Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of school teachers.
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 therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity, boost the life chances for every child, reset the relationship with the sector and restore the status of the teaching profession. 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.
The department is making good progress through delivery of key initiatives to recruit and retain more high quality teachers. We announced an initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle worth £233 million, a £37 million increase on the last cycle. This includes a range of measures, including bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.
Fair pay is key to ensuring teaching is an attractive and respected profession, which is why this government has accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools from September.
For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic year, the department is also offering a Targeted Retention Incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects, in the schools and areas that need them most.
To further support retention, the department has made available a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing and support schools to introduce flexible working practices. The department’s Improve Workload and Wellbeing for School Staff service , developed alongside school leaders, includes a workload reduction toolkit to support schools to identify opportunities to cut excessive workload, as well as the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which sets out commitments from the government, Ofsted, schools, and colleges to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff. The department’s improve workload and wellbeing for school staff service can be found here: https://improve-workload-and-wellbeing-for-school-staff.education.gov.uk/.
The department will continue to work alongside the sector to further develop our delivery plan and seek to re-establish teaching as an attractive profession and will share further details in due course.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve the terms and conditions of teachers in the public sector.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
There is a statutory process for making revisions to the pay and conditions of teachers, and any change must first be referred by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, to the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB).
The department’s written evidence for the 2025/2026 pay round asks the STRB to consider how schools can support teachers from all backgrounds and promote flexible working, which will improve the experience of teaching and help deliver the best possible education for students.
The department is also asking the STRB to consider how additional responsibility payments can be more fairly managed for part-time teachers.
The department will also use the new powers in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to make changes to the teacher pay and conditions framework to create a pay floor with no ceiling, to enable healthy competition and innovation beyond a core framework, which will help to improve all state schools.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of ensuring that parents have a legal right to appeal decisions by their local authority to refuse to assess their child for an EHCP.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed and thrive in their education and as they move into adult life.
Parents have a legal right of appeal if a local authority decides not to assess their child for an education, health and care (EHC) plan. The first-tier SEND Tribunal hears appeals against local authority decisions in relation to EHC assessments and plans for children and young people. Parents and carers can appeal to the Tribunal about local authority refusal to assess a child or young person’s EHC needs, reassess their EHC needs, issue an EHC plan, update what is in an EHC plan, or maintain an EHC plan.
Most EHC plans and assessments are concluded without a Tribunal hearing. Nationally, in the 2023 calendar year, there were 15,600 appeals to the Tribunal, equating to 2.5% of all appealable decisions subsequently resulting in Tribunal appeals.
The department is exploring what more we can do to work with local authorities, particularly those with high appeal rates, to understand the reasons for and to address these issues. As an initial step, we jointly delivered with the Independent Provider of Special Educational Advice and the Council for Disabled Children, eight training sessions on 'SEND and the law' for local authority SEND caseworkers.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider a three year funding settlement for the Music Hub programme.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Multi-year programme budgets will be considered as part of the spending review and subsequent business planning process.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the guidance entitled Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 in preventing children from being returned to abusive parents.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities have a duty to protect all children, including those returning home from care.
The statutory 'Children Act 1989 guidance and regulations volume 2: care planning, placement and case review' is clear that where the plan is for a child to return to the care of their family when they cease to be looked-after, there should be a robust planning and decision-making process to ensure that this decision is in the best interests of the child and will safeguard and promote their welfare.
The multi-agency statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children 2023’ reinforces the legal obligations for individuals and organisations to ensure the safety of children, including those returning home.
Local statutory safeguarding partners, such as local authorities, integrated care boards and police chiefs have responsibility for the delivery and monitoring of multi-agency priorities and procedures to protect and safeguard children in the local area, and are required to publish an annual report on the effectiveness of their arrangements.
Internal analysis of multi-agency safeguarding arrangements’ annual reports and on the impact of how the ‘Working together to safeguard children 2023' statutory guidance was strengthened in 2023 is encouraging, especially regarding how safeguarding partners are implementing its requirements.
Ofsted also has a vital role to play in ensuring that the settings and services that support children are safe and effective, and that children leaving care are given the right support to achieve and thrive, with 100 local authorities now rated Good or Outstanding for children’s services.
Protecting children at risk of abuse and stopping vulnerable children falling through cracks in services are at the heart of the government’s landmark Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, introduced on 17 December 2024.
The department’s investment in reforms includes over £500 million for Family Help and child protection services. We expect Family Help to provide support where children in care may be able to return safely to their families.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her department is taking to promote apprenticeships in the hair and beauty industry.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeships are a great way for individuals to begin, or progress in, a successful career in the hair and beauty industry. Employers in the hair and beauty sector have developed several high quality apprenticeships, including the level 2 hairdressing professional standard, to help them develop their workforce.
The department continues to promote the benefits that apprenticeships offer to students in schools and colleges through the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme and through the Skills for Life campaign.
To support smaller employers to access apprenticeships, the government pays the full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan or have been in local authority care.
Employers can also benefit from £1,000 payments when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18, or apprentices aged 19 to 24 who have an EHC plan or have been in local authority care. Employers can choose how they spend these payments.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children were refused an education, health and care plan assessment by their local authority in the last financial year.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department collects information on the number of requests for an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment, the number of EHC needs assessments, and the outcome of these requests and assessments.
This information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/3216aeea-b67c-4fc7-e256-08dd5a6d191a.
These figures and are the most up to date we hold and refer to the 2023 calendar year. We do not hold information on a financial year basis.
Information on EHC plans maintained by local authorities, including requests for needs assessments, decisions made to assess and the number of plans issued is included in the statistical release, ‘Education, health and care plans’. The full publication can be read here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of continued funding of the Music Hub programme.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Music Hubs play a crucial role in providing music education both within the school curriculum and beyond. The government currently allocates £79 million annually to support the Music Hub programme, including funding for the 2024/25 academic year. The department has not yet confirmed the future funding levels for Music Hubs.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of recently announced increases in Social Work England registration fees.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As set out in the Children and Social Work Act 2017, Social Work England (SWE) is responsible for setting the level of registration fees. The relevant sections of the Act can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2017/16/part/2/enacted#section-36-4.
Before determining the level of any fee, including any change, SWE must both consult publicly and gain approval of my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education.
SWE launched a public consultation on changes to their fees on 19 February 2025. The consultation runs until 13 May 2025. More information on the proposed fee changes and public consultation can be found here: https://www.socialworkengland.org.uk/news/public-consultation-on-changes-to-our-fees-is-now-open/.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will announce a future funding settlement for the Adoption Support Fund beyond this year.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Poole to the answer of 29 January 2025 to Question 26025.