Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of including a target of at least 80 hours of enrichment activities in the enrichment framework.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Rushcliffe to the answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 62871.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of including a target of at least 80 hours of enrichment activities in the enrichment framework.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Rushcliffe to the answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 62871.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what capital funding streams are available to academy trusts for essential playground (a) repairs and (b) replacement.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The government has given a long-term commitment for capital investment to improve the condition of schools and colleges across England through to 2034/35. It is investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and renewal, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26.
The department supports local authorities, academy trusts and voluntary-aided school bodies, who are responsible for keeping buildings and grounds safe and well-maintained, by providing capital funding to improve the condition of their estates.
The majority of capital funding is provided through annual School Condition Allocations to large responsible bodies, such as local authorities and large multi-academy trusts, to decide how to invest in improving the condition of their estates, including playgrounds. Small or stand-alone academy trusts and sixth form colleges bid for funding for essential condition projects through the Condition Improvement Fund.
Schools also receive a small annual capital allocation, Devolved Formula Capital, to spend on their own capital priorities, such as replacing or upgrading playground equipment.
Further details about capital funding for 2025/26 are published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the value for money provided by Social Work England.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is the sponsor department for Social Work England, and as such we monitor their performance on an ongoing basis. In addition, Social Work England is regulated by the Professional Standards Authority and is meeting 17 out of the 18 standards of good regulation. The government has a statutory obligation to appoint an independent person to review the operation of Part 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which includes powers related to Social Work England. The review will collect evidence of Social Work England’s overall effectiveness as a regulator. Further details will be announced in due course, and on completion the report will be laid before Parliament. On 31 July 2025, Social Work England employed 278 staff (full-time equivalent 263).
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the performance of Social Work England.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is the sponsor department for Social Work England, and as such we monitor their performance on an ongoing basis. In addition, Social Work England is regulated by the Professional Standards Authority and is meeting 17 out of the 18 standards of good regulation. The government has a statutory obligation to appoint an independent person to review the operation of Part 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which includes powers related to Social Work England. The review will collect evidence of Social Work England’s overall effectiveness as a regulator. Further details will be announced in due course, and on completion the report will be laid before Parliament. On 31 July 2025, Social Work England employed 278 staff (full-time equivalent 263).
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the value for money of the services provided by Social Work England.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is the sponsor department for Social Work England, and as such we monitor their performance on an ongoing basis. In addition, Social Work England is regulated by the Professional Standards Authority and is meeting 17 out of the 18 standards of good regulation. The government has a statutory obligation to appoint an independent person to review the operation of Part 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which includes powers related to Social Work England. The review will collect evidence of Social Work England’s overall effectiveness as a regulator. Further details will be announced in due course, and on completion the report will be laid before Parliament. On 31 July 2025, Social Work England employed 278 staff (full-time equivalent 263).
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people are employed by Social Work England.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is the sponsor department for Social Work England, and as such we monitor their performance on an ongoing basis. In addition, Social Work England is regulated by the Professional Standards Authority and is meeting 17 out of the 18 standards of good regulation. The government has a statutory obligation to appoint an independent person to review the operation of Part 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which includes powers related to Social Work England. The review will collect evidence of Social Work England’s overall effectiveness as a regulator. Further details will be announced in due course, and on completion the report will be laid before Parliament. On 31 July 2025, Social Work England employed 278 staff (full-time equivalent 263).
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure schools have sufficient funding to retain experienced teachers alongside recruiting new staff.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
This government recognises the importance of retaining experienced teachers. We have demonstrated our commitment to supporting schools by increasing school funding by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning the core school budget will total £65.3 billion compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25.
In the 2025 spending review, the department has announced that funding for schools will further increase by £4.2 billion per year by 2028/29, compared to 2025/26. This additional funding will provide an above real terms per pupil increase in the core schools budget.
The increase for 2025/26 includes additional funding to support schools with overall costs, including the costs of the 4% schools teacher pay award and the local government services pay award in respect of support staff in 2025/26.
This follows government agreeing a 5.5% pay award for academic year 2024/25. Taken together, this means teachers and leaders will see an increase in their pay of almost 10% over two years.
For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department is also offering retention payments worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to introduce targeted retention incentives for experienced teachers in addition to those offered to early-career teachers.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Supporting our expert teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the within-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcomes is high-quality teaching. Combined with the previous year’s 5.5% award, this year’s above-inflation pay award will mean schoolteachers have seen an increase in their pay of almost 10% over two years.
The financial incentives the department offers are targeted where there is most need to recruit and retain teachers. School workforce data shows that teachers are most likely to leave within the first five years of their career. Targeted Retention Incentives are currently offered to mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools as it is vital that we retain new teachers in these priority subjects and in the schools that need them most.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Education and Skills Funding Agency monitors academy trust compliance with health and safety standards for school playgrounds.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It is the responsibility of those who manage our schools (local authorities, diocesan bodies and academy trusts) to ensure their premises operate in accordance with relevant standards and legislation. The department provides guidance on how health and safety standards should be met for their premises, including the publication titled ‘Advice on standards for school premises’, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standards-for-school-premises. The department does not monitor compliance.
The recently published ‘School estate management standards’, gathers in one place links to key policies, processes and guidance to support schools to manage their estates effectively and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-estate-management-standards. It signposts users to expert advice and good practice, including more extensive guidance and tools from the department’s ‘Good estate management for schools’ manual, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/good-estate-management-for-schools, and the Health and Safety Executive here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/education/index.htm.
To note, the Education and Skills Funding Agency became part of the Department for Education in April 2025.