Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that male members of staff are available if requested by callers to the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support line.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Supporting victims and survivors of sexual violence and abuse is a priority for this Government.
The MOJ-commissioned 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line grant, delivered by Rape Crisis England and Wales, provides free and confidential emotional and listening support to all victims and survivors of rape and sexual abuse aged 16 and over, regardless of gender. Where appropriate, the service will signpost victims to longer-term support services, including therapeutic support.
Whilst it is not possible for callers to request the gender of their call handler, the service receives a high level of positive feedback from survivors of all genders, and call handlers receive extensive training to equip them to support all victims and survivors of sexual violence, regardless of any protected characteristics. The Department works closely with the provider to ensure the service remains responsive, inclusive and trauma-informed so that it can continue to provide high quality support.
Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of exempting parents from fines for school absences caused by their child's (a) neuro diverse needs and (b) pathological demand avoidance.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Tackling absence is at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. Thanks to the efforts of the sector, overall absence is moving in the right direction, with children attending over 3.1 million more days this year compared to last, and over 100,000 fewer children persistently absent.
Some children face complex barriers to attendance, such as pupils who have special educational needs and disabilities. Whatever the cause of absence, school staff should always first work with families and pupils to understand the barriers to attendance and provide support where possible. This might include providing pastoral support or making reasonable adjustments where a pupil has a disability. Our statutory guidance expects this ‘support first’ approach from all types of school. The guidance can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.
The law does not exempt parents from receiving penalty notices for absence based solely on their child’s characteristics. It is up to the school and the local authority to decide whether to issue a penalty notice for unauthorised absence or not. They retain discretion about whether to issue a penalty notice because only they know the specific facts of the particular case.
The decision to issue a penalty notice must be made on an individual case by case basis and should only be used in cases where it is deemed likely to change parental behaviour and improve attendance, and in cases where support has already been provided and has not worked or not been engaged with or is not appropriate. For example, in cases of holidays taken in term-time.
Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
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 the availability of beds in psychiatric intensive care units in (a) Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust and (b) other NHS trusts.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of changes to employer National Insurance contributions on care home providers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much additional funding her Department has allocated for special educational needs provision to Lancashire County Council since the Autumn Budget 2024.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
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.
Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to support innovation in areas without mayoral devolution agreements.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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.
Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help increase local authority capacity to recycle plastics.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
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 improve pain management treatment for people with chronic urinary tract infections.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of eligible families are receiving Healthy Start in Ribble Valley constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the sustainability of childcare in breakfast and after school clubs which rely on volunteers.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
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.