Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 2.25(3) of the Spring Budget 2024, HC 560, published on 6 March 2024, how much and what proportion of the £165 million funding for the children’s homes estate will be spent on (a) new children’s homes, (b) rebuilding children’s homes and (c) repairing existing children's homes in each local authority area; and if she will make an estimate of the number of new places that will be created.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

In the Spring Budget, the department was awarded £165 million capital funding to invest in open and secure children’s homes. This consists of £45 million match funding to local authorities to create 200 new open children’s home (OCH) placements for the most vulnerable children, and £120 million to fund the maintenance of the existing secure children’s home (SCH) estate and rebuild Atkinson SCH and Swanwick SCH.

It will be for local authorities in receipt of this OCH match funding to decide how best to deliver these additional 200 placements to meet the needs of the children they look after.

The department will work with Atkinson and Swanwick SCHs and other SCHs to determine the number of places and maintenance required to meet current and future needs of the individual SCHs and the SCH estate as a whole. The department will then allocate the £120 million to the SCHs on this basis.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Spring Budget 2024, HC 560, where the 15 new special schools will be located.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Spring Budget confirmed plans for 15 additional special free schools. An announcement on the location of these schools will be made by May 2024.

The department received a large number of high-quality applications from local authorities through the most recent special free schools application round. In March 2023, the department approved 33 new special free schools.

The Spring Budget announcement means that the department can now go further, by considering more high-quality applications that were not able to be approved at the time. Therefore, the department does not currently plan to invite new local authority applications for this wave.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to give patients access to information on stock levels of ADHD medication at high street pharmacies; and whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of giving patients access to the Medicines Supply Tool.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

There were 10,558 community pharmacies in England on 29 February 2024, including 405 distance selling pharmacies. These contractors are independent private businesses contracted to provide services within the National Health Service. While the Department does not monitor their stock levels, it does have a role in managing supply at a national level to help ensure stocks are available from manufacturers to meet demand from patients across the country. We are often made aware of supply issues. Thankfully the vast majority can be managed with no impact to patients.

We work with the industry, the NHS, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and others working across the supply chain to manage issues and we provide guidance for health care professionals about medicines that are experiencing supply issues on how to manage patients during a disruption where necessary.

The Medicine Supply Tool is designed to provide information and guidance for healthcare professionals, rather than members of the public. However, a public-facing page on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medicine supply is available at the following link:

https://www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/prescribing-available-medicines-to-treat-adhd/

Any patient who is worried about the supply of their medication should speak to their clinician, in the first instance.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the availability of information about stock levels of ADHD medication by high street pharmacies; and what steps is she taking to help ensure patients can identify pharmacies with stocks of their prescription.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

There were 10,558 community pharmacies in England on 29 February 2024, including 405 distance selling pharmacies. These contractors are independent private businesses contracted to provide services within the National Health Service. While the Department does not monitor their stock levels, it does have a role in managing supply at a national level to help ensure stocks are available from manufacturers to meet demand from patients across the country. We are often made aware of supply issues. Thankfully the vast majority can be managed with no impact to patients.

We work with the industry, the NHS, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and others working across the supply chain to manage issues and we provide guidance for health care professionals about medicines that are experiencing supply issues on how to manage patients during a disruption where necessary.

The Medicine Supply Tool is designed to provide information and guidance for healthcare professionals, rather than members of the public. However, a public-facing page on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medicine supply is available at the following link:

https://www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/prescribing-available-medicines-to-treat-adhd/

Any patient who is worried about the supply of their medication should speak to their clinician, in the first instance.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department plans to provide for the early years free hours entitlement to each local authority; and what guidance her Department has issued to providers on the costs that this funding should cover.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is determined to support as many families as possible with access to high quality, affordable childcare, which is why the 2023 Spring Budget announced significant new investments to expand the free early education entitlements from April 2024. Further, at the 2024 Spring Budget the department committed to increasing the national average hourly funding rate to deliver the entitlements in line with the metric used at Spring Budget 2023, in the 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years to reflect key cost providers face, at an estimated £500 million of additional investment over the two financial years, based on current forecast.

The department expects to provide over £4.1 billion by the 2027/28 financial year to facilitate the expansion and to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year overall on free hours and early education entitlements. This is the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.

In 2024/25 alone, the department expects to provide over £1.7 billion to support local authorities and providers to deliver the expansion. On top of this, the department is increasing the 2024/25 hourly rates to local authorities for the existing and new entitlements by over £400 million.

To ensure local authorities are fully supported in delivering the new entitlements, the department is funding local authorities an additional four weeks in the 2024/25 financial year, at an estimated cost of £120 million, for the under 2s working parent entitlement starting in September 2024.

Indicative funding allocations for individual local authorities for 2024/25 were published in December 2023 and can be found at: https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/DSG/2024-to-2025. Funding allocations for local authorities for 2025/26 will be announced in the autumn.

The department’s statutory guidance for local authorities sets out that government funding is intended to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week (for 38 weeks of the year) of free, high-quality, flexible childcare. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-education-and-childcare--2.

The funding should cover the cost, including core business costs, of delivering this provision. The funding is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, such as nappies and sun cream, additional hours or additional services, such as trips and specialist tuition. However, as set out in paragraph A1.33 of the guidance, such charges for consumables or additional services should not be made a condition of accessing a free place. The statutory guidance for local authorities also specifies that local authorities ensure that providers do not charge parents top-up fees or require parents to pay a registration fee as a condition of taking up their child’s place. Providers who choose to offer the free entitlements are responsible for setting their own policy on providing parents with options for alternatives to additional charges, including allowing parents to supply their own meals or nappies, or waiving or reducing the cost of meals and snacks.

Found: Clark MP ( Labour, Enfield North ), Sir Robert Goodwill MP ( Conservative, Scarborough and Whitby ), Helen

Found: Clark MP ( Labour, Enfield North ), Sir Robert Goodwill MP ( Conservative, Scarborough and Whitby ), Helen

Found: Clark MP ( Labour, Enfield North ), Sir Robert Goodwill MP ( Conservative, Scarborough and Whitby ), Helen