Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department is supporting schools to meet SEND needs where specialist placements are unavailable or inappropriate.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
From September, the government is providing upfront investment for schools, colleges and early years providers to intervene early in meeting the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), through our inclusive mainstream fund worth £1.6 billion over three years. Over time this will be supported through the development of National Inclusion Standards, enabling teachers to draw on evidence-based strategies to identify and support children and young people with additional needs.
In addition, every local area is being funded to create a new Experts at Hand service, providing mainstream education settings with access to healthcare professionals like speech and language therapists and education experts such as educational psychologists to work directly with children and support staff to put in place appropriate support and interventions.
We will roll out a new national training programme supporting educators to identify and respond to children’s needs backed by £200 million investment, to train staff across nurseries, schools and colleges with the first wave of training materials coming online from September.
This is supported by investment to create an additional 60,000 school places for children with SEND through inclusion bases, new special or alternative provision school places and adaptations to mainstream, ensuring appropriate education facilities for all our children.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding is available for ongoing professional development in SEND for teachers and support staff, and whether this provision meets demand.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s core professional development offer, including Initial Teacher Training, the Early Career Framework, and national professional qualifications for leaders and Special Educational Needs Coordinators, is grounded in the latest evidence, reviewed by the Education Endowment Foundation and developed with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) experts to support effective practice.
We are investing over £200 million across this parliament to ensure that all teachers, educators, teaching assistants, support staff and leaders in every school, college and nursery are trained to support pupils with SEND. A further £1.6 billion of additional funding will be provided to mainstream settings over three years through the inclusive mainstream fund, to take meaningful steps to improve everyday support for pupils with SEND. This significant investment forms a central part of our SEND reform plans to ensure effective support for children and young people from early years to age 25.
Many practitioners already engage in SEND training, and this investment will extend access to high-quality professional development to more staff. We recognise the importance of ensuring provision keeps pace with workforce needs and are focused on both expanding access and maintaining quality.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to have discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the the findings of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists' report entitled, A Profession Under Pressure, published in July 2025.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Speech and Language Therapists break down communication barriers, unlocking learning, inclusion, and opportunity for every child. They play a critical role in early intervention for children and young people. However, they have the second highest waiting list in children’s community services. I am grateful to the Royal College for highlighting these issues in their report.
The department knows that continuing to build the pipeline of speech and language therapists is essential. We are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate her Department has made of the cost of the provision of a hot meal at (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The department spends over £1.5 billion annually supporting schools to provide free meals to around 3.4 million children. We have recently confirmed that free meals will be extended to all households receiving Universal Credit from September 2026. This expansion is being backed by £1 billion in additional funding over the multi-year spending review period and will benefit half a million pupils.
The department provides free school meals (FSM) funding to schools, who have flexibility to provide meals in the way that works best for them. FSM are currently funded at £495 per pupil annually.
As with all programmes, we continue to keep funding for FSM under review to ensure that schools can continue to provide hot and nutritious meals that support pupil attainment and health. Departmental officials meet regularly with the sector, including the school catering industry, and use these insights to inform our work.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the current Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund fair access limit on the mental health outcomes of (a) adopted children and (b) children living with a special guardianship.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department always considers the impact of decisions on vulnerable children. The level of funding per child in 2025/26 will still allow adoptive and kinship families to access a significant package of therapeutic support. Where needed, local authorities and regional adoption agencies can use their own funding to increase the amount of therapy.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what evidence base was used to inform the new per-child funding allocation of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
Answered by Janet Daby
Changes to the Fair Access Limit have been made to ensure that the maximum number of children can benefit from the fund, on the basis of forecast demand. The level of funding per child in 2025/26 will still allow adoptive and kinship families to access a significant package of therapeutic support. Where needed, and as before, local authorities and Regional Adoption Agencies can use their own funding to increase the amount of therapy.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she expects the timelines for the delivery of Young Future Hubs to be clarified.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity. Too many children and young people do not have access to the same enrichment opportunities as their peers, suffer from poor mental health and, in some cases, end up being drawn into crime rather than going on to achieve and thrive. Young Futures Hubs are just one part of addressing this, as part of a much wider youth landscape which will be brought together in the forthcoming youth strategy.
To roll-out Young Futures Hubs, building upon the successes of existing infrastructure and provision, the department will first establish early adopter hubs. These early adopters, and work with local areas, will inform the longer term development of the programme, including how quickly we move to a greater number of hubs. We will set out more details on timelines in due course.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether (a) private, (b) voluntary and (c) independent settings will be able to access (i) Early Years and (ii) workforce funding.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In the 2025/26 financial year alone, the department expects to provide over £8 billion for early years entitlements, an increase of over 30% compared to 2024/25, as the department rolls out the expansion of the entitlements.
