Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding allocated to his Department during the Spending Review 2025 is committed to establishing Young Futures Hubs.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is taking a collaborative approach to the design of Young Futures Hubs, meeting regularly with a variety of relevant stakeholders including children and young people, charities, local authorities and experts.
To roll-out Young Futures Hubs, building on the success of existing infrastructure and provision, the government will establish a number of early adopter hubs, the locations of which will be determined by where they will have the most impact. This will inform the longer-term development of the programme, including how quickly we move to a greater number of hubs and where they may be located.
The government will set out more details on this in due course, including confirming funding allocation.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she (a) has had and (b) plans to have with stakeholders on the delivery model for Young Futures Hubs.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is taking a collaborative approach to the design of Young Futures Hubs, meeting regularly with a variety of relevant stakeholders including children and young people, charities, local authorities and experts.
To roll-out Young Futures Hubs, building on the success of existing infrastructure and provision, the government will establish a number of early adopter hubs, the locations of which will be determined by where they will have the most impact. This will inform the longer-term development of the programme, including how quickly we move to a greater number of hubs and where they may be located.
The government will set out more details on this in due course, including confirming funding allocation.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish the delivery model for Young Futures Hubs.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is taking a collaborative approach to the design of Young Futures Hubs, meeting regularly with a variety of relevant stakeholders including children and young people, charities, local authorities and experts.
To roll-out Young Futures Hubs, building on the success of existing infrastructure and provision, the government will establish a number of early adopter hubs, the locations of which will be determined by where they will have the most impact. This will inform the longer-term development of the programme, including how quickly we move to a greater number of hubs and where they may be located.
The government will set out more details on this in due course, including confirming funding allocation.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the rollout of defibrillators in schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s defibrillator programme has provided over 20,000 devices to schools, the largest rollout of defibrillators across England to date.
The department is working with the British Heart Foundation to understand the impact the programme is having. Since the rollout, the number of school defibrillators registered on the British Heart Foundation’s national defibrillator database, The Circuit, has risen by 252%, with 66% of all schools in England now having registered at least one device. Our evaluation shows that defibrillators provided by the department have been available for use and deployed in over 12,000 emergency situations, where there has been a suspected cardiac arrest.
In January 2025, the British Heart Foundation published Barry’s story. Barry’s life was saved by a school defibrillator provided by the department. More information can be found at: https://www.bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help/how-to-save-a-life/defibrillators/stories/barry-on-being-saved-by-local-school#:~:text=Barry%20had%20popped%20into%20his,road%2C%20his%20life%20was%20saved.
We continue to work with the British Heart Foundation to evaluate and understand the impact of the department’s programme and support schools in registering their defibrillators on The Circuit.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of free school meal entitled children not being automatically registered on the levels of (a) relative child poverty, (b) deep poverty, and (c) very deep poverty.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All children in households in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals (FSM) from September 2026. This unprecedented step will put £500 back into families’ pockets in respect of each child each year and lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty, helping to break down barriers to opportunity and tackle the scar of child poverty across our country.
Giving children access to a nutritious lunchtime meal every school day also leads to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning they get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life. That is why this government is taking action to make it quicker and easier for both families and local authorities to get children signed up for FSM with our new Eligibility Checking System. This will allow parents to check their own eligibility and helps the local efforts we have seen to ensure children receive this support. Improvements we are making to the process for reviewing eligibility for meals will make it simpler than it has ever been to receive this entitlement.
Departmental officials are working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to explore options on further data sharing that can get more families signed up for their entitlements.
Departmental officials are also working with the Department for Work and Pensions to explore options on supporting enrolment through the Universal Credit claims process. The department will engage with local authorities to monitor and assess the impact that these changes are having on the uptake of FSM.
We will closely monitor the impact of the rollout on take-up and are carefully considering measures for improving enrolment in light of the recent announcement.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on enrolling families for free school meals during the Universal Credit application process.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All children in households in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals (FSM) from September 2026. This unprecedented step will put £500 back into families’ pockets in respect of each child each year and lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty, helping to break down barriers to opportunity and tackle the scar of child poverty across our country.
