme. In July 2024, we announced that funded support for the 11,100 schools registered for the NELI programme (two thirds of English state primaries) would continue for the 2024/25 academic year. Schools across Stoke-On-Trent North and Kidsgrove are able to access the NELI intervention.

Skills are crucial to economic growth, with a third of productivity improvement over the last two decades explained by improvements to skills levels. However, between 2017 and 2022, skills shortages in England doubled to more than half a million and now account for 36% of job vacancies.

To address this, Skills England will bring together central and local government, businesses, training providers and unions across all regions to meet the skills needs of the next decade to provide strategic oversight of the post-16 skills system that is aligned to the government’s Industrial Strategy.

The government will also bring forward a comprehensive strategy for post-16 education to break down barriers to opportunity, support the development of a skilled workforce and drive economic growth through its Industrial Strategy.

The department will continue to support learners who wish to progress from Level 3 to a higher level, whether that is to study at university, a higher level or degree apprenticeship, or a Level 4 or 5 classroom-based qualification such as a Higher Technical Qualification, which have been approved as providing the skills that employers need.

Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) support the department’s aim to make technical education and training more responsive to local labour market and employer needs.

Since autumn 2022, the designated employer representative bodies (ERBs) leading the LSIPs have engaged thousands of local businesses regarding their skills needs. The resultant LSIPs are a valuable source of information for local skills deliverers, employers and stakeholders, and will provide important intelligence for the newly-established Skills England.

Skills England will work closely with regional stakeholders, including the designated ERBs that cover all of England across the 38 LSIP areas.

Improving local transport services is a key part of this government’s growth mission, and the government has set out plans to deliver better bus services, grow passenger numbers and drive opportunity to under-served regions.

As announced in the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024, the government will introduce a Buses Bill later this parliamentary session. The Bill seeks to deliver new powers for local leaders and will empower them to choose the model that works best in their area, whether that be franchising high quality partnerships with private operators, or public ownership.

In addition, government is undertaking a review into Enhanced Partnerships between local authorities and bus operators with a view to strengthening collaboration and delivery.

Under our plan to Get Britain Working, we are working closely with the Department for Education to develop a new Youth Guarantee that will ensure that all young people aged 18-21, in England, including those who are economically inactive can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. This will sit alongside; a new national jobs and careers service to help get more people into work, work health and skills plans for the economically inactive, and the launch of Skills England to open new opportunities for young people. We will set out further detail in the upcoming ‘Get Britain Working’ White Paper.

Currently through the Youth Offer, we provide labour market support to young people aged 16-24 claiming Universal Credit through a range of tailored interventions to help reduce the barriers young people may face, bringing them closer to employment or appropriate training opportunities.

Recent examples of positive collaboration in Stoke on Trent North constituency include working with Movement to Work participants along with a local project Urban Wilderness and YMCA outreach to support vulnerable youth customers towards work offering additional support from Employment Advisors, community work and with the local council. For Work ready customers we are working with National Career Service, the Youth Employment Skills programme, and Stoke-on Trent and Newcastle college to deliver programmes that build on work experience.

In Kidsgrove, we have been working with Stoke on Trent College to promote suitable apprenticeship options with a view to extending this to more local partners. We also have a successful ongoing work experience offer with Browns Recycling.

The Government is working closely with NHS England to reduce infant mortality, while training thousands more midwives to better support women throughout their pregnancy and beyond.

Infant mortality remains a complex multifactorial public health issue and is a priority for the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Partnership (ICP), with local partners increasing efforts to address above-average infant mortality.

The Staffordshire and Stroke-on-Trent ICP Strategy includes an action plan, led by the Infant Mortality Steering Group, focusing on high-impact actions to address infant mortality, such as reducing smoking at time of delivery, which has now fallen from 9.81% to 5.06%. This strategy is available at the following link:

https://staffsstoke.icb.nhs.uk/your-nhs-integrated-care-board/our-publications/integrated-care-partnership/acge-13346-ssot-icp-strategy-design-v4-23-04-13-single-page/?layout=default

The ICP is implementing the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle, an initiative to reduce stillbirths, neonatal brain injury, neonatal deaths, and preterm birth. They are also introducing a new maternity equity and equality action plan that includes an equity and equality midwife to address inequalities during pregnancy, which contribute to infant mortality risk and poor maternal outcomes. A new working group has also introduced neonatal cardiopulmonary resuscitation information for parents at postnatal discharge.