This funding is distributed to local authorities as hourly funding rates, determined using the early years national funding formulae (EYNFF). The hourly rate includes funding to support providers with the cost of delivering the entitlements, including workforce costs, to deliver essential local early years services and ensure children with special educational needs and disabilities can access the funded childcare offer. The EYNFF, and local formulae which local authorities use to distribute that funding to individual providers, cover private, voluntary and independent settings, as well as public sector providers.
Alongside hourly funding rates, eligible children, in any setting, can also attract additional funding through the early years pupil premium (EYPP). Early education gives all children, and especially disadvantaged children, the best start in life. This government is therefore delivering the largest ever uplift to the EYPP, increasing the EYPP rate by over 45% from 68p per hour in the 2024/25 financial year to £1 per hour in the 2025/26 financial year, equivalent to up to £570 per eligible child per year.
On top of over £8 billion through the core funding rates, we are also providing an additional £75 million grant for the 2025/26 financial year to support the sector in this pivotal year to grow the places and the workforce needed to deliver the final phase of expanded childcare entitlements from September 2025.
In addition, pilot funding is being given to 20 local authorities to pass onto providers to recruit eligible early years staff, who spend at least 70% of their time working directly with children. Eligible joiners and returners will receive a payment of up to £1,000 after tax and National Insurance shortly after they take up post. The pilot runs from April to December 2024.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce dropout rates of students studying T-Levels.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government wants all young people to have access to high-quality education options that enable them to learn the skills they need to progress in life and build successful careers.
T Levels are an excellent post-16 option for students, and we want to extend the opportunities they provide to as many young people as possible. The department has listened to feedback about barriers to delivery and taken action as a result. For example, we have announced updated approaches to industry placements, including allowing up to 20% of the placement to be remote, with up to 50% for T Levels in Digital. These changes which will unlock more opportunities for students and employers, while maintaining quality.
T Levels are still early in their implementation, and the retention rate is now improving. To support this, the department is raising awareness of T Levels with schools and careers advisers, backed up by case studies of students’ experiences and access to face to face support to ensure they understand the requirements of T Levels and can advise students effectively.
The department has addressed issues specific to the Health and Science T Levels, which may have affected the second cohort of students. In September 2023, a new T Level in Health Qualification Specification was published, with changes to the core content, alongside a suite of support from the awarding organisation to help providers deliver the T Level effectively. The department expects retention rates to continue rising as providers become more familiar with delivering the courses, and we continue to support providers to deliver T Levels effectively.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support (a) language and (b) communication skills of children under three.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Early language skills are vital to enable children to thrive in the early years and later in life.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure every child has the best start in life and is prepared for school. The three prime areas of learning and development within the EYFS are particularly important for building a strong foundation, with communication and language being one of these prime areas.
Assessment plays an important part in helping parents, carers and practitioners to recognise children’s progress, understand their needs, and to plan activities and support. The assessment requirements in the EYFS includes the progress check at age two and the EYFS profile, both of which involve reviewing a child’s development in communication and language.
To support early language skills, the department is providing 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. Additionally, we are providing training through the Professional Development Programme and the online early years child development training, both of which include a specific module focused on early language. Furthermore, we are providing training for up to 7,000 special educational needs coordinators that will help children with speech, language and communication needs and support earlier identification of needs.
In partnership with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), we have also developed the early language identification measure, which supports local area health and early years partnerships to work in a more integrated way, helping to identify speech, language and communication needs as early as possible. We are also enabling Family Hubs to train practitioners to support families with the home learning environment and to help parents learn new skills, including providing effective support for children’s speech and communication.
Furthermore, we are developing programmes to support early language development, such as the department’s joint home learning campaign with the DHSC, Little Moments Together, which encourages parents to chat, play and read with their children, and provides helpful tips on activities on learning to talk. The campaign can be accessed here: https://campaignresources.dhsc.gov.uk/campaigns/better-health-start-for-life/better-health-start-for-life-home-learning-environment-2024/.
We are also working in partnership with NHS England to deliver the Early Language Support for Every Child pathfinders for 2-11 year-olds, 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. We are also publishing early years special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) assessment guidance and resources, which includes practical advice, tools and downloadable resources. These will help educators assess children with SEND, capture their voice, and set learning targets. It includes a dedicated tool for communication and interaction.