Oral Answers to Questions

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Monday 28th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Morgan]

This Government are committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity so that every child can succeed and thrive. The Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby) who is responsible for this area, has committed in the House to £50 million of funding for this programme. She will have heard the question and will respond in due course.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Neil O’Brien (Harborough, Oadby and Wigston) (Con)]

Having told this House in answer to an urgent question from the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) that the adoption and special guardianship support fund would continue, Ministers somehow did not manage to mention that the funding per child would be cut by 40%. They then slipped that out during recess. Meanwhile, Ministers will spend £90 million on advertising. Can they at least agree to publish the impact assessment on cutting what is available from this fund?

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[Bridget Phillipson]

The right hon. Gentleman brings real expertise to this issue, and I know that he also cares deeply about ensuring that we get the system right for children with SEND. Our allocations were made on the basis of the funding formulas that were already in place. We intend to look carefully at all these matters as part of our wider reform of the SEND system, but, as the right hon. Gentleman will appreciate, they are complex, and it is important for any change to be made in a way that is responsible and focused on better outcomes for children.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Select Committee.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

The crisis in the SEND system is a source of distress for parents and children who have to fight far too hard for support, and for professionals working in local authorities and schools who face an extremely challenging funding situation. Does the Secretary of State agree that in this context blaming parents and GPs for the increase in the number of SEND diagnoses, as some Reform party politicians have done in recent days, is both inaccurate and insulting, and that solving the SEND crisis requires listening to parents and professionals rather than denigrating them?

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[Janet Daby]

Too many young people have been locked out of accessing apprenticeship opportunities, and apprenticeship starts by young people under 25 fell by almost 40% between 2015-16 and 2023-24 under the previous Government. We are developing new foundation apprenticeships to give more young people a foot in the door at the start of their working lives.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Neil O’Brien (Harborough, Oadby and Wigston) (Con)]

The British Chambers of Commerce has said that the lack of clarity around the future of the apprenticeship levy is creating uncertainty among businesses, and is “worrying and destabilising”. Employers in universities are worried about plans to cut higher apprenticeships, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants has said that plans to axe level 7 apprenticeships will lead to work leaving the UK altogether. Will Ministers agree to the proposal from the Campaign for Learning for a skills immigration worker test to be carried out before any cuts are made to level 7 apprenticeships, so that we do not go from simply investing in British workers to just importing workers from other countries?

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[Stephen Morgan]

I know my hon. Friend is a real champion of these issues. We will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults, as well as open new Young Futures hubs, which will provide support for children and young people across the country. The Department also provides a range of guidance and resources on promoting and supporting pupils’ mental health and wellbeing, and I thank him for his question.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

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[Catherine McKinnell]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I can save the Minister. That question is about Opposition policy, which is not her responsibility.

[Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

I am deeply concerned about the funding of Howden-le-Wear primary school in my constituency. After years of real-terms cuts, it is now making four teaching assistants redundant. I will write to the Minister on that to seek her support, but the elephant in the room is that the pay of the chief executive of the multi-academy trust of which it is a member has increased £30,000 over the last two years, taking it to £275,000. That is the equivalent of 12 teaching assistants. Which does she think would be better: one CEO or 12 teaching assistants?

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[Catherine McKinnell]

I absolutely recognise the challenges Prudhoe community high school is facing, in particular those due to sit their GCSE and A-level exams. I wish good luck to them and to all young people who over the Easter holidays have been working very hard towards their exams. Officials have been working closely with the school to ensure they are accommodated in the right way, but my hon. Friend raises a really important point about how a school built eight years ago is crumbling, and indeed all the schools across the country that are crumbling, after 14 years of a Tory Government that did not prioritise education.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

[Laura Trott (Sevenoaks) (Con)]

Not only has the Education Secretary introduced a Bill to this place that will destroy standards in English schools, but now she has broken her promises on national insurance contributions compensation and is leaving schools in an impossible funding situation. Every MP has heard from headteachers who are stressed beyond belief at how to manage their funding. Can the Secretary of State guarantee that worried headteachers up and down the country will not have to make teachers redundant because of her broken promises: yes or no?