Giving children access to a nutritious lunchtime meal every school day also leads to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning they get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life. That is why this government is taking action to make it quicker and easier for both families and local authorities to get children signed up for FSM with our new Eligibility Checking System. This will allow parents to check their own eligibility and helps the local efforts we have seen to ensure children receive this support. Improvements we are making to the process for reviewing eligibility for meals will make it simpler than it has ever been to receive this entitlement.
Departmental officials are working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to explore options on further data sharing that can get more families signed up for their entitlements.
Departmental officials are also working with the Department for Work and Pensions to explore options on supporting enrolment through the Universal Credit claims process. The department will engage with local authorities to monitor and assess the impact that these changes are having on the uptake of FSM.
We will closely monitor the impact of the rollout on take-up and are carefully considering measures for improving enrolment in light of the recent announcement.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that children entitled to free schools meals are registered for them in the context of the expansion of eligibility in September 2026.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All children in households in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals (FSM) from September 2026. This unprecedented step will put £500 back into families’ pockets in respect of each child each year and lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty, helping to break down barriers to opportunity and tackle the scar of child poverty across our country.
Giving children access to a nutritious lunchtime meal every school day also leads to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning they get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life. That is why this government is taking action to make it quicker and easier for both families and local authorities to get children signed up for FSM with our new Eligibility Checking System. This will allow parents to check their own eligibility and helps the local efforts we have seen to ensure children receive this support. Improvements we are making to the process for reviewing eligibility for meals will make it simpler than it has ever been to receive this entitlement.
Departmental officials are working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to explore options on further data sharing that can get more families signed up for their entitlements.
Departmental officials are also working with the Department for Work and Pensions to explore options on supporting enrolment through the Universal Credit claims process. The department will engage with local authorities to monitor and assess the impact that these changes are having on the uptake of FSM.
We will closely monitor the impact of the rollout on take-up and are carefully considering measures for improving enrolment in light of the recent announcement.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of automatically enrolling eligible children for free school meals.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All children in households in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals (FSM) from September 2026. This unprecedented step will put £500 back into families’ pockets in respect of each child each year and lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty, helping to break down barriers to opportunity and tackle the scar of child poverty across our country.
Giving children access to a nutritious lunchtime meal every school day also leads to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning they get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life. That is why this government is taking action to make it quicker and easier for both families and local authorities to get children signed up for FSM with our new Eligibility Checking System. This will allow parents to check their own eligibility and helps the local efforts we have seen to ensure children receive this support. Improvements we are making to the process for reviewing eligibility for meals will make it simpler than it has ever been to receive this entitlement.
Departmental officials are working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to explore options on further data sharing that can get more families signed up for their entitlements.
Departmental officials are also working with the Department for Work and Pensions to explore options on supporting enrolment through the Universal Credit claims process. The department will engage with local authorities to monitor and assess the impact that these changes are having on the uptake of FSM.
We will closely monitor the impact of the rollout on take-up and are carefully considering measures for improving enrolment in light of the recent announcement.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on implementing the Lifelong Learning Entitlement.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government recognises that lifelong learning is a core part of a sustainable higher education system which provides opportunities for all and offers learners greater flexibility in an ever-evolving economy. We are committed to supporting lifelong learning as part of our wider commitment to skills.
Since the general election, we have been working to ensure that our approach to lifelong learning is as effective as possible, enabling people to gain the skills they need to support their careers.
We are currently working through the outcomes of the multi-year Spending Review on policies and programmes across the department. We recognise the importance of communicating our Lifelong Learning Entitlement policy detail and plan to share this as soon as possible.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of levels of (a) training in defibrillator use and (b) mental health support available to school staff required to respond to cardiac incidents.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Defibrillators are designed so they can be used by anyone with no prior training. Users are prompted to follow the step-by-step instructions on the defibrillators at the time of use.
As part of the department’s roll out, we provided awareness videos to schools showing how simple defibrillators can be to use, and asked schools to share these videos in staff meetings and assemblies. By providing defibrillators and raising awareness, this programme will help to produce a generation of young people who feel able and confident to use this life saving equipment.
The department recognises that using a defibrillator could be a distressing experience. Individuals are advised to contact their GP, who will be best placed to assess their needs after an incident and provide access to the appropriate support.