Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with metro mayors and combined authorities on developing place-based approaches to childcare and family support that integrate childcare, health visiting, family hubs and employment support.
Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Best Start in Life and Best Start Family Hubs are about place-based working. That is why the department has asked local authorities to publish a plan for children's outcomes in their area and why Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies programme guidance recognises the strong foundations already in place, including deeply embedded and trusted local partnerships, infrastructure and experience.
Mayors and combined authorities play an important role in coordinating and supporting their local authorities in this work and in helping to develop place-based approaches. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, Best Start in Life regional leads and departmental officials regularly engage with stakeholders, including metro mayors and combined authorities regarding place-based approaches across skills, education and wider families’ services. For example, this includes learning from and sharing best practice, including the work done by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Cradle to Career programme in Birkenhead.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to tackle online conspiracy belief, misinformation and disinformation in the classroom.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department will strengthen media literacy education and skills for young people to critically engage with and assess information from a range of sources in the national curriculum, following the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report. This will help pupils learn how to spot misinformation and disinformation, including AI-generated content, and to develop critical thinking skills.
The department is engaging with sector experts to determine how to reflect this in the updated curriculum and training requirements for teachers. Following public consultation from September, the new curriculum will be taught from September 2028.
Updated relationships, sex and health education guidance, to be implemented from September 2026, includes strengthened content on staying safe online and online wellbeing. Secondary pupils will learn how advertising and information is targeted at them and how to be a discerning consumer of information online, understanding the prevalence of misinformation and disinformation online, including conspiracy theories.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Commission into Countering Online Conspiracies in Schools' 2026 Research Insights, published in March 2026, what steps she is taking to improve access to training for school staff on responding to misinformation and conspiracy theories, in the context of the finding that 35 per cent of school staff have received no such training.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department will strengthen media literacy education and skills for young people to critically engage with and assess information from a range of sources in the national curriculum, following the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report. This will help pupils learn how to spot misinformation and disinformation, including AI-generated content, and to develop critical thinking skills.
The department is engaging with sector experts to determine how to reflect this in the updated curriculum and training requirements for teachers. Following public consultation from September, the new curriculum will be taught from September 2028.
Updated relationships, sex and health education guidance, to be implemented from September 2026, includes strengthened content on staying safe online and online wellbeing. Secondary pupils will learn how advertising and information is targeted at them and how to be a discerning consumer of information online, understanding the prevalence of misinformation and disinformation online, including conspiracy theories.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of development corporations on accelerating the conversion of vacant upper floors in town centres into residential accommodation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department has made no specific assessment on the potential impact of Development Corporations in accelerating the conversion of vacant upper floors in town centres into residential accommodation.
The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 included measures to create a clearer, more flexible, and robust framework for development corporations.
The government intends to bring forward further legislation in due course to provide for locally led urban Development Corporations, enabling more coastal communities to establish them, where appropriate.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to establish new powers for development corporations in coastal communities.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department has made no specific assessment on the potential impact of Development Corporations in accelerating the conversion of vacant upper floors in town centres into residential accommodation.
The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 included measures to create a clearer, more flexible, and robust framework for development corporations.
The government intends to bring forward further legislation in due course to provide for locally led urban Development Corporations, enabling more coastal communities to establish them, where appropriate.