[Catherine McKinnell]

The right hon. Lady has a firmer grip on anonymous briefings in the papers than on the details of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. She is more focused on petty political games in Westminster than on improving the lives of children and families up and down the country. The Bill will get qualified teachers in front of classrooms. It will teach a cutting-edge curriculum. It will drive down the costs of sending children to school. It will provide breakfast clubs for children who need them. It will stop vulnerable children falling through the cracks. It is a single most important piece of child protection legislation in a generation. The Conservatives voted against it. They can snipe from the sidelines; we will get on with delivering change.

[Mr Speaker]

Let us have another marathon runner to ask the next question.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

6. What steps she is taking to help increase the number of teachers trained in the provision of SEND education.

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[Bridget Phillipson]

In setting out the Government’s position in the statement on Tuesday I was very clear that we accepted the Supreme Court judgment, and that is the right basis on which things ought to be taken forward. Through the commencement regulations, we have given tougher powers to the regulator. We have also reformed the regulator since July, with a much sharper focus on financial sustainability—something that I know is important to Members across the House.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister, Neil O’Brien.

[Neil O’Brien (Harborough, Oadby and Wigston) (Con)]

At the start of January, the Secretary of State said that she needed more time to consider the overseas funding transparency measures in our freedom of speech legislation. It is now nearly May. In the meantime, there have been several concerning the reports in the press about UK universities working with Chinese institutions that are designated as high risk and have ties to their defence and security apparatus. This legislation was passed in 2023. When will the Secretary of State reach a decision?

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[Bridget Phillipson]

I understand my hon. Friend’s concern. We are focused on putting universities on a firm footing. As the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby), said, we will set out further reforms in the summer so that higher education delivers for students and the taxpayer. We had to make tough decisions to increase tuition fee limits in line with inflation for the next academic year, but I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford East (Imran Hussain) recognises, as I do, the enormous economic value of universities in towns and cities right across our country. That is why we have reformed the regulator: to put universities on a much firmer footing for the future.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

[Laura Trott (Sevenoaks) (Con)]

Despite the Education Secretary’s best attempts to rewrite history, we Conservatives did not need a court to tell us that biological sex was real. She has on her desk the draft guidance for schools on gender questioning, and the final Cass report was published a year ago. If she is serious about protecting women and girls, why has she not published the guidance?

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[Gregor Poynton (Livingston) (Lab)]

T2. The exam season is well under way in Scotland, and I think the whole House will join me in wishing pupils in Livingston and across Scotland luck over the coming weeks, and in thanking teachers for preparing during the academic year. Closing the attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils in Scotland was the SNP Government’s “defining mission”, but the latest statistics show that it is increasing year on year, and 1,351 pupils are leaving Scottish schools without any qualifications at all—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. We have other Members to get in as well. I call the Secretary of State.

[Bridget Phillipson]

I join my hon. Friend in sending my best wishes to children in Scotland and across the UK as their exams get under way and thanking the brilliant staff working hard to support them. He is of course right about the many failures under the hopeless SNP Administration. Scotland deserves a new direction and a better education system and that will only come with Labour.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

Last year the Secretary of State said:

“There can be no goal more important and more urgent than extending opportunities to our most vulnerable children”.—[Official Report, 24 July 2024; Vol. 752, c. 700.]

Actions speak louder than words, so will she commit to reversing her 40% cut to the grants available through the adoption and special guardianship support fund so that vulnerable children are not made to pay the price for the Conservatives’ financial mess?

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[Stephen Morgan]

I know that my hon. Friend is a huge champion for children in his constituency. This child-centred Government want to break down the barriers to opportunity and ensure that every child gets the best start in life. That is why we are introducing a number of initiatives through our plan for change, including good-quality early education, increasing school-based nurseries and investing in other initiatives that support a child’s development.

[Mr Speaker]

Final question.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

What steps will be taken to ensure that there are therapeutic and counselling opportunities in all primary schools across the United Kingdom to ensure the earliest of interventions for pupils who could struggle in their education?