Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the report by Bite Back entitled Fuel us, don't fool us, published in July 2025; and what steps she is taking to strengthen compliance with the School Food Standards across all education settings.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
To ensure the quality and nutrition of school meals, the department is working with experts across the sector to revise the school food standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance.
We are aware of Bite Back’s ‘Fuel Us, Don’t Fool Us,’ School Food report. We are engaging with stakeholders, including Bite Back, on revising the school food standards, to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history.
School governors and trustees have a responsibility to ensure compliance with the school food standards and should work with the headteacher and senior leadership team to ensure the school is meeting its obligations.
In November 2024, the department and the National Governance Association launched an online training course on school food for governors and trustees. This training is designed to improve understanding of the school food standards and give governing boards confidence to hold their school leaders to account on their-whole school approach to food.
As with all aspects of the school food standards review, we will keep our approaches to compliance under consideration.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she has considered the potential merits of requiring schools to have (a) allergy policies, (b) staff training on allergy management and (c) adrenaline auto-injectors available on site.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. Schools should ensure they are aware of any pupils with medical conditions and have policies and processes in place to ensure these can be well managed. Policies should set out how staff will be supported in carrying out their role to support pupils, including how training needs are assessed and how training is commissioned and provided. Any member of school staff providing support to a pupil with medical needs should have received suitable training.
Schools can purchase spare adrenaline auto-injectors from a pharmacy without a prescription and for use in an emergency situation.
The department intends to consult on updated statutory guidance on supporting pupils with medical conditions later this year. The full guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that medical students in receipt of the NHS Bursary can also access full student maintenance loans in their final years of study.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department works closely with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) on a wide range of matters to ensure the education system is supporting healthcare students, including student funding.
The government needs to ensure that the student funding system is financially sustainable, and funding arrangements are reviewed each year. We will continue to engage with the DHSC to consider the financial support that medical students receive.
Students attending the fifth and sixth years of undergraduate medical courses and years 2 to 4 of graduate entry medical courses qualify for NHS bursaries. The government has announced an increase to all NHS bursary maintenance grants and allowances for the 2025/26 academic year by forecast inflation, 3.1%, based on the Retail Price Index (RPIX) inflation index.
Medical students qualifying for NHS bursary support also qualify for non-means tested loans for living costs from the department. The government has announced that maximum loans for living costs for the 2025/26 academic year, including reduced rate non-means tested loans for students undertaking NHS bursary years, will also increase by 3.1%.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure continuity of transport support for disabled students aged 16 to 18.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
Local authorities are responsible for transport to education and training for 16-19 year olds. Post-16 transport guidance requires local authorities to make the necessary transport arrangements or provide financial support to ensure young people can participate in education or training. The needs of young people with SEND should be specifically considered and the arrangements put in place for each group must be documented in local authority transport policy statements.
In addition to their statutory responsibilities, many local authorities do offer some form of subsidised transport which, combined with the 16-19 bursary, has been intended to provide financial support to students from low-income households. These decisions are best made locally, in consideration of local needs, the resources available and other local circumstances.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
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 revised funding limits under the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund on children in kinship care.
Answered by Janet Daby
I refer my hon. Friend, the member for Leeds North East, to the answer of 13 May 2025 to Question 49523.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of apprenticeship starts in the hairdressing sector in Leeds since 2024; and what steps she is taking to support salons to provide apprenticeships.
Answered by Janet Daby
Apprenticeships are a great way for individuals to begin or progress a successful career in the hairdressing industry.
There have been over 135 starts in hairdressing and barbering apprenticeships within the Leeds local authority across the 2023/24 academic year and the 2024/25 academic year, up until January 2025.
To support smaller employers access apprenticeships, the government pays full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan, or have been in local authority care. Employers can benefit from £1,000 payments when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18, or apprentices aged 19 to 24 who have an EHC plan or have been in local authority care.
Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance contributions for all apprentices aged up to age 25 where they earn less than £50,270 a year.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the reduction in the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund budget for 2025–26 on (a) adoptive families and (b) the stability of adoption placements.
Answered by Janet Daby
The overall budget for the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) will be £50 million in the 2025/26 financial year, which has not been reduced from in the 2024/25 financial year. The changes made to the criteria for the ASGSF will enable the budget to be utilised by more children and families. This will ensure that each child can still access a significant package of support required for individual children and help to prevent breakdown of adoptive placements. Children who have previously been supported by the ASGSF can continue to access the fund under the new arrangements. The department always considers the impact of decisions on vulnerable children.
The department is committed to ensuring value for money and continuously evaluates contracts. Regular reviews are conducted to assess effectiveness. The ASGSF management contract has undergone open re-procurement during its term of operation. The department assess all its tenders on their merits, with the sourcing strategy for this service following Green Book guidance. We will also be reviewing the most effective and efficient way of managing the fund in future years.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children previously supported by the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund continue to have access to therapeutic services following the reduction in the fund’s budget for 2025–26.
Answered by Janet Daby
The overall budget for the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) will be £50 million in the 2025/26 financial year, which has not been reduced from in the 2024/25 financial year. The changes made to the criteria for the ASGSF will enable the budget to be utilised by more children and families. This will ensure that each child can still access a significant package of support required for individual children and help to prevent breakdown of adoptive placements. Children who have previously been supported by the ASGSF can continue to access the fund under the new arrangements. The department always considers the impact of decisions on vulnerable children.
The department is committed to ensuring value for money and continuously evaluates contracts. Regular reviews are conducted to assess effectiveness. The ASGSF management contract has undergone open re-procurement during its term of operation. The department assess all its tenders on their merits, with the sourcing strategy for this service following Green Book guidance. We will also be reviewing the most effective and efficient way of managing the fund in future years.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the (a) effectiveness and (b) value for money of the administration of the (i) Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund and (ii) the role of private contractors.
Answered by Janet Daby
The overall budget for the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) will be £50 million in the 2025/26 financial year, which has not been reduced from in the 2024/25 financial year. The changes made to the criteria for the ASGSF will enable the budget to be utilised by more children and families. This will ensure that each child can still access a significant package of support required for individual children and help to prevent breakdown of adoptive placements. Children who have previously been supported by the ASGSF can continue to access the fund under the new arrangements. The department always considers the impact of decisions on vulnerable children.
The department is committed to ensuring value for money and continuously evaluates contracts. Regular reviews are conducted to assess effectiveness. The ASGSF management contract has undergone open re-procurement during its term of operation. The department assess all its tenders on their merits, with the sourcing strategy for this service following Green Book guidance. We will also be reviewing the most effective and efficient way of managing the fund in future years.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
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 ending compulsory written national curriculum assessments for key stage one students.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
End of key stage 1 national curriculum tests and teacher assessments have been non-statutory since the 2023/24 academic year.
Following the 2017 consultation on primary assessment, a decision was made by the previous administration to make these assessments optional to reduce the overall number of tests children have to take in primary school and move the baseline for primary school progress measures from key stage 1 to reception. The Standards and Testing Agency continues to develop test papers for schools to use on an optional basis as part of their ongoing assessment of pupils.
The phonics screening check is the only statutory assessment administered to pupils in key stage 1. This is a short, light-touch assessment which assesses pupils’ ability to decode and read words using phonics.
In respect of future assessment policy and associated arrangements, the government has established an independent curriculum and assessment review, covering key stages 1 to 5, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE, an expert in education policy. The national curriculum assessments administered to primary pupils are in scope of this review, which will look at whether the current assessment system can be improved.