Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the application process will open for the Technical Excellence College scheme.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
At the Spring Statement 2025, this government committed £100 million to establish ten new Technical Excellence Colleges specialised in construction across every region in England and to further build capacity to boost the provision of skills in construction. Boosting skills in construction is a crucial part of delivering on this government’s plans to build 1.5 million homes in England this Parliament and progress vital infrastructure projects. The department will set out further details on Technical Excellence Colleges in due course.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how colleges can apply to the Technical Excellence College scheme.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
At the Spring Statement 2025, this government committed £100 million to establish ten new Technical Excellence Colleges specialised in construction across every region in England and to further build capacity to boost the provision of skills in construction. Boosting skills in construction is a crucial part of delivering on this government’s plans to build 1.5 million homes in England this Parliament and progress vital infrastructure projects. The department will set out further details on Technical Excellence Colleges in due course.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support schools with budgetary challenges resulting from teacher salary increases.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Overall school funding is increasing by over £3.2 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning it will total over £64.8 billion compared to almost £61.6 billion in 2024/25. The department recognises that the increases for individual schools will vary, with some getting more and some getting less than the average increase.
The guidance ‘Schools’ costs: technical note’ forecasts £400 million of headroom in schools’ budgets nationally in the 2025/26 financial year, before staff pay awards.
This follows the government’s written evidence to the School Teacher’s Review Body, published in December, which proposed a pay award for teachers of 2.8%. Schools will be expected to fund the 2025 pay award from the additional investment provided at the Autumn Budget 2024, alongside their existing funds.
All parts of the public sector are being asked to improve their efficiency. The department will be developing a suite of productivity initiatives to help schools manage their budgets to maximise opportunities for learners.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what changes he plans to make to rules governing SME procurement in public contracts, in the context of the Spring Statement 2025.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This Government is taking major steps to give SMEs greater access to public contracts - including the publication of the National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) which sets out a mission-led procurement regime focused on driving economic growth that supports Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSEs), giving them greater opportunities to win public contracts by instructing contracting authorities to maximise their spend with these organisations. To support implementation of the NPPS in central government, we have announced new rules requiring all government departments and their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies to set three-year targets for direct spend with SMEs from 1 April 2025, and from 1 April 2026 for VCSEs, and publish progress annually.
We will be consulting on more reforms including a requirement for large contracting authorities to publish their three-year targets for small business and social enterprise spend and report on this annually - as well as the exclusion of suppliers from contracts worth more than £5million if they don’t complete prompt payments of invoices.
In the Spring Statement, the Chancellor also announced measures to reform our procurement system to give small businesses across the UK better access to Ministry of Defence contracts.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the differences in school funding across different counties.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Every year the department uses the schools national funding formula (NFF) to distribute core funding for 5- to 16-year-old pupils in mainstream state-funded schools in England. In the current NFF, the vast majority of funding is distributed on the basis of pupil numbers and characteristics.
The purpose of the NFF is not to give every school the same level of per pupil funding. It is right that pupils with additional needs attract additional funding to help schools respond and meet their needs. In addition, schools in more expensive areas, like London, attract higher funding per pupil than other parts of the country to reflect the higher costs they face.
Through the dedicated schools grant, Gloucestershire County Council is receiving over £522 million for mainstream schools in the 2025/26 financial year, which equates to £6,201 per pupil on average, excluding growth and falling rolls funding. Schools' final funding allocations are determined by local authority funding formulae and based on updated pupil numbers, and so the final per pupil funding amounts for individual schools may differ.
The department is reviewing the schools NFF for both the 2026/27 financial year and the ensuing years, recognising the importance of a fair funding system that directs funding where it is needed.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support secondary schools with increases in SEND costs.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Through the national funding formula in the 2025/26 financial year, secondary schools are being allocated over £4 billion through formula factors that act as a proxy for their pupils’ special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and other additional needs. In addition, high needs funding will total over £12 billion this financial year, a proportion of which local authorities will use for supporting secondary schools with their pupils who have more complex SEND. Of the total high needs funding, Gloucestershire County Council is being allocated over £105 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant.
