Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to part 4 of Ofcom's publication entitled, Media Bill: Ofcom's roadmap to regulation, published in February 2024, whether Ofcom plans to publish its review of audience protection measures implemented by video-on-demand service providers.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
A timeline of the steps Ofcom is taking to implement the Media Act 2024 can be found on their website at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/Media-Act-Implementation/.
Ofcom’s timeline currently advises that their report concerning the audience protection measures implemented by video-on-demand service providers will be published between July and September 2025.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of the planned increase in employer National Insurance on the cost of home-to-school transport.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
At the Autumn Budget 2024, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer took difficult decisions in order to restore economic and fiscal stability, which included increasing Employer National Insurance Contributions from April 2025. Working people’s living standards were protected by raising the National Living Wage, keeping bus fares down, and not increasing income tax, employee national insurance or VAT.
Local authorities are responsible for arranging home-to-school transport and deliver this through both in-house services and a range of external providers, as such the department holds no central assessment of Employer National Insurance Contributions. Departmental officials engage regularly with local authorities to understand the challenges they face across the services they deliver.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 5.20 of the Spring Budget 2024, published on 6 March 2024, HC 560, what her policy is on building 15 new special free schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is clear it wants to make sure all children with special educational needs and disabilities receive the support they need to achieve and thrive. That is why we have set out a clear ambition to improve inclusivity in mainstream schools, while ensuring that special schools cater for those with the most complex needs.
The window for trusts to apply to run these schools closed on 19 July. The department will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of BBFC age ratings as best practice for age labelling on streaming services.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Secretary of State has made no assessment of the adequacy of British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) age ratings on streaming services. Following implementation of the Media Act 2024, the independent regulator Ofcom is currently undertaking a review of the audience protection measures in use on on-demand programme services. This includes age ratings.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many trusts submitted grant applications for the Trust Capacity Fund in the most recent funding window.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The most recent application window for the Trust Capacity Fund opened on 1 March 2024 and closed on 25 June 2024. A total of 190 applications were received from 174 establishments, mainly trusts.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact on schools of ending the academy conversion support grant.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High and rising standards are at the heart of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and ensure every child has the best life chances.
Trusts have played, and continue to play, an important role in supporting collaboration between schools and spreading best practice in pursuit of high standards. Against a challenging fiscal inheritance the government has had to make difficult choices and ensure that limited funding is best targeted. On 1 November, we announced that we would be ending the academy conversion grant from 1 January 2025.
Voluntary conversion is a choice for schools. The department thinks that the benefits, including financial, of joining a strong structure are well understood in the sector and schools and trusts should continue to make these informed choices.
Additionally, latest published figures show 98% of academy trusts and 87% of local authority maintained schools are in cumulative surplus or breaking even. At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs for 2025/26, compared to 2024/25. This means that overall core school funding will total almost £63.9 billion next year, compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25, after technical adjustments.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of pupils with SEND who currently attend independent schools do not have an Education, Health and Care plan.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The number and proportion of pupils in independent schools with special educational needs who do not have an education, health and care plan is published annually in the statistical release ‘Special educational needs in England’. The release can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england.
The information requested can be found in the section titled ‘Pupils with special educational needs in schools’.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact on schools of ending the academy conversion support grant.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High and rising standards are at the heart of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and ensure every child has the best life chances.
Trusts have played, and continue to play, an important role in supporting collaboration between schools and spreading best practice in pursuit of high standards. Against a challenging fiscal inheritance the government has had to make difficult choices and ensure that limited funding is best targeted. On 1 November, we announced that we would be ending the academy conversion grant from 1 January 2025.
Voluntary conversion is a choice for schools. The department thinks that the benefits, including financial, of joining a strong structure are well understood in the sector and schools and trusts should continue to make these informed choices.
Additionally, latest published figures show 98% of academy trusts and 87% of local authority maintained schools are in cumulative surplus or breaking even. At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs for 2025/26, compared to 2024/25. This means that overall core school funding will total almost £63.9 billion next year, compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25, after technical adjustments.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the mean annual costs are for nurseries in England by (a) nursery class childcare settings, (b) maintained nursery schools, (c) school-based providers, (d) private group-based providers, (e) voluntary group-based providers, (f) all group-based providers and (g) all nurseries.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Data collected by the 2024 survey of childcare and early years providers has been used to estimate the average unit costs of delivering childcare per child in a setting. This data can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/673b14b8fc572967fe66a92e/Providers__finances_Evidence_from_the_2023_Survey_of_Childcare_and_Early_Years_Providers.pdf.
The department no longer publishes providers’ total costs as differences between providers largely reflect differences in the average number of children that attend them and the average number of hours that they attend for.
There are limitations to the unit cost measure because of some challenges in gathering information from providers on total costs, such as the difficulty in estimating costs shared with other settings for group-based providers that are part of a chain. Furthermore, the number of hours of care provided was estimated. As a result, caution should be applied to the interpretation of the unit cost measures.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will take steps to increase the use of Deprivation of Liberty orders.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Depriving a child of their liberty must always be a last resort in order to keep the child safe. A growing number of children in England and Wales, often with complex behavioural needs, are being deprived of their liberty through Deprivation of Liberty Orders (DOLOs) under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court, due to a lack of suitable registered placements.
The department would like to see fewer children given DOLOs and an improved quality of provision for these children. As set out in the department’s recent policy statement, ‘Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive’, we want to see new forms of provision to address the rising need for suitable, registered homes capable of depriving a child of their liberty. This provision needs to be able to respond flexibly to children’s changing and fluctuating needs, as well as provide the crucial therapeutic care and, when necessary, restriction.
The department intends, when Parliamentary time allows, to amend primary legislation to provide a statutory framework for local authorities seeking to place children in such new forms of accommodation, rather than relying on a DOLO. This new legislation will ensure that, where a secure children’s home cannot meet a child’s needs, there are clear criteria for when children may need to be deprived of liberty and mandatory review points to ensure that no child is deprived of liberty for longer than is required to keep them safe, while in high quality, registered provision.
This is part of a wider programme of work to improve outcomes for children with complex needs. This includes a programme of capital investment to support local authorities to maintain existing capacity and expand provision in both open and secure children’s homes, including for children with complex needs. This also includes the creation of 350 additional open children’s homes placements by March 2025. The recent Autumn Budget 2024 announced £90 million for the 2025/26 financial year which includes a multi-million pound package of match funding to support local authorities to build additional open children’s home placements. This will provide high quality, safe homes for some of our most vulnerable children and young people.
We have also recently commissioned independent research to understand the existing system and how we can achieve better outcomes for children who are, or are at risk of, being deprived of liberty. We aim to publish this in summer 2025. This will build on the insights gained from the research commissioned by the department from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s ‘Children with complex needs who are deprived of liberty’ report, published on 18 November, which interviewed children with complex needs who are deprived of liberty, their parents and the professionals who support them.