Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of rolling out family hubs across the country.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
On 11 June, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out plans for spending and public sector reforms through the Spending Review 2025. This announcement confirmed departmental budgets for 2026/27 onwards and committed that the government will continue to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme, working with parents to help give children the best start in life.
This builds upon my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change, published in December 2024, which outlined the ambition to give children the best start in life by strengthening and coordinating family services to improve support through pregnancy and early childhood.
The department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to share further information about what the Spending Review settlement means for the continuation and expansion of the programme. We recognise the importance of providing local authorities with certainty of future funding across the whole programme and we will share further information when we are able to.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of rolling out family hubs nationally.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
On 11 June, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out plans for spending and public sector reforms through the Spending Review 2025. This announcement confirmed departmental budgets for 2026/27 onwards and committed that the government will continue to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme, working with parents to help give children the best start in life.
This builds upon my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change, published in December 2024, which outlined the ambition to give children the best start in life by strengthening and coordinating family services to improve support through pregnancy and early childhood.
The department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to share further information about what the Spending Review settlement means for the continuation and expansion of the programme. We recognise the importance of providing local authorities with certainty of future funding across the whole programme and we will share further information when we are able to.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to take steps to support nursery workers to encourage learning through play.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The early years foundation stage statutory framework (EYFS) 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 EYFS is clear that children learn through play and that play is essential for children’s development. For example, singing songs helps to develop language comprehension, vocabulary, self-expression and literacy. Early years practitioners should carefully organise enabling environments and cultures for high quality play and are encouraged to create games and provide opportunity for play both indoors and outdoors.
The department is committed to supporting settings in how to practically deliver the EYFS well for the benefit of all children. A range of information and resources are available, such as ‘Development Matters’, help for early years providers and the Foundation Years website, which includes ideas for play-based learning activities.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of early intervention on children's readiness to start school.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government’s Plan for Change sets out our ambition for a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn. The department will measure progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage profile assessment by 2028.
Antenatal classes, health visitors, parenting support, baby and toddler groups and access to affordable, high quality early education and childcare are vital to guiding parents, improving the home learning environment and supporting development.
A stable family environment is the foundation for better health, education and earnings. Studies have found that the most influential home environment variable on children’s cognitive development at age three and four, and academic outcomes at age seven, is the quality of the home learning environment during preschool years.
Children need access to high quality early education and evidence-based programmes designed specifically for this early stage of development. An impact evaluation of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) found that children who receive NELI make, on average, four months of additional progress in oral language skills, and seven months for those children on free school meals.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to provide training on home education for parents of school-age children.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not have plans to provide training for parents on home education.
We have published guidance for home-educating parents to help them understand their rights and responsibilities.
The department is also introducing a new duty on local authorities to provide support to home-educating families through the Children Not in School measures within the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This will ensure that there is a baseline level of support across all local authorities so that parents have access to a reliable level of support, irrespective of where they live, and we will be providing additional training to local authorities to help them to fulfil these duties.
Parents who choose to home educate have the flexibility to employ a variety of approaches and need not follow structures such as the national curriculum, stick to a traditional school day, nor include the study of specific subjects, provided the education is efficient, full-time and suitable to the age, ability and aptitude of the child and any special educational needs they may have. Issuing training would therefore not be appropriate, as we do not wish to impose restrictions on parents by instructing them on how they should home educate their children.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeship starts at level 7 there were in the academic years (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25 for individuals aged 16-21.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There were 2,710 apprenticeship starts at level 7 by learners aged under 22 in the 2023/24 full academic year. So far for 2024/25 (August 2024 to January 2025), there have been 2,540 apprenticeship starts reported.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to provide an Answer to Question 50886 on Apprentices: Taxation, tabled on 8 May 2025.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The response to Written Parliamentary Question 50886 was published on 21 May 2025.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many organisations were consulted on the decision to cut funding for specialist software from the Disabled Student's Allowance.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department engaged with disability experts who support disabled students to gather their feedback and insights on the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance funding. These persons contributed in a personal capacity.
The department does not expect that students will be negatively impacted by the changes, because specific technology packages will no longer be funded where free-to-access versions, with the required functionality, are available to meet students’ disability-related support needs.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes to levy funding for level 7 apprenticeships on the educational opportunities available in Stoke-on-Trent.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central to the answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43275.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to increase access to adult education on media literacy.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The adult skills fund (ASF) fully funds or co-funds education and skills training for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, including media literacy education.
Currently, approximately 62% of the ASF is devolved to 9 mayoral strategic authorities and the Greater London Authority. These authorities are responsible for the provision of ASF-funded adult education for their residents and allocation of the ASF to learning providers to best meet their local needs. The department is responsible for the remaining ASF in non-devolved areas. In non-devolved areas, adults who earn less than £25,000 in annual gross salary are eligible for full funding, but it is the responsibility of providers to decide what training to offer.
More broadly, civil society and community organisations are instrumental in delivering media literacy programmes to adults, leveraging their expertise to support diverse and vulnerable groups.
The Digital Inclusion Action Plan outlines steps toward delivering digital inclusion and media literacy for everyone in the UK, including supporting local and community initiatives to increase digital participation.
Under updated media literacy duties, Ofcom is developing a ‘place-based’ model to embed media literacy into community digital strategies, working with the Good Things Foundation to support Digital Inclusion Hubs.