Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support university students with the cost of living.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government recognises the impact that the cost-of-living crisis has had on students.
The government has therefore announced that maximum loans for living costs will increase by 3.1% for the 2025/26 academic year. A 3.1% increase is in line with forecast inflation based on the Retail Prices Index Excluding Mortgage (RPIX) inflation index.
We continue to provide means-tested non-repayable grants to low-income full-time students with children and adults who are financially dependent on them.
In addition, students with disabilities can apply for non-means tested disabled students’ allowance to support additional disability-related study costs. For the 2025/26 academic year, maximum dependants’ grants and disabled students’ allowance are being increased by 3.1%.
Students undertaking nursing, midwifery and allied health profession courses also qualify for additional non-repayable grant support through the NHS Learning Support Fund.
The department aims to publish our plans for higher education reform as part of the Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy White paper in the summer, and work with the sector and the Office for Students to deliver the change that the country needs.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the level of educational attainment of children living in temporary accommodation.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s Opportunity Mission will break the link between young people’s backgrounds and their future success, ensuring family security, providing the best start in life, with all children achieving and thriving and building skills for opportunity and growth.
High and rising standards in every school are at the heart of this mission, driving better outcomes for every child, and delivered through excellent teaching and leadership, a high quality curriculum, and a system which removes the barriers to learning that hold too many children back.
The department knows that disadvantaged young people in particular face barriers to engagement with education, including insecure housing. If children are unable to engage with education, it doesn’t matter how good teaching and learning is, they will not benefit.
From April 2025 the department will be rolling out family help services that will prioritise supporting the whole family and intervening at the earliest opportunity to prevent challenges escalating. Lead practitioners will undertake assessments of all needs of the family, including those who are experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, homelessness, and work to support families where this may be part of a more complex set of needs.
As announced at the Autumn Budget 2024, funding for homelessness services is increasing next year by £233 million compared to this year, 2024/25. This increased spending will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and help to prevent rough sleeping. This brings total spend to nearly £1 billion in 2025/26.
The Child Poverty Taskforce has also started urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy. The Strategