Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to extend mental health education in schools to (a) colleges and (b) post-16 institutions.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department has made health education compulsory in all state-funded schools, helping pupils to make good decisions about their health and wellbeing and seek support when needed.
While there is no national curriculum in post-16, the government encourages a whole-institution approach to mental health and wellbeing. This includes supporting the Association of Colleges in their goal for 100% sign-up to their Mental Health Charter and to align it with the University Mental Health Charter.
All further education (FE) colleges are funded to provide health and wellbeing tuition as part of their extra-curricular personal development activities. Many FE colleges have counselling services providing mental health support and 41% of learners in post-16 institutions are now covered by NHS-funded mental health support teams.
The government is committed to continuing the higher education (HE) Mental Health Implementation Taskforce. The Taskforce includes students, parents, mental health experts and the HE sector, and the government will soon appoint a new HE Student Support Champion as chair.
Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support older people to remain in work.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government knows that work helps everyone play active and fulfilling roles in society while building financial security for retirement. The Department is therefore committed to supporting older workers through a wide-ranging strategy that promotes inclusion, flexibility, and progression. This includes promoting age-inclusive practices, supporting workplace health, policy and service reform and removing age related barriers to employment. The Department has also signed up to and actively promotes the Age-Friendly Employer Pledge, encouraging employers to adopt flexible working, age-positive hiring, and career development.
Our Jobs and Careers service will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and help them progress in work or increase their earnings. The Jobs and Careers Service will incorporate principles of accessibility and inclusivity, acknowledging diverse support needs, including those of older individuals.
The Government also acknowledges the key role employers play in helping older individuals to remain in the workforce, and the importance of embracing policies conducive to this support. In recognition of employer's vital role, we have asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead an independent ‘Keep Britain Working’ review. This review is considering recommendations to support and enable employers to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces. This includes the perspectives of older people themselves, as well as input from organisations like the Centre for Ageing Better. Recommendations are expected in autumn 2025.
Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the causes of economic inactivity related to poor health.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
There were 2.8m people who were economically inactive with long-term sickness as their main reason in the UK in April to June 2025.1 This group accounts for 30.7% of the total inactive population and is the most common reason given for inactivity; this percentage has increased by 5.6 percentage points since December to February 2020 but had been increasing since before the pandemic. The largest absolute increases have been for women, people with a long-term mental health condition and proportionately for people aged 18 to 34.2
At present, there is no conclusive evidence on the causes of poor health related economic inactivity. A range of complex and interacting factors could be driving the rise in economic inactivity due to long-term sickness including NHS waiting lists3,4, long COVID5 and changes in the demographics6 and health of the population7,8,9.
1 A01: Summary of labour market statistics - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
2 The employment of disabled people 2024 - GOV.UK
5 Self-reported long COVID and labour market outcomes, UK: 2022 - Office for National Statistics
6 Population changes and economic inactivity trends, UK: 2019 to 2026 - Office for National Statistics
9 What we know about the UK’s working-age health challenge - The Health Foundation
Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has any plans to reopen Senior Mental Health Lead training grants.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The government has committed to expand coverage of mental health support teams (MHSTs) to cover every school, and one of the functions of an MHST is to support mental health leads to introduce or develop a whole school or college approach in their setting.
Training grants for mental health leads in education settings were available from October 2021 until December 2024.
Demand for training grants fell in the final months of the scheme and education staff surveys identified a different need, for practical resources. The department now provides a mental health lead resource hub, a targeted support toolkit for schools and colleges.
There are no plans to re-open the scheme providing mental health lead training grants.
Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to improve (a) transparency and (b) awareness of health support in workplaces.
Answered by Justin Madders
To support health in the workplace, the landmark Employment Rights Bill will boost access to Statutory Sick Pay and make it more likely that flexible working requests are accepted. We have published our Plan for Small Businesses, which provides positive and practical support to small and medium size businesses and employers across the UK.
In recognition of employers’ vital role in workplace health, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade have commissioned the Keep Britain Working independent review, led by Sir Charlie Mayfield, who is expected to produce a final report with recommendations in autumn 2025.
Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to incentivise businesses to support the health of their workforce.
Answered by Justin Madders
To support health in the workplace, the landmark Employment Rights Bill will boost access to Statutory Sick Pay and make it more likely that flexible working requests are accepted. We have published our Plan for Small Businesses, which provides positive and practical support to small and medium size businesses and employers across the UK.
In recognition of employers’ vital role in workplace health, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade have commissioned the Keep Britain Working independent review, led by Sir Charlie Mayfield, who is expected to produce a final report with recommendations in autumn 2025.
Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to ensure SMEs can access (a) robust and (b) high-quality mental health training for staff.
Answered by Justin Madders
To support health in the workplace, the landmark Employment Rights Bill will boost access to Statutory Sick Pay and make it more likely that flexible working requests are accepted. We have published our Plan for Small Businesses, which provides positive and practical support to small and medium size businesses and employers across the UK.
In recognition of employers’ vital role in workplace health, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade have commissioned the Keep Britain Working independent review, led by Sir Charlie Mayfield, who is expected to produce a final report with recommendations in autumn 2025.
Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to implement recommendation 1 of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel national review into safeguarding children with disabilities and complex needs in residential settings, published in October 2022.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s recommendations for safeguarding children with disabilities and complex health needs in residential settings were set out in their phase 2 report published in April 2023. Recommendation 1 concerned the provision of specialist non-instructed advocacy services.
The department is determined to improve the provision of advocacy services. We will publish updated statutory guidance on the provision of effective advocacy services under the Children Act 1989 and updated national standards for children’s advocacy services, later this year. The latter will include a new standard on non-instructed advocacy for children with complex needs and learning disabilities and new requirements for advocacy services in the safeguarding of children.
The government set out this information, including its commitment to publishing revised National Standards on Children’s Advocacy, in the report ‘Tackling child sexual abuse: progress update’ which was published on 8 April 2025 and is available on the government’s website.
Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the Growth and Skills Levy effectively reduces skills gaps identified by Skills England.
Answered by Janet Daby
I refer the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood to the answer of 28 March 2025 to Question 39389.
Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of funding through the growth and skills levy will employers be able to spend on non-apprenticeship training.
Answered by Janet Daby
I refer the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood to the answer of 7 April 2025 to Question 40142.