Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether training in the workplace will be a condition of support under the growth and skills levy.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government’s first mission is to kickstart economic growth. We know that skills gaps are holding back business growth and that we need to support employers to invest in skills training. Our new levy-funded growth and skills offer will introduce greater flexibility to employers and learners in England, creating routes into good, skilled jobs in growing industries, aligned with the government’s industrial strategy.
The new training offer will include shorter duration apprenticeships. From August 2025, subject to the legislative timetable, the minimum duration of an apprenticeship will be reduced to eight months. This change means apprentices will be able to achieve occupational competence more quickly, where appropriate.
The department will also introduce foundation apprenticeships for young people, a work-based offer providing high-quality progression pathways into further work-based training and employment, including occupationally specific apprenticeships.
These are the first steps in expanding the apprenticeships offer into a wider levy-funded growth and skills offer that works better for employers, individuals and the wider economy. The government has established Skills England to form a coherent national picture of skills gaps across all sectors and to help shape the technical education system so that it is responsive to skills needs. This will include advising on priorities for the new growth and skills offer.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the growth and skills levy will be reserved for apprenticeship training.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government’s first mission is to kickstart economic growth. We know that skills gaps are holding back business growth and that we need to support employers to invest in skills training. Our new levy-funded growth and skills offer will introduce greater flexibility to employers and learners in England, creating routes into good, skilled jobs in growing industries, aligned with the government’s industrial strategy.
The new training offer will include shorter duration apprenticeships. From August 2025, subject to the legislative timetable, the minimum duration of an apprenticeship will be reduced to eight months. This change means apprentices will be able to achieve occupational competence more quickly, where appropriate.
The department will also introduce foundation apprenticeships for young people, a work-based offer providing high-quality progression pathways into further work-based training and employment, including occupationally specific apprenticeships.
These are the first steps in expanding the apprenticeships offer into a wider levy-funded growth and skills offer that works better for employers, individuals and the wider economy. The government has established Skills England to form a coherent national picture of skills gaps across all sectors and to help shape the technical education system so that it is responsive to skills needs. This will include advising on priorities for the new growth and skills offer.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps she has taken to raise awareness of apprenticeships in (a) rural and (b) remote areas.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government has a driving mission to break down barriers to opportunity and to grow the economy.
The department continues to raise awareness of the benefits of apprenticeships across the country, including in rural areas. This includes promoting apprenticeships to young people, adults and employers through the Skills for Life campaign. The department also supports the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network, a network of over 2,000 volunteer employers and former and current apprentices, who volunteer their time to inform and inspire the next generation of apprentices and apprentice employers.
The department is transforming career opportunities and advice to increase awareness of the range of high-quality options available to young people, including apprenticeships.
The department has committed to guarantee two weeks’ worth of work experience for every young person, as well as to establish a national jobs and careers service to support people into successful long-term employment.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make a comparative assessment of trends in the levels of academic attainment from children in schools that (a) have and (b) have not banned smartphones in the last 12 months.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones and other smart technology with similar functionality to mobile phones throughout the school day, including during lessons, the time between lessons, breaktimes and lunchtime, as set out in the ‘Mobile phones in schools’ guidance 2024. The department expects all schools to take steps in line with this guidance to ensure mobile phones do not disrupt pupils’ learning.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of exclusions from schools in South Holland and the Deepings constituency in the (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24 academic years.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Information on suspensions and permanent exclusions is published at local authority level in the ‘Suspension and permanent exclusion in England’ statistics publication. The publication is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/suspensions-and-permanent-exclusions-in-england/2022-23.
The number and rates of suspensions and permanent exclusions in Lincolnshire for the 2022/23 academic year can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/f3101754-5b43-45c4-f1c2-08dd5cc661f7.
The number and rates of suspensions and permanent exclusions in Lincolnshire for the autumn term 2023/24 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/3293a161-d7dd-414d-0e59-08dd5ccbf23a. Data for the full 2023/24 academic year will be published in July 2025.
