Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of safeguarding in nursery settings.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The safety of our youngest children is our utmost priority and the department continually monitors and reviews safeguarding requirements to make sure children are kept as safe as possible.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements early years providers must meet to ensure that children are kept healthy and safe. It is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68c024cb8c6d992f23edd79c/Early_years_foundation_stage_statutory_framework_-_for_group_and_school-based_providers.pdf. In September 2025, changes were introduced to strengthen the safeguarding requirements in the EYFS, including clearer expectations on safer recruitment, child absences, safer eating, safeguarding training and whistleblowing.
A new safeguarding training annex now sets out what training must cover. To support providers, a free online safeguarding training package is being developed with the NSPCC, aligned to the new requirements.
We are also appointing an expert panel to inform whether CCTV should be mandated within early years settings, along with the development of guidance on the safe and effective use of digital devices and CCTV within safeguarding, setting out best practice, technical information and clear expectations.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2025 on Investment in high needs place, HCWS1163, which (a) Members of Parliament and (b) local authorities met departmental officials to discuss the status of one or more of the 28 mainstream free school projects ahead of their cancellation.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has engaged with trusts, local authorities and other stakeholders in relation to projects in scope of the mainstream review, including reviewing the evidence they have provided. This included all of the local authorities with a project in scope.
MPs with an interest in projects were invited to a ‘drop in’ session during the review and again following the announcement on 15 December 2025. Individual meetings with interested MPs have also taken place.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2025 on Investment in high needs place, HCWS1163, what meetings were held with the 18 local authorities that had successful bids for a (a) special and (b) AP free school ahead of the cancellation of those projects.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Meetings were held with a small number of local authorities with projects across the special and alternative provision free schools pipeline during the process of formulating policy. As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 15 December 2025 (HCWS1163), policy decisions have been taken to ensure that capital investment delivers specialist places more quickly and flexibly.
For 18 projects where a trust had not been appointed by July 2024 and so are furthest from opening, the department concluded that local authorities are best placed to create the required places sooner than would be possible through the free school route. Each affected authority will be given an alternative funding package, calculated on a per-place basis, enabling them to expand existing provision or adapt mainstream settings as part of their local special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) strategy and in line with SEND reform.
Authorities can submit representations if they disagree with the decision. The deadline for them to do so is 27 February 2026.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2025 on Investment in high needs place, HCWS1163, what meetings her Department held with the mainstream free school projects prior to their cancellation.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has engaged with trusts, local authorities and other stakeholders in relation to individual projects in scope of the review, including reviewing the evidence they have provided. As would be expected from a review of this scale, there have been a significant number of meetings
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many local authority presumption free schools have been established since central applications were closed last year, broken down by (a), primary, (b) secondary, (c) post-16, and (d) special schools.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of free schools that have been opened through the free school presumption process since July 2024 is as follows:
Primary | 23 |
Secondary | 0 |
All-through | 1 |
Post-16 | 0 |
Special | 8 |
Alternative provision | 1 |
For comparison, the number of presumption free schools that were established in the previous academic year (2023/24) was:
Primary | 12 |
Secondary | 0 |
All-through | 1 |
Post-16 | 0 |
Special | 1 |
Alternative provision | 0 |
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the answer of 23 December 2025 to written question 93136, how much funding has been allocated to the RISE Advisor budget by key expenditure items.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
This government is focused on driving high and rising standards through our Plan for Change, to enable every child to achieve and thrive.
Our targeted regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) programme is ensuring schools who need it most are getting the support they need to improve.
Over 360 schools have already benefited from RISE, supported by 65 advisers, experienced leaders across the schools sector.
£4.8 million has been allocated to the RISE Adviser budget for the 2025/26 financial year. Budgets for future years will be set through business planning.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 December to Question 96893, when she will publish the aggregated information on programme-level performance measures and key performance indicators for RISE advisors.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
This government is focused on driving high and rising standards through our Plan for Change, to enable every child to achieve and thrive.
Our targeted RISE programme is ensuring schools who need it most are getting the support they need to improve. We will publish an interim process evaluation report in the spring, but we are continuing to evaluate and listening to a range of feedback directly informing the program. We will publish further process evaluation interim reports and expect to publish a final process evaluation report in 2028.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to written question 93138, what her planned timetable is for publication of the (a) terms of reference and (b) membership of the regional improvement for standards and excellence Operations Working Group.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department will publish the terms of reference, membership details and minutes of the first meeting of the Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence Operations Working Group by the end of January 2026. Minutes for future meetings with be published following each meeting.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to written question 100178, if she will publish the criteria used by her Department to evaluate (a) the need for places, (b) value for money, (c) whether they would provide a distinctive or innovative education offer and (d) whether they would negatively affect other local schools.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We have written to trusts, local authorities and members of Parliament setting out the position on individual projects, as well as offering more detailed feedback.
The department considered whether there was a strong need for the school in the medium term. We assessed published School Capacity data (SCAP24), in line with the department’s longstanding approach to assessing pipeline projects, as well as other data from local authorities, such as plans for future housing developments.
We also considered forecast costs of delivering each school, delivery issues such as finding a suitable site and whether projects would provide a distinctive local offer or risk negatively impacting other local schools.
Final decisions on projects where a ‘minded to cancel’ letter was issued, will be made once trusts and local authorities have had the opportunity to submit any new evidence. Representations should be made by 30 January 2026.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to written statement 1163, on what grounds the Government approved the Eton Star academy projects in Dudley and Oldham.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All free school projects were evaluated in line with consistent criteria focusing on assessing the need for places and value for money. This included considering whether projects would provide a distinctive local offer and whether they would risk negatively impacting other local schools or colleges.