Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking with local authorities to expedite the removal of asbestos from schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department takes the safety of children and those who work with them incredibly seriously, which is why we expect all those with responsibility for managing the school estate, which includes local authorities, governing bodies and academy trusts, to have robust plans in place to manage asbestos in school buildings effectively, in line with their legal duties, drawing on appropriate professional advice.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), as the regulator, sets the legal requirements and standards to manage asbestos and produces guidance for responsible bodies to follow, as duty holders. The department provides guidance, tools and support to help schools and responsible bodies effectively manage their school buildings, including guidance on managing asbestos in schools and colleges, which was updated in October 2024.
Asbestos is typically removed when carrying out wider rebuilding or refurbishment work to improve the condition of buildings. The department follows the advice of the HSE as the regulator, that as long as asbestos-containing materials are undamaged, and not in locations where they are vulnerable to damage, they should be left undisturbed, and their condition monitored.
The department has been clear that when asbestos does pose a risk to safety and cannot be effectively managed in place, it should be removed. The decision to remove asbestos should be considered on a case-by-case basis and annual condition funding provided by the department can be used for this purpose. As part of the 2025/26 budget, we have increased capital allocations to improve the condition of school buildings to £2.1 billion, which is £300 million more than the 2024/25 financial year. This is on top of the School Rebuilding Programme and targeted support for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to tackle misogynistic attitudes in primary schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Education has a crucial role to play in tackling harmful behaviour, helping children and young people, at primary and secondary level, to develop empathy, boundaries and respect for difference.
Through compulsory relationships education, all pupils, including boys and young men, learn how to form positive and respectful relationships and develop an understanding of the concepts and laws around sexual harassment and sexual violence.
The relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance emphasises that schools should be alive to issues such as everyday sexism, misogyny, homophobia and gender stereotypes and take positive action to build a culture where these are not tolerated, ensuring any occurrences are identified and tackled. The guidance is clear that schools should provide pupils with the knowledge they need to recognise and report abuse, including emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and to build empathy and promote respect for all. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
Schools should consider what they can do to foster healthy and respectful peer-to-peer communication and behaviour between boys and girls, and provide an environment, which challenges perceived limits on pupils based on their gender or any other characteristic.
The department is currently reviewing the statutory RSHE curriculum and as part of this review will be looking at how to ensure that the guidance equips pupils, including at primary school level, to form healthy and respectful relationships. We are analysing consultation responses, talking to stakeholders and considering relevant evidence.
Separately, the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review will consider how RSHE fits into the wider curriculum.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve the educational attainment levels of working class boys in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter who they are or where they are from. The Opportunity Mission will break the link between background and success, helping all children achieve and thrive wherever they are in the country.
High and rising standards in every school are at the heart of this mission. We aim to deliver these improvements through excellent teaching and leadership, a high quality curriculum, and a system which removes the barriers to learning that hold too many children back.
The department has utilised the local needs fund and supported the delivery of bespoke school improvement across Oldham, Rochdale, Salford and Tameside schools to improve attainment at early years and at key stages 2 and 4.
More widely, to ensure all children and young people have expert qualified teachers driving high and rising standards across our schools and colleges, the department has started work to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers. We have also launched the Curriculum and Assessment Review that will look closely at the barriers which hold children back from the opportunities and life chances they deserve, in particular those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged or with special educational needs and disabilities.
Backed by over £20 million, new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams will also drive higher standards, by providing a mandatory bespoke service to schools that Ofsted identifies as needing to improve. They will also provide a universal service acting as a catalyst for improvement across all schools, with RISE teams sharing effective practice and empowering schools to better access support and learn from one another.
To further support disadvantaged children, pupil premium funding is allocated to schools to support the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils and is worth over £2.9 billion in the 2024/25 financial year.
Alongside this, in 2025/26, 10.6% (£5.1 billion) of the schools national funding formula (NFF) has been allocated through deprivation factors and 17.8% (£8.6 billion) has been allocated for additional needs. Furthermore, in 2025/26, on average, the most deprived schools have attracted the largest per pupil funding amounts through the schools NFF. This will help schools in their vital work to close attainment gaps and break down barriers to opportunity.