Asked by: Deirdre Costigan (Labour - Ealing Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will ensure that the output of the Curriculum and Assessment Review includes a focus on schools adopting (a) inclusive and (b) nurturing approaches to education.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Ealing Southall to the answer of 14 November 2024 to Question 13149.
Asked by: Deirdre Costigan (Labour - Ealing Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to take steps to require schools to make an assessment of the social, emotional and behavioural needs of pupils.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Schools and further education colleges are required to identify and address the special educational needs (SEN) of the children and young people they support. In the case of mainstream settings, they must use their best endeavours to make sure that a child or young person who has SEN gets the support they need.
Schools report on the pupils they identify with social, emotional and mental health needs through the School Census. In 2024, 316,327 pupils were identified as having a social, emotional and mental health need as a primary type of need.
Asked by: Deirdre Costigan (Labour - Ealing Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the Opening School Facilities funding programme beyond March 2025.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity to enable every child to achieve and thrive, including through expanding access to sport and physical activity. This will support our cross-government missions and help to raise the healthiest and happiest generation of children ever.
Funding beyond 31 March 2025 is subject to the next government Spending Review taking place this autumn. The outcome of the review will be communicated in due course.
Asked by: Deirdre Costigan (Labour - Ealing Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will launch a consultation on the potential merits of schools having a named educational psychologist based in their local authority.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department values the critical role educational psychologists play in the support available to children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The deployment of educational psychology services is the responsibility of local authorities as the employers of educational psychology services.
The department is taking measures to support education settings to have improved access to educational psychology services by investing in growing the pipeline. The department is investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists from this year. This builds on the £10 million currently being invested in the training of over 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023. This investment will help to make specialist expertise more widely available in mainstream settings.
Asked by: Deirdre Costigan (Labour - Ealing Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to pages 63-65 of the policy paper entitled, King's Speech 2024: background briefing notes, published by the Prime Minister's Office on 17 July 2024, how many primary-aged children her Department expects to receive free breakfast at school in Ealing.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and giving every child the best start in life. Breakfast clubs will remove barriers to opportunity by ensuring every child, no matter their circumstances, is well prepared for school and can achieve their full potential by providing a supportive start to the day.
The government has taken decisive action by announcing in the King’s Speech that, under the Children’s Wellbeing Bill, every primary school in England will offer a free breakfast club. The department will be working closely with the sector on the details of the programme.