Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of school career services in (a) highlighting and (b) encouraging apprenticeships.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has introduced a ladder of support and intervention, as set out in our careers statutory guidance, to support compliance with the provider access legislation which requires schools to offer pupils encounters with providers of technical education and apprenticeships. We will continue to monitor compliance, the support in place and the impact on young people.
We will also continue to monitor progress against the Gatsby Benchmarks, especially benchmarks 5, 6 and 7 which are relevant for highlighting and encouraging apprenticeships take-up.
Alongside this, the Careers and Enterprise Company’s (CEC) future skills questionnaire shows a move from 38% understanding of apprenticeships in year 7 to 88% by year 13.
There are multiple resources available to schools and young people to highlight and encourage apprenticeships participation:
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of teacher's awareness of young people's caring responsibilities.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Young carers have been a hidden cohort for too long. They provide essential care and support to their loved ones, often stepping up in challenging situations at the expense of their own development and wellbeing.
The department is using school census data to shine a light on young carers’ attendance, suspensions and exclusions, and is aiming to publish data on their educational progress and attainment this autumn. This will ensure they receive tailored support and do not miss out on vital educational opportunities.
The statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ requires designated safeguarding leads to undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills to carry out their role. This includes having a good understanding of, and alertness to, the needs of young carers to identify their needs.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the challenges faced by young carers in balancing their caring responsibilities with (a) education and (b) training.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Young carers have been a hidden cohort for too long. They provide essential care and support to their loved ones, often stepping up in challenging situations at the expense of their own development and wellbeing.
The department is using school census data to shine a light on young carers’ attendance, suspensions and exclusions, and is aiming to publish data on their educational progress and attainment this autumn. This will ensure they receive tailored support and do not miss out on vital educational opportunities.
The statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ requires designated safeguarding leads to undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills to carry out their role. This includes having a good understanding of, and alertness to, the needs of young carers to identify their needs.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of AI companion software on (a) children's mental health, (b) children's social skills and (c) trends in the level of children's loneliness.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is working to build evidence of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for education, both on the opportunities and the risks. We are supporting the sector to use AI safely.
We are funding the development of global guidelines for the safe and effective use of generative AI in education, in partnership with the OECD and, in January 2025, we announced that leading global tech firms had committed to making AI tools for education safer by design. Google, Microsoft, Adobe and Amazon Web Services have helped develop a set of expectations AI tools should meet to be considered safe for classroom use. These are accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/generative-ai-product-safety-expectations/generative-ai-product-safety-expectations.
The Generative AI product Safety Expectations framework was announced on 22 January 2025 and we have published online materials to help all educators. These materials can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/using-ai-in-education-settings-support-materials.
Screens are prevalent in children's lives at home and in education. It is crucial to have protections like the Online Safety Act, while using technology to benefit children. Schools play a key role in promoting balanced technology use, minimising harmful content, and teaching online safety.
The department is working across government to implement the Online Safety Act and address technology-related risks, including AI in education, while maximising opportunities for these technologies to support education.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that guidance and resources for School Attendance Support Teams includes young carers.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department wants to ensure that young carers have the best life chances by supporting them in their education. We recognise that absence from school is almost always a symptom of wider needs and barriers that a family are facing and is often also the best early indication of need in a family that may not be in contact with other services.
The department’s expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, were made statutory on 19 August 2024 and include specific reference to young carers. The ‘support first’ ethos of the attendance guidance is that pupils and families, including young carers, should receive holistic, whole-family support to help them overcome the barriers to attendance they are facing. This includes holding regular meetings with the families of pupils who the school, and/or local authority, consider to be vulnerable to discuss attendance and engagement at school. Schools are expected to recognise that absence is a symptom and that improving pupil’s attendance is part of supporting the pupil’s overall welfare. This ethos is reflected in resources provided to schools on school attendance, and our Attendance Toolkit for Schools includes reference to supporting young carers in its self-assessment tool.
The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.
The toolkit can be accessed via: https://attendancetoolkit.blob.core.windows.net/toolkit-doc/Attendance%20toolkit%20for%20schools.pdf.
The department also publishes daily attendance data fortnightly and will continue to monitor the quality of data on young carers that is collected via the school register for consideration to include in the daily data collection in the future.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with schools on ensuring that financial education for pupils includes (a) the impact of social media on managing money, (b) managing money in the context of accessible credit and (c) different types of (i) credit and (ii) debt.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Financial education forms a compulsory part of the national curriculum for mathematics at key stages 1 to 4, and citizenship at key stages 3 and 4. Together these cover personal budgeting, saving for the future, managing credit and debt, and calculating interest. Statutory relationships, sex and health education and computing lessons equip pupils to be discerning in evaluating digital content, including content they see through social media.
The interim report from the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review noted the consistent call from children and young people and their parents for more focus on the applied knowledge regarding financial education. The Review’s final report and recommendations will be published in autumn with the government’s response.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions her Department has had with local authorities on the impact of changes to employer National Insurance contributions on special educational needs transport providers.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth to the answer of 29 January 2025 to Question 26397.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answers of 30 April 2025 to Questions 46842 and 46843 on Hinckley School: STEM Subjects, what her Department's planned timeframe is for working through the costs to develop a new STEM building at Hinckley School.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has increased the budget for the project significantly since completion of the feasibility study and officials are working through the costs with the selected contractor. A meeting has been scheduled for 10 June 2025, including the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth, the trust, and the school, during which departmental officials will provide a further update on the project.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answers of 30 April 2025 to Questions 46842 and 46843 on Hinckley School: STEM Subjects, if he will hold discussions with (a) The Futures Trust and (b) the Hinckley School's senior leadership on the work of her Department to consider the costs of a new STEM building at Hinckley School.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has increased the budget for the project significantly since completion of the feasibility study and officials are working through the costs with the selected contractor. A meeting has been scheduled for 10 June 2025, including the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth, the trust, and the school, during which departmental officials will provide a further update on the project.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answers of 30 April 2025 to Questions 46842 and 46843 on Hinckley School: STEM Subjects, what indicative timescales her Department uses for working through the costs for major infrastructure projects on school estates.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has increased the budget for the project significantly since completion of the feasibility study and officials are working through the costs with the selected contractor. A meeting has been scheduled for 10 June 2025, including the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth, the trust, and the school, during which departmental officials will provide a further update on the project.