Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to monitor the concentrations of children's homes in certain parts of the country.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ofsted annually publishes information on the location of children's homes as part of its role in the registration and inspection of children's homes. The latest information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childrens-social-care-in-england-2026/main-findings-childrens-social-care-in-england-2026.
The department takes an active role as steward of the children's social care placements system to ensure children can access the right homes, in the right places, to meet their needs.
Regional Care Cooperatives (RCCs) are being established to shape the market by pooling demand and acting to bring together local authorities, health partners and youth justice services to plan future need, commission placements and create new care provision where needed.
This shifts the system away from reactive purchasing and towards long-term planning, larger scale commercial agreements and increasing RCC led provision, achieving better value for money and outcomes for children in care.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the consistency in usage of fostering for adoption placements by local authorities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The national foster carer recruitment campaign focuses on encouraging people to consider fostering who may not otherwise have thought about it. The campaign does not include specific steps aimed at promoting fostering for adoption, but it has engaged people with lived experience, including those who have fostered and gone on to adopt, to help inform its messaging.
Local authorities and fostering hubs have been at the heart of developing the national campaign. We have worked closely with them to strike the right balance between consistent national messaging and the flexibility to tailor local activity to their communities, including in relation to fostering for adoption. The national campaign page is available at: https://fostering.campaign.gov.uk/.
The department continues to work with the sector to ensure prospective foster carers understand the full range of fostering options available, including fostering for adoption, as part of its wider support for the fostering system.
Through Adoption England, we are delivering targeted activity to promote and improve Early Permanence practice. This includes the You Can Adopt campaign, which features stories of families who have adopted through early permanence.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking with local authorities to promote fostering for adoption as part of the national foster carer recruitment campaign.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The national foster carer recruitment campaign focuses on encouraging people to consider fostering who may not otherwise have thought about it. The campaign does not include specific steps aimed at promoting fostering for adoption, but it has engaged people with lived experience, including those who have fostered and gone on to adopt, to help inform its messaging.
Local authorities and fostering hubs have been at the heart of developing the national campaign. We have worked closely with them to strike the right balance between consistent national messaging and the flexibility to tailor local activity to their communities, including in relation to fostering for adoption. The national campaign page is available at: https://fostering.campaign.gov.uk/.
The department continues to work with the sector to ensure prospective foster carers understand the full range of fostering options available, including fostering for adoption, as part of its wider support for the fostering system.
Through Adoption England, we are delivering targeted activity to promote and improve Early Permanence practice. This includes the You Can Adopt campaign, which features stories of families who have adopted through early permanence.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of regulations on new children's homes as enforced by Ofsted and local authorities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Every child deserves a safe, stable and high-quality home that meets their needs.
New children’s homes are subject to the same regulatory requirements as existing homes, meaning they must register with Ofsted and meet the relevant standards. Ofsted inspect all children’s homes at least once annually against the Social Care Common Inspection Framework. Local authorities and providers are responsible for ensuring placements are suitable and Ofsted can take action where requirements are not met.
The department keeps the adequacy of the regulatory framework under regular review and we are delivering significant reforms to children’s social care, including strengthening Ofsted’s enforcement powers. We have also commissioned an expert-led review of professional development for the children’s homes workforce, which will inform the practice of new department-funded children’s homes and any future changes to standards.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking with the Department of Health and Social Care to raise awareness of diabetes distress amongst pastoral staff in schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. In doing so, schools must have regard to the 'supporting pupils with medical conditions at school' statutory guidance, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.
The governing body should ensure that sufficient staff have received suitable training and are competent before they take on responsibility to support children with medical conditions. They should also ensure that any members of school staff who provide support to pupils with medical conditions are able to access information and other teaching support materials as needed. This includes non-teaching staff such as pastoral staff.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether there are plans to make first aid training a mandatory component of the national curriculum.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All state funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the health education set out in the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.
The statutory RSHE guidance includes basic first aid for primary school children, for example dealing with common injuries, such as head injuries. Pupils in secondary schools are taught further first aid, for example how to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the purpose of defibrillators and how to use them.
Schools have autonomy to work with external providers, including the British Heart Foundation, and to use teaching resources from Oak National Academy, to deliver specific first aid teaching, if they think it is topical or there is particular local relevance.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent meetings her Department has had with victims of forced adoptions in England.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has met with members of the Movement for an Adoption Apology, and the Adult Adoptee Movement, to hear first hand the experiences of those affected by historical adoption practices. Their testimonies and insights are vital, and they are helping to shape the government’s ongoing work in this area. The department continues to engage proactively with a range of organisations to understand fully the implications of past practice and to consider the most appropriate steps forward.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of salary differences between college lecturers and school teachers on recruitment to further education teaching posts for (a) construction and (b) electrical engineering courses.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Further education (FE) colleges are responsible for setting and negotiating staff pay and terms and conditions within colleges.
The government recognises that colleges are facing recruitment challenges in construction and engineering. That is why our targeted retention incentive scheme gives eligible early career college teachers in priority subjects, including building and construction and engineering, up to £6,000 after tax annually. In the 2024/25 academic year, almost 6,000 teachers received payments.
In addition, we have announced that areas with Local Skills Improvement Plans will benefit from £20 million to form partnerships between FE providers and construction employers. This will help to build links between colleges and industry and boost the number of teachers with construction experience in FE.
Across the spending review period, we will provide £1.2 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028/2029. This significant investment will ensure there is increased funding to colleges and other 16 to19 providers to enable the recruitment and retention of expert teachers in high value subject areas, and interventions to retain top teaching talent.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure local authorities use the foster to adopt pathway for children in care.
Answered by Janet Daby
Fostering to adopt, also known as early permanence, is a crucial way to offer children stability at a very early stage, preventing multiple moves in the care system. The department has provided funding of £250,000 in 2025/26 for Adoption England to promote this practice and it is encouraging that the number and proportion of early permanence placements has increased from 14% (400) in 2020/21 to 23% (676) in 2023/24. This is avoiding delays and minimising disruption for more children, allowing them to bond with their adoptive family at an earlier stage. Adoption England have also published national standards in this area. The purpose is to promote and shape effective early permanence practice in all adoption agencies across the country to ensure families receive a consistent and high-quality approach no matter where they live, and enable more children to benefit from early permanence placements.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
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 the foster to adopt pathway for (a) adopted children and (b) the stability of adoptive placements.
Answered by Janet Daby
Fostering to adopt, also known as early permanence, is a crucial way to offer children stability at a very early stage, preventing multiple moves in the care system. The department has provided funding of £250,000 in 2025/26 for Adoption England to promote this practice and it is encouraging that the number and proportion of early permanence placements has increased from 14% (400) in 2020/21 to 23% (676) in 2023/24. This is avoiding delays and minimising disruption for more children, allowing them to bond with their adoptive family at an earlier stage. Adoption England have also published national standards in this area. The purpose is to promote and shape effective early permanence practice in all adoption agencies across the country to ensure families receive a consistent and high-quality approach no matter where they live, and enable more children to benefit from early permanence placements.