Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to publish an annual assessment of care leavers' experiences of education, training and employment destinations, housing status and criminal justice involvement.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department knows care leavers have some of the worst long-term life outcomes in society. We are determined to address this so that all care leavers have support to build enduring relationships and stable homes.
Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, we will roll out the Staying Close programme to support care leavers up to the age of 25; require each local authority to publish information about its arrangements for supporting care leavers’ transition to adulthood; change housing legislation so that care leavers cannot be found intentionally homeless; and introduce new corporate parenting responsibilities for government departments and relevant public bodies.
The government collects national data on care leavers through the Children Looked After in England including adoptions dataset. This is published annually, and provides information on accommodation, education, training and employment and is used to monitor outcomes and inform policy development and the targeting of support for children and young people leaving care nationally.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has a strategy for reducing inequalities experienced by care-experienced children and young people.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department knows care leavers have some of the worst long-term life outcomes in society. We are determined to address this so that all care leavers have support to build enduring relationships and stable homes.
Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, we will roll out the Staying Close programme to support care leavers up to the age of 25; require each local authority to publish information about its arrangements for supporting care leavers’ transition to adulthood; change housing legislation so that care leavers cannot be found intentionally homeless; and introduce new corporate parenting responsibilities for government departments and relevant public bodies.
The government collects national data on care leavers through the Children Looked After in England including adoptions dataset. This is published annually, and provides information on accommodation, education, training and employment and is used to monitor outcomes and inform policy development and the targeting of support for children and young people leaving care nationally.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to engage with the (a) National Association of Teachers of Religious Education and (b) Religious Education Council on the RE curriculum.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The purpose of teaching on religious education (RE) is to help pupils understand the wide range of religions and beliefs, including non-religious beliefs, that exist in our country and the wider world. A consequence of high-quality teaching can be the development of respect, tolerance and community cohesion, built through a greater understanding of different viewpoints. The department has previously issued guidance on the teaching of RE which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/religious-education-guidance-in-english-schools-non-statutory-guidance-2010.
The government is grateful to Vanessa Ogden for her work leading the sector to come together on developing a draft RE curriculum. The Curriculum and Assessment Review recommended that government should explore including RE in the national curriculum, contingent on sector consensus. We continue to engage with the sector, including the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education and the Religious Education Council.
More widely, our reforms to the curriculum will support pupils’ understanding of mutual tolerance and respect.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department provides guidance to schools to use religious education to promote respect, tolerance, and community cohesion.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The purpose of teaching on religious education (RE) is to help pupils understand the wide range of religions and beliefs, including non-religious beliefs, that exist in our country and the wider world. A consequence of high-quality teaching can be the development of respect, tolerance and community cohesion, built through a greater understanding of different viewpoints. The department has previously issued guidance on the teaching of RE which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/religious-education-guidance-in-english-schools-non-statutory-guidance-2010.
The government is grateful to Vanessa Ogden for her work leading the sector to come together on developing a draft RE curriculum. The Curriculum and Assessment Review recommended that government should explore including RE in the national curriculum, contingent on sector consensus. We continue to engage with the sector, including the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education and the Religious Education Council.
More widely, our reforms to the curriculum will support pupils’ understanding of mutual tolerance and respect.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to implement Recommendation 7 in the Module 2 Report of the Covid-19 Inquiry, published on 20 November 2025.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government does not intend to introduce legislation to make Child’s Rights Impact Assessments a statutory requirement at this time.
The department is working closely with Cabinet Office and other government departments to strengthen the consideration of children and young people’s interests within overall risk planning, including in relation to pandemics and other emergencies.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason initial teacher training bursaries have been withdrawn for (a) Music, (b) Art & Design and (c) Religious Education for the 2026–27 financial year.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Initial teacher training (ITT) bursaries are offered to incentivise more applications to ITT courses. As such, we review bursaries annually to take account of several factors, including recruitment to date, forecast economic conditions, and teacher need in each subject. The purpose of the scheme is to target resources to where the evidence shows need is highest.
Between the 2023/24 and 2025/26 academic years, postgraduate ITT recruitment increased by 55% in music, 119% in art and design and 71% in religious education, amongst the largest increases across all subjects. Partly due to this improved recruitment and higher retention of existing teachers, the need for new postgraduate trainee teachers in the 2026/27 academic year has reduced in all three subjects.
The department will continue to assess the need for trainee teachers across all subjects and will review the bursaries on offer accordingly, prior to announcing the bursary offer for the 2027/28 academic year this autumn.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to ensure that Initial Teacher Training equips new teachers to deliver adaptive teaching for children with speech and language challenges.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Initial teacher training (ITT) courses must encompass the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF) in full. The ITTECF sets out a minimum entitlement to training for all new teachers and, following a review, now contains significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including pupils with speech and language needs.
ITT providers must also ensure that their courses enable trainee teachers to meet the Teachers’ Standards, to be recommended for Qualified Teacher Status. The Teachers’ Standards set clear expectations that teachers must understand the needs of all pupils, which includes those with speech and language challenges.
The department recognises the importance of continuous improvement and will be undertaking a full review of the Early Career Teacher Entitlement, scheduled for 2027. This will focus on strengthening support for new teachers in meeting the needs of pupils with SEND and ensuring high-quality training provision.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will commission an analysis of areas with the highest levels of prosecutions for truancy, to examine the contributing social, economic, and institutional factors, to help inform evidence-based policy responses.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department conducts analysis of data received via its Parental Responsibility Measures for Attendance data collection, which provides information on the national use of legal interventions to improve school attendance, including prosecutions, by local authority. We will continue to use the results of this data analysis to inform conversations with local authorities on addressing barriers to attendance, using a ’support first’ approach to pupils’ attendance. The department’s guidance is clear that prosecutions should only be used as a last resort, where all other routes have been exhausted or deemed inappropriate in the circumstances of the individual case.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will take steps to help to minimise the potential impact on mothers who are prosecuted for their child’s truancy from school.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Absence is one of the biggest barriers to success for children and the government is committed to improving attendance through a support first approach.
The Working Together to Improve School Attendance statutory guidance sets out clear expectations for schools, trusts, local authorities to work collaboratively with families to identify and address the underlying reasons for non‑attendance, and put in place support. This guidance can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.
Prosecution is a last resort, used only where support has been exhausted or not engaged with. In most instances, absences linked to illness, disability, mental health or special education needs should be authorised and not lead to prosecution. The decision to prosecute rests solely with the local authority, but paragraph 164 of the guidance sets out factors for their consideration, including public interest tests and equalities considerations.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her department has made of the potential impact on mothers who are prosecuted for their child’s truancy from school.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Absence is one of the biggest barriers to success for children and the government is committed to improving attendance through a support first approach.
The Working Together to Improve School Attendance statutory guidance sets out clear expectations for schools, trusts, local authorities to work collaboratively with families to identify and address the underlying reasons for non‑attendance, and put in place support. This guidance can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.
Prosecution is a last resort, used only where support has been exhausted or not engaged with. In most instances, absences linked to illness, disability, mental health or special education needs should be authorised and not lead to prosecution. The decision to prosecute rests solely with the local authority, but paragraph 164 of the guidance sets out factors for their consideration, including public interest tests and equalities considerations.