In the high needs funding system, it is the top-up funding allocated to schools by the local authority which is intended to reflect the cost of provision for pupils with complex SEND. Schools should therefore discuss with their local authority the funding that they believe is necessary to make the provision that has been commissioned, taking into account expected levels of inflation and particular costs such as for energy and staff pay, as well as any reprioritisation within their budget that schools can achieve to ensure best value from their overall resources.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase levels of recruitment and retention of teachers in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High quality teaching is the most important in-school factor to a child’s educational outcomes. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child. This is why the department will recruit 6,500 new expert teachers, get more teachers into shortage subjects, support areas that face recruitment challenges and tackle retention issues. To deliver this pledge we are resetting the relationship with the sector to ensure teaching is once again a valued and attractive profession.
The department agreed a 5.5% pay award for teachers in 2024/25, and increased the funding available for bursaries for trainee teachers to £233 million from 2025/26, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its school teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign ‘Share your Skills’.
A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy and we want to ensure teachers stay and thrive in this profession. In the first five years of their careers, new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000, after-tax, if working in disadvantaged schools. There are three schools in the Cheltenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.
The department has also taken steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing, to support retention and help re-establish teaching as an attractive profession. This includes opportunities for greater flexible working, by making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.
The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working, whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Malmesbury School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Cheltenham schools.
High quality Continuing Professional Development is also key to ensuring the retention of an effective teaching workforce. The department has established teaching school hubs across the country, who play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the early career framework and National Professional Qualifications. Balcarras Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Cheltenham, Cotswolds and Stroud.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on support for schools with budget shortfalls due to levels of high needs funding.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Through the national funding formula in the 2025/26 financial year, secondary schools are being allocated over £4 billion through formula factors that act as a proxy for their pupils’ special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and other additional needs. In addition, high needs funding will total over £12 billion this financial year, a proportion of which local authorities will use for supporting secondary schools with their pupils who have more complex SEND. Of the total high needs funding, Gloucestershire County Council is being allocated over £105 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant.
In the high needs funding system, it is the top-up funding allocated to schools by the local authority which is intended to reflect the cost of provision for pupils with complex SEND. Schools should therefore discuss with their local authority the funding that they believe is necessary to make the provision that has been commissioned, taking into account expected levels of inflation and particular costs such as for energy and staff pay, as well as any reprioritisation within their budget that schools can achieve to ensure best value from their overall resources.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase (a) the recruitment and (b) levels of training of GPs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have invested an additional £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) in 2024/25 to enable the recruitment of over 1,000 recently qualified general practitioners (GPs). Under the 2025/26 GP contract changes, the ARRS will become more flexible to allow primary care networks to respond better to local workforce needs. The two ARRS pots will be combined to create a single pot for the reimbursement of direct patient staff costs. There will be no restrictions on the number or type of staff covered, including GPs and practice nurses.
The curriculum for postgraduate training is set by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges for foundation training, and by individual Royal Colleges and faculties for specialty training. The General Medical Council approves curricula and assessment systems for each training programme. Curricula emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the formula for reimbursing schools after increases in employer National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
In developing our National Insurance contributions (NICs) grant methodology for mainstream schools and academies, the department considered both the impact of the change to National Insurance rates and the changes to the threshold at which NICs are applied. By taking this approach, we have ensured that funding accounts for where increases to NICs will be most significant.
The department knows that the impact of the increase to NICs differs depending on the proportions of staff on relatively higher or lower salaries and have taken that into account in determining how much funding is allocated to primary, secondary and special schools. The technical details of how the funding is split between those phases of education has been discussed with stakeholders, including the Association of School and College Leaders.
We keep our grant methodology under review to ensure funding can best support schools and their pupils. That is why, for the first time, we are providing additional grant funding for mainstream schools with special units and resourced provision to support them with the higher staffing costs they typically face.