Maya Ellis

We want to support local leaders to unlock their regions’ innovation potential – ensuring everyone benefits from innovation-led growth. Regardless of whether they have a Mayor or are a local authority. That’s why UK Research and Innovation invests in innovation across the UK, including through the £316 million Strength in Places Fund and £80 million Launchpads programmes. These are bolstering clusters in areas with and without devolution agreements. UKRI has awarded £85,000 to Ultraframe UK in the Ribble Valley, to develop high quality retrofit solutions.

Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to over £12 billion. Of that total, Lancashire County Council is being allocated over £219 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £18 million on this year’s DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF). This NFF allocation is an 8.8% increase per head of their 2-18 year old population, on their equivalent 2024/25 NFF allocation.

In addition, local authorities will receive a separate core schools budget grant for high needs in the 2025/26 financial year. We plan to publish individual local authorities’ allocations later in May 2025.

Children’s early years are crucial to their development, health and life chances. That is why the Plan for Change set out the government’s ambition for a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. The department will measure our progress through 75% of children reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment by 2028.

We are clear that in driving progress towards our milestone we must deliver better early education experiences and outcomes for children from low-income families and children with special educational needs and disabilities. The department will set out further plans in due course.

Children’s early years are crucial to their development, health and life chances. That is why the Plan for Change set out the government’s ambition for a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. The department will measure our progress through 75% of children reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment by 2028.

We are clear that in driving progress towards our milestone we must deliver better early education experiences and outcomes for children from low-income families and children with special educational needs and disabilities. The department will set out further plans in due course.

Schools have the discretion to identify the most appropriate workforce to deliver their breakfast and after school clubs, depending on their school’s context, existing staff contracts and arrangements and the mix of skills and experience required.

The department does not collect data on the number of breakfast and after school clubs run by volunteers, however these clubs can be led by various individuals, including teachers, teaching assistants, school catering staff, volunteers such as parents or others specifically hired to deliver the role. As such, the department has not made any specific assessment of the sustainability of breakfast and after school clubs that rely on volunteers.

Schools have the discretion to identify the most appropriate workforce to deliver their breakfast and after school clubs, depending on their school’s context, existing staff contracts and arrangements and the mix of skills and experience required.

The department does not collect data on the number of breakfast and after school clubs run by volunteers, however these clubs can be led by various individuals, including teachers, teaching assistants, school catering staff, volunteers such as parents or others specifically hired to deliver the role. As such, the department has not made any specific assessment of the sustainability of breakfast and after school clubs that rely on volunteers.

Defra officials have engaged extensively with local authorities and representative bodies such as the Local Government Association and the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee on the introduction of the Simpler Recycling reforms to both workplaces and households. Through Simpler Recycling, every household and workplace across England will be able to recycle the same materials in the following core waste streams: metal, glass, plastic, paper and card, food waste, and garden waste (for households only). This includes some items which are not currently widely collected for recycling, such as cartons. From 31 March 2027, this will also include kerbside plastic film collections.

Alongside Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging and a Deposit Return Scheme, these reforms should guarantee a consistent supply of recyclable materials. This should provide certainty, increasing investor confidence and unlocking investment in waste infrastructure.

We are working with the waste management sector to explore opportunities for infrastructure development and how we support them to create these conditions. We recently published a Recycling Infrastructure Capacity Analysis in partnership with WRAP, setting out the size of the investment opportunity. Those looking to invest in waste management infrastructure are encouraged to engage with the National Wealth Fund.

The Government did consider the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process in 2024.

To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government has made available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant.

The number of mental health inpatient beds required to support a local population is dependent on both local mental health need and the effectiveness of the whole local mental health system in providing timely access to care and supporting people to stay well in the community, therefore reducing the likelihood of an inpatient admission being necessary.

The Department expects individual trusts and local health systems to effectively assess and manage bed capacity and the ‘flow’ of patients being discharged or moving to another setting.

Over the past few years, the National Health Service has been developing the community mental health framework to improve community support for people with severe mental illness, thus avoiding the need for an inpatient admission where possible, and freeing up more beds.

The 2025/26 NHS Planning Guidance sets out the expectation that ICBs should work with providers to improve patient flow through mental health crisis and acute pathways, reducing the average length of stay in adult acute beds, and improving access to children and young people’s mental health services.

As part of our mission to build an NHS fit for the future, we will make sure more mental health care is delivered in the community, close to people’s homes, through new models of care and support, so that fewer people need to go into hospital.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines are evidence-based recommendations for health and care in England and Wales. They help health and social care professionals to prevent ill health, promote good health, and improve the quality of care and services. Practitioners are expected to refer to the NICE’s guidance when assessing, signposting to, and prescribing pain relief medications, including for chronic urinary tract infections (UTIs).

When providing clinical care for conditions such as chronic UTIs, it is a prescriber’s duty to prescribe medicines, including for pain relief, when they have adequate knowledge of the patient’s health and are satisfied that the medicine is clinically suitable for the patient.

The Government’s decisions on who to offer immunisations to, and which products are suitable, are based on expert advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

In June 2023 the JCVI advised, for infant protection against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), for either a programme of maternal antenatal vaccination with Pfizer’s Abrysvo PreF vaccine or for infant immunisation with Sanofi’s monoclonal antibody nirsevimab (Beyfortus). Following a competitive tender, the new RSV vaccination programmes began in September 2024 for older adults and pregnant mothers, to protect infants, both using the Pfizer vaccine.

The UK Health Security Agency undertakes evaluation of national immunisation programmes and will be evaluating the impact and effectiveness of the RSV maternal vaccination programme for infant protection, once sufficient data is available. The JCVI will continue to keep the RSV programme under close review.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. Monthly figures for the number of people on the digital Healthy Start scheme are published on the NHS Healthy Start website, which is available at the following link:

https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthcare-professionals/

The NHSBSA does not hold data on the number of families receiving Healthy Start. The number of people on the scheme in March 2025 for Ribble Valley was 104.

The NHSBSA does not currently hold data on the number of people who are eligible for the scheme. An issue was identified with the source data that is used to calculate uptake of the NHS Healthy Start scheme. The NHSBSA has therefore removed data for the number of people eligible for the scheme and the uptake percentage from January 2023 onwards.

The issue has only affected the data on the number of people eligible for the scheme. It has not prevented anyone from joining the scheme or continuing to access the scheme if they were eligible.

The Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme opened to applications on 4 February 2025, which enables Ukrainians in the UK under the Ukraine visa schemes to apply for a further 18 months’ temporary permission to remain in the UK.

We recognise the Ukrainian government’s desire for the future return of its citizens to Ukraine to assist in the rebuilding of the country. It is important our approach respects these wishes.

This is why the temporary sanctuary Ukraine visa Schemes do not lead to settlement in the UK.  We continue to keep the Ukraine Schemes under consistent review in line with developments in the ongoing war.

There are other routes available for those who wish to settle in the UK permanently, if they meet the requirements.

MHCLG Ministers and officials engage regularly with local planning authorities to ensure the government’s priorities are understood.