Suspensions and permanent exclusions data is also published at school level. This can be combined with information from ‘Get Information About School’ (GIAS) to identify Parliamentary constituency. GIAS currently reflects the changes made following the general election parliamentary constituency changes. GIAS is available at the following link: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria will be used to determine how the new growth and skills levy may be spent; and whether a criteria will be published.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government’s first mission is to kickstart economic growth. We know that skills gaps are holding back business growth and that we need to support employers to invest in skills training. Our new levy-funded growth and skills offer will introduce greater flexibility to employers and learners in England, creating routes into good, skilled jobs in growing industries, aligned with the government’s industrial strategy.
The new training offer will include shorter duration apprenticeships. From August 2025, subject to the legislative timetable, the minimum duration of an apprenticeship will be reduced to eight months. This change means apprentices will be able to achieve occupational competence more quickly, where appropriate.
The department will also introduce foundation apprenticeships for young people, a work-based offer providing high-quality progression pathways into further work-based training and employment, including occupationally specific apprenticeships.
In response to feedback from employers and learners, the department has already introduced flexibilities for employers to the English and mathematics requirements for adult apprentices.
These are the first steps in expanding the apprenticeships offer into a wider levy-funded growth and skills offer that works better for employers, individuals and the wider economy. The government has established Skills England to form a coherent national picture of skills gaps across all sectors and to help shape the technical education system so that it is responsive to skills needs. This will include advising on priorities for the new growth and skills offer.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timetable is for establishing Skills England on a statutory basis.
Answered by Janet Daby
Skills England is already operational in shadow form and the government intends for it to be established as an executive agency soon. This model of arm’s length body provides a strong fit for Skills England as it can be operationalised quickly and provides independence, while ensuring sufficient proximity to the department, so that Skills England can inform decisions on skills policy and delivery.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of school uniform costs on families in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
I refer the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings to the answer of 21 March 2025 to Question 38113.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of food procured by her Department is sourced in the UK.
Answered by Janet Daby
To date the government has not held information on where publicly procured food is sourced from.
Starting right away, for the first time ever, this government will review the food currently bought in the public sector to determine the standards that it is meeting, where it is bought from, and look to introduce monitoring for transparency and accountability within those supply chains to ultimately get the best food for the consumer.
This work will be a significant first step to inform any future changes to public sector catering contracts.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve support for care leavers in rural areas.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department knows that care leavers have some of the worst outcomes in society and we are committed to ensuring that all young people leaving care, irrespective of where they live, have stable homes, access to health services, support to build lifelong loving relationships, and are engaged in education, employment and training.
While many of the issues that care leavers face will be common to all young people leaving care, the department knows that those who live in rural areas can face additional challenges, such as fewer employment opportunities, limited public transport and increased risk of loneliness and isolation, which can make their transition to independence more difficult.
All local authorities are required to publish their ‘local offer’ for care leavers, which provides information about the statutory support that all care leavers are entitled to, and any discretionary services the local authority provides, to support care leavers in their transition to adulthood. Each local authority’s local offer should reflect the particular circumstances faced by its care leavers, including those that arise due to the fact that they live in a rural location.
The department is strengthening the local offer through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to drive forward our manifesto commitments on children’s social care. The Bill will provide ‘Staying close support’ across the country, including in rural areas, for care leavers up to the age of 25. Staying close will increase support for young people leaving residential care through move-on accommodation and ongoing support from a keyworker.
The Bill will also require each local authority to publish the arrangements it has in place to support and assist care leavers, particularly around accommodation and joint working between local authority care leaver and housing teams.
Local housing authorities owe various duties to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. In certain circumstances local housing authorities have a duty to secure settled accommodation for them, but this is only the case where, in addition to other criteria, the person is not found to have become homeless intentionally. Through the Bill, we are removing intentional homelessness decisions for eligible care leavers to further strengthen support for this vulnerable cohort.