Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support is available to teachers to improve (a) confidence and (b) skills in delivering financial education.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Solihull West and Shirley to the answer of 7 January to Question 21190.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) apprentices and (b) young entrepreneurs have access to financial education.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Financial education is integrated into the curriculum at key stages 3 and 4 (ages 11-16) through citizenship education and elements of the mathematics curriculum. Together this covers such areas as personal budgeting, saving for the future, managing credit and debt and calculating interest.
Financial education is not compulsory post-16, however, providers are free to teach it and our 16-19 study programme guidance sets an expectation that students take part in other non-qualification activity to develop life skills, including managing personal finances.
There are a range of financial education-related qualifications for 16 to 19-year-olds to study, in including qualifications and courses at levels 1 and 2, with both the mathematics GCSE and L2 Functional Skills Qualifications supporting financial education. At Level 3 there is the T Level in Finance and Core Maths, which also covers financial literacy.
The current curriculum and assessment review will consider coverage of areas including applied knowledge and skills young people will need in life and work such as financial education.
Upskilling in English and mathematics is a key feature of all apprenticeships and young apprentices aged 16-18 at the start of their apprenticeship are required to achieve English and mathematics qualifications.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the curriculum in preparing young people for dealing with (a) debt, (b) savings, (c) the cost of living and (d) other financial issues.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Solihull West and Shirley to the answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43513.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to expand financial education provision to primary schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Solihull West and Shirley to the answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43513.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timetable is for the national rollout of digital education, health and care plans.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The government will publish a White Paper in the autumn setting out plans for reforming the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, including any changes to education, health and care plans.
More broadly the department is looking at the role new technology can play in helping improve outcomes and experiences for children and young people with SEND and their families. For example, we recently launched an assistive technology lending libraries pilot to allow up to 4,000 mainstream schools in participating areas to borrow and trial technology on a temporary basis. Combined with other SEND reforms, lending libraries have the potential to improve early intervention and enable more children and young people with SEND to achieve and thrive in a mainstream setting.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure children with SEND are not disproportionately affected by (a) school exclusions and (b) informal off-rolling in mainstream schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities receive the right support to succeed in their education. We are committed to ensuring earlier intervention in mainstream schools for pupils with special educational needs and introducing a new annual review of safeguarding, attendance and pupil movement, including off-rolling.
In all cases, school leaders should consider early intervention strategies to address the underlying causes of a pupil’s disruptive behaviour before issuing any exclusion. In the most serious cases, exclusion may be necessary to ensure every child can learn in a safe, calm classroom.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of regional disparities in the time taken for education, health and care plan assessments; and what steps she is taking to ensure local authorities meet the statutory deadline.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department wants to ensure that, where required, education, health and care (EHC) plan assessments are progressed promptly and, if needed, plans are issued as quickly as possible so that children and young people can access the support they need.
Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to assess whether children and young people have special educational needs that require an EHC plan. Plans must be issued within twenty weeks of the needs assessment commencing so that children and young people can access the support they need.
The department knows that local authorities across different regions have seen an increase in the number of assessment requests and that more needs to be done to ensure that local areas deliver effective and timely services. This includes better communication with schools and families.
The department continues to monitor and work closely with local authorities that have issues with EHC plan timeliness. Where there are concerns about a local authority’s capacity to make the required improvements, we help them to identify the barriers and put in place an effective recovery plan. This includes, where needed, securing the support of a specialist special educational needs and disabilities adviser to help identify the barriers to EHC plan process timeliness and put in place practical plans for recovery.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve access to independent special schools for children with complex needs in regions where maintained provision is (a) limited and (b) oversubscribed.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department recognises the vital role that special schools play in providing high-quality education and meeting the needs of children and young people. Independent special schools play their part in this, particularly in meeting low incidence needs. However, independent special schools typically have higher costs than their maintained equivalent, and we need to ensure that placements are used appropriately. Where a local authority has commissioned a place in an independent school, the local authority is responsible for all the funding for supporting that child or young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The department wants more children and young people to receive the support they need to thrive in their local mainstream school, reducing the need for pupils to travel a long way to access a specialist placement. Many mainstream settings are already committed to delivering specialist provision locally, including through resourced provision and special educational needs units.
The department has now published allocations for £740 million in high needs provision capital allocations for the 2025/26 financial year to support local authorities to deliver new places in mainstream and state-maintained special schools, reducing reliance on the independent sector to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on improving integration between health services and local authority provision in the development of education, health and care plans.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Statutory duties are clear that health and local authorities must ensure the integration of educational and training provision with health and social care provision. They must also make joint commissioning arrangements with other local partners about the education, health and care provision to be secured for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission provide an independent evaluation of the effectiveness of the local area partnerships’ commissioning arrangements with an emphasis on the outcomes being achieved for children and young people with SEND. Where appropriate, they recommend what the local area partnership should do to improve the arrangements.
Where partners do not meet their duties, the department can take action that prioritises children’s needs and supports local areas to bring about rapid improvement. We work to monitor, support and challenge local authorities, working closely with NHS England to tackle weaknesses that sit with health partners.
The government is urgently looking at the SEND system and how it needs to be reformed. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care met with Cabinet colleagues earlier this month to discuss SEND system improvements.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many education, health and care plans were completed within the statutory timeframe in each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Information on the number of requests for an education, health and care (EHC) plan issued within the statutory timeframe of 20 weeks, for each of the last 5 years, is shown in the table linked here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/1e7dc959-f459-4ef6-ba17-08dd866b22bc.
The latest available figures cover the 2023 calendar year.