Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) support and (b) expand (i) mentoring and (ii) wellbeing schemes for young people in (A) schools and (B) local communities.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Helping children and young people to both achieve and thrive, including through work on mentoring and supporting wellbeing, is critical to breaking down barriers to opportunity – one of the five missions of this government.

The department is investing £17 million across two mentoring projects that will support the school attendance of at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally. The first project is set to conclude this academic year, while the second, larger pilot will continue until 2028.

To support mental health and wellbeing, the government has also committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school in England.

The department has also launched a targeted mental wellbeing support toolkit to further help schools select the most effective targeted support options. This covers a range of evidence-based interventions, including mentoring, which we recognise can be a useful component of a whole school approach to wellbeing.

The government is committed to deliver on its pledge to provide a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary aged children. We have made early progress towards this, including announcing that up to 750 early adopters will be delivering these new breakfast clubs by April 2025. Breakfast clubs offer much more than just food. They can serve as a welcoming space for children, providing valuable opportunities for them to play, learn, and socialise at the beginning of the school day.

Across government, we are also supporting a variety of other schemes with a focus on mentoring and wellbeing for young people in wider communities.

Young Futures Hubs will bring together services to help improve the way that children and young people can access opportunities and support in their local communities, in doing so, promoting their development, improving mental health, and preventing young people being drawn into crime. Expertise has been brought together from across government departments to deliver on this manifesto commitment, and the government will be engaging with national and local partners, local communities and children and young people to co-design and explore options for the design and delivery of the hubs.

There are currently around 65 locally funded early support hubs in England open to those aged 11 to 25. These are open to anyone who may not meet the threshold to receive NHS support. This means children and young people experiencing feelings of anxiety or stress will have a physical space to go to in their community when their problems first emerge without the need for a referral. Early support hubs also offer advice on wider issues which may affect a young person’s mental health, including careers advice, educational support or support with their financial circumstances. In 2024/25, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is also running a Shared Outcomes Fund project, backed by £8 million, to boost and evaluate the impact of 24 existing early support hubs.

In the wider healthcare system, DHSC will also recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.

Supporting mentoring in wider communities, Youth Futures Foundation receives funding through the Dormant Assets Scheme, which is led by industry and backed by the government, for their ‘Building Futures’ programme with the Football Beyond Borders as their year 1 partner, which will enable thousands of vulnerable young people to access crucial mentoring support.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) prevent heart disease and stroke, (b) prioritise timely NHS heart care and (c) accelerate research into future treatments and cures.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We are committed to ensuring that fewer lives are lost to the biggest killers, such as heart disease, which includes cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and stroke.

The NHS Health Check, England’s flagship CVD prevention programme, engages over 1.3 million people each year and prevents approximately 500 heart attacks or strokes. To improve access and engagement to this life saving check, we are developing a digital NHS Health Check, a service which people can use at home to understand and act on their CVD risk, providing people with a more flexible, accessible, and convenient service. We are also piloting a new programme to deliver more than 130,000 lifesaving heart health checks in workplaces across the country.

The NHS Long Term Plan (NHS LTP) is committed to improving the care and outcomes for people with CVD through enhanced diagnostic support in the community, better personalised planning, and increased access to disease-specific rehabilitation. NHS England’s stroke priorities include rapid diagnosis and increased access to time-dependent acute stroke care, as well as facilitating ambulance service use of pre-hospital telemedicine, and supporting access to the use of artificial intelligence decision support tools for brain imaging.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help prevent joint mortgages being used as a method of financial abuse.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government recognises the devastating impact financial and economic abuse can have on victims, which extends far beyond the impact to their finances and includes the use of joint mortgages to control or exploit victims.

We continue to work closely with and fund organisations that seek to promote awareness of economic abuse to improve the public and private sector’s response. This includes funding Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA), which supports victims of economic and financial abuse, with £200,000 this year to help improve the response to economic abuse and provide vital support and economic safety for victims.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the UK leaving the EU on the number of seasonal agricultural workers in each of the countries of the UK.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The Government keeps the Seasonal Worker route under close ongoing review and is carefully considering the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the Seasonal Worker route and will announce a detailed response in due course.

