Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support local football clubs.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
By 2025, we will have invested over £320 million into grassroots football and multi-sport facilities across the UK. Furthermore, as announced in the King’s Speech, the Government will bring forward legislation to establish a new Independent Football Regulator, to ensure that English football is sustainable for the benefit of fans and local communities.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the responsibility of local authorities to work with water companies to tackle polluted surface water outfalls that occur as a result of mis-connections to sewers rather than surface water runoffs.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a wide range of issues. Misconnections are often the product of poor domestic drainage from private drainage asset owners. However, the contents discharge from water company assets and water companies have a responsibility to investigate and resolve. Water company drainage and wastewater management plans provide the opportunity for companies to proactively identify these risks and propose long-term solutions to address them.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care during the Westminster Hall debate on Healthcare Services: Carshalton and Wallington on 23 May 2023, Official Report, Column 71WH, what progress her Department has made on producing a radical dentistry plan.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working on our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will address how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients; and how we make National Health Service work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.
Our Dentistry Recovery Plan will build upon the first package of reforms agreed in July 2022, which included changes to banding and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value. Our plan will include addressing how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients; and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver NHS care.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in absence rates of children with pathological demand avoidance.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not collect data for pupils with pathological demand avoidance (PDA), a profile of autism. Therefore, we cannot accurately assess their current trends in absence rates. However, the department recognises the increase in absence generally for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). For pupils receiving Special Educational Needs (SEN) support, overall absence increased from 6.5% in 2018/19 to 10.0% in 2021/22. For pupils with a SEN provision statement or Education, Health and Care Plan, overall absence increased from 8.7% in 2018/19 to 12.1% in 2021/22.
On 22 November 2023, the department announced the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools programme. This new programme, backed by £13 million of investment, will bring together Integrated Care Boards (ICB), local authorities and schools, working in partnership with parents and carers, to support schools to better meet the needs of neurodiverse children. The programme will deploy specialists from both health and education workforces to upskill schools and build their capacity to identify and meet the needs of children with autism and other neurodiverse needs. One of the key programme metrics will be attendance, as the department recognises that addressing unmet needs and making school more inclusive supports good attendance. The programme will be evaluated, and the learning will inform future policy development around how schools support neurodiverse children.
In 2022, the department published the ‘Working together to improve school attendance guidance’ to ensure greater consistency in the attendance support offered to pupils and families across the country. The guidance emphasises the importance of providing attendance support early and targeted to pupils’ individual needs. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.
For pupils with SEND, schools are expected to have sensitive conversations with pupils about their needs and work with families to develop specific support approaches. This includes establishing strategies for removing in-school barriers to attendance, ensuring attendance data for pupils with SEND is regularly monitored to spot patterns and provide support earlier, ensuring joined-up pastoral care is in place, and referring pupils to other services and partners where necessary. These expectations, alongside the expectations placed on academy trust boards, governing bodies, and local authorities to work in conjunction with school staff to provide joined-up support for all pupils and families, is intended to ensure that pupils with SEND are supported to attend school regularly.
Statistics on pupil absence, including breakdowns of absence by characteristics, are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england/2021-22.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral statement from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on Community Pharmacies, Official Report, Column 450WH, whether his Department's PrEP roadmap will include plans to make PrEP accessible (a) online, (b) in pharmacies and (c) in GPs surgeries.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The HIV Action Plan Implementation Steering Group (ISG) is developing a roadmap to help guide our efforts to improve equitable access, uptake and use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to meet the needs of key populations at significant risk of HIV. This forms part of the group’s work to monitor and drive forward the implementation of the HIV Action Plan.
HIV PrEP is currently only prescribed at specialist sexual health services, but as we work towards our 2030 ambitions, we will explore opportunities for making it available in a variety of settings. The PrEP roadmap takes into consideration actions needed to improve HIV PrEP access pathways in settings other than specialist sexual health services, including online, general practitioner services and pharmacies, to enable potential future delivery in other settings. The roadmap is expected to be made available by the HIV Action Plan ISG before the end of the year.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help tackle inequalities in access to PrEP.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The HIV Action Plan Implementation Steering Group (ISG) is developing a roadmap to help guide our efforts to improve equitable access, uptake and use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to meet the needs of key populations at significant risk of HIV. This forms part of the group’s work to monitor and drive forward the implementation of the HIV Action Plan. The roadmap is expected to be made available by the HIV Action Plan ISG before the end of the year.