The Mental Health Bill announced in the King’s Speech will deliver the Government’s commitment to modernise the Mental Health Act 1983, so that it is fit for the modern world. The bill will amend the act, which applies to England and Wales, and sets out the legal rights that apply to people with a mental disorder. This bill does not apply to general mental health services to help individuals with their mental wellbeing. Under this law, a person can be admitted, detained, and treated in hospital for a mental disorder without their consent, if they are a posing a risk to themselves or others.

More broadly, the NHS Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) is responsible for providing health and care services to meet the needs of the people of the Stoke on Trent constituency and Kidsgrove, taking into account local considerations. The NHS Mental Health Dashboard shows how National Health Service mental health services are performing, broken down to ICB level, and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/mental-health-five-year-forward-view-dashboard/

The Government will give police the powers they need to swiftly seize dangerous and antisocial off-road vehicles and take them off the streets for good.

Enforcement of road traffic law, including in relation to the anti-social behaviour caused by the use of illegal off-road bikes, is an operational matter for Chief Officers who will decide how to deploy available resources, taking into account any specific local problems and demands.

Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.

​We will put thousands of new neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities, such as Stoke-on-Trent, and crack down on those causing havoc on our high streets by introducing tougher powers including new Respect Orders to tackle repeat offending.

Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for this government and we will treat it as a national emergency. Our mission is to halve levels of these crimes within a decade, using every lever available to us. This means reforming the police response to these crimes, strengthening the criminal justice system, and empowering victims by providing access to specialist support when they need it. The Home Office is working closely with other departments and stakeholders in developing plans to deliver this ambition.

In September, we unveiled a series of measures designed to strengthen the police response to domestic abuse, protect victims and hold perpetrators to account. From early 2025, under a new approach named ‘Raneem’s Law’, domestic abuse specialists will be embedded in 999 control rooms to advise on risk assessments, work with officers on the ground and ensure that victims are referred to appropriate support services swiftly. We are also working with the police to develop a national framework utilising data-driven tools and algorithms to track and target high-harm offenders involved in domestic abuse, sexual assault, harassment, and stalking.

Homelessness levels are far too high, and this can have a devastating impact on those affected. The Government is taking action by setting up a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) which the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) will chair, bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness, including youth homelessness.

As announced at the Budget on 30 October, funding for homelessness services is increasing next year by £233 million compared to this year (2024/25). The increased spending will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and help to prevent rough sleeping and brings the total spend to nearly £1 billion in 2025/26. We also confirmed a further £450 million for councils through the Local Authority Housing Fund enabling councils to obtain better quality temporary accommodation for homeless families.

More widely, we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness, including: delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and building 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament; and abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, preventing private renters being exploited and discriminated against, and empowering people to challenge unreasonable rent increases.

Homelessness levels are far too high, and this can have a devastating impact on those affected. The Government is taking action by setting up a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) which the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) will chair, bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness, including youth homelessness.

As announced at the Budget on 30 October, funding for homelessness services is increasing next year by £233 million compared to this year (2024/25). The increased spending will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and help to prevent rough sleeping and brings the total spend to nearly £1 billion in 2025/26. We also confirmed a further £450 million for councils through the Local Authority Housing Fund enabling councils to obtain better quality temporary accommodation for homeless families.

More widely, we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness, including: delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and building 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament; and abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, preventing private renters being exploited and discriminated against, and empowering people to challenge unreasonable rent increases.

I refer my Hon Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN 10272 on 28 October 2024.

The Government is committed to intervening early to stop young people being drawn into crime with an ambition to halve knife crime in a decade, accompanied by a new, increased focus on crime prevention. The ‘Safer Streets’ mission proposes a prevention-first approach to crime reduction and fundamental to this will be the delivery of the Youth Futures Programme. This will consist of the creation of prevention partnerships in each local authority to map existing youth provisions and at-risk individuals, as well as the implementation of early intervention strategies to stop young people being pulled into a life of crime, supported by a network of Young Futures Hubs.

This will build on the Ministry of Justice’s Turnaround programme, which is providing Youth Offending Teams across England and Wales with funding to intervene earlier with children on the cusp of entering the youth justice system, with the aim of preventing them from offending or reoffending.

We know that community options can be more effective at reducing reoffending and so we believe that, wherever appropriate, children should be diverted from custody. To this end, we are currently piloting changes to intensive youth community sentences that aim to give courts confidence in using them as robust alternatives to custody. We have also recently opened the first secure school which aims to reduce the reoffending rates of those children who have been sent to custody by placing education at the heart of the establishment.