The Home Office and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) monitor the scheme closely to ensure they are operating in the best interests of the UK when it comes to future recruitment. This Government recognises and values the important contribution workers from overseas make to our economy and public services throughout the UK. Legal migration must be controlled and managed through a fair system.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of existing youth mobility schemes on economic growth in each (a) country of the UK and (b) year since 2010.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) provides valuable cultural exchange opportunities for young people aged 18-30 (or 18-35 for some nationalities) to experience life in another country for up to two or three years, and to make lifelong ties and friendships overseas.

Each YMS is subject to a bilateral, reciprocal arrangement designed to offer cultural exchange. It is therefore not designed, nor intended, to be a route for economic growth or to address any specific labour shortages, although individuals participating in the scheme are able to work if they wish to do so.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to reduce the number of people waiting for enhanced DBS checks to be processed by Sussex Police Force.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and Sussex Police are operationally independent. The prompt completion of enhanced DBS checks is an important part of the safeguarding system, and I understand that several measures have already been introduced to reduce application turnaround times at Sussex Police.

These include the DBS funding additional staff to manage increases in volumes of checks referred to Sussex Police, whilst also funding overtime at the force to minimise the impact while new staff are recruited and trained. Further support is provided through the implementation of training groups and buddies to progress staff through training stages more effectively, the funding of a dedicated training/assessor, and assistance from other forces where appropriate.

The DBS is closely monitoring the performance of Sussex Police and will continue to implement support wherever possible to ensure delays are minimised.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will support investment in (a) community-led developments and (b) co-housing.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government recognises that community-led housing delivers a wide range of benefits, including additional housing supply, empowering communities, achieving high quality design and strengthening the co-operative economy.

Our recent consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework specifically included proposals designed to strengthen support for community-led housing, including changes to the size limit on community-led exception sites and a broadening of the definition of organisations able to deliver community-led housing. The consultation closed on the 24 September and officials in my department are currently analysing responses with a view to publishing a government response before the end of the year.

I am committed to working with representatives of the sector to consider how the government may support the growth of community led housing over the long term and I recently met with the Chief Executive of the Community Land Trust Network and other stakeholders to that end.

Equal pay and prize money in women’s football

Residence-based voting rights

Academic performance of Emmbrook School

McLaren Racing Formula 1 Constructors' Championship

Peace, democracy and accountability in Syria

Water quality in Sri Lanka

Role of small family farms in Somerset

Celebrating Ahmad Tea

Review into breast cancer screening

Domestic Abuse Offences

Fife Carers Centre recognition as a Carer Positive Exemplary employer

Registration scheme for short-term lets and local communities

Apprenticeships in the trades industry

Democracy and human rights in Myanmar

Merry Christmas Harrogate single

British Council International School Award for Wallace Fields Junior School in Epsom

University of St Andrews cost of living and sustainability initiatives

Bowel Cancer UK report into NHS services

Bath Young Carers

50th anniversary of Epsom Common Association

Assistance and access for disabled people at railway stations

Potential closure of post offices

Fuel Poverty Awareness Day

New University of Surrey United Nations CIFAL Centre

20 years of service at the Highway Avenue Post Office

Dr Mackay appointed Scotland's new Makar

Flood recovery framework

Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell

Renewal of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme

World Darts Championship

Sage House Dementia Hub

UN Special Rapporteur's report on atrocity crimes in Iran

Bus fare cap hike

Carers Rights Day 2024

Carers Rights Day

Emergency care

Alcester Community Shed

Ocean Oarsmen’s Atlantic Rowing Challenge

Triple negative breast cancer

Children's Grief Awareness Week 2024

Protecting wild sea birds and sand eels

In memory of Jim Farmer

Family visas

ARK at Egwood, King’s Award for Voluntary Service

Puppy smuggling bill

D-Day veteran George Chandler

Found: Presented by Dr Danny Chambers supported by Dr Neil Hudson, Vikki Slade, James MacCleary, Max Wilkinson

Found: Presented by Dr Danny Chambers supported by Dr Neil Hudson , Vikki Slade , James MacCleary , Max

Found: Presented by James MacCleary Ordered, by The House of Commons , to be Printed, 21st October