HIV PrEP is routinely available in specialist sexual health services throughout the country since March 2020 and we have invested more than £34 million in PrEP in 2020/21 and 2021/22. PrEP funding has been fully included within the public health grant since 2022/23 and funds appointments and testing in sexual health services, whilst NHS England covers the costs of the drug itself. The PrEP monitoring and evaluation framework was published by the UK Health Security Agency in March 2022 and consists of a series of indicators to support local authorities and inform service improvement in PrEP commissioning and delivery, providing local areas with information that can help them address inequalities in uptake of PrEP.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help develop skills and knowledge to support research and innovation.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to ensuring the UK has talent that supports research and innovation and drives growth.
We are investing millions in our brightest researchers through scholarships, PhD placements and fellowships in technologies like AI and Quantum.
With the Department of Education, we have launched Skills Bootcamps for digital, cyber, green, and technical skills.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether it remains her policy to ban conversion therapy.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
No one in this country should be harmed or harassed for who they are and attempts at so-called ‘conversion therapy’ are abhorrent. That is why we are carefully considering this very complex issue. We will be setting out further details on this in due course.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate her Department has made of the level of demand for staff who are qualified to provide childcare for children over the age of five with special educational needs.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities have a legal duty to report annually on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare for children aged up to 14, and up to 18 for disabled children. Local authority reports should include specific reference to how each local authority is meeting the needs of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN), including how any gaps in provision will be addressed. The report should be made available to parents.
Where adequate childcare provision is not available, parents have the right to request a wraparound or holiday childcare place for their child. Local authorities also have a statutory duty under the Children and Families Act 2014 to maintain a local offer which provides clear, comprehensive, accessible, and up-to-date information about support and services for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
The department recognises the importance of good quality and inclusive school-aged childcare that supports working parents and carers. The government is investing £289 million in a new wraparound childcare programme to support local authorities and providers in England to introduce or expand childcare provision for primary school-aged children, as part of the largest ever investment in childcare. The programme aims to deliver provision that is child-centred, easily accessible and responds to the needs of the families, including those of children with SEND. Local authorities and childcare providers should recognise the different needs of children who will be accessing childcare and ensure that new and existing provision is accessible to all, including children with complex needs and those in specialist school settings.
The department does not hold data on the demand for staff who are qualified to provide childcare for children over the age of five with SEN. However, as part of the national wraparound programme, local authorities have the flexibility to use some of the funding provided to pay for training for wraparound staff, including specialist training for staff to ensure they feel equipped to support children with SEND.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help people undertake training in childcare for children with special educational needs over the age of five.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities have a legal duty to report annually on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare for children aged up to 14, and up to 18 for disabled children. Local authority reports should include specific reference to how each local authority is meeting the needs of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN), including how any gaps in provision will be addressed. The report should be made available to parents.
Where adequate childcare provision is not available, parents have the right to request a wraparound or holiday childcare place for their child. Local authorities also have a statutory duty under the Children and Families Act 2014 to maintain a local offer which provides clear, comprehensive, accessible, and up-to-date information about support and services for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
The department recognises the importance of good quality and inclusive school-aged childcare that supports working parents and carers. The government is investing £289 million in a new wraparound childcare programme to support local authorities and providers in England to introduce or expand childcare provision for primary school-aged children, as part of the largest ever investment in childcare. The programme aims to deliver provision that is child-centred, easily accessible and responds to the needs of the families, including those of children with SEND. Local authorities and childcare providers should recognise the different needs of children who will be accessing childcare and ensure that new and existing provision is accessible to all, including children with complex needs and those in specialist school settings.
The department does not hold data on the demand for staff who are qualified to provide childcare for children over the age of five with SEN. However, as part of the national wraparound programme, local authorities have the flexibility to use some of the funding provided to pay for training for wraparound staff, including specialist training for staff to ensure they feel equipped to support children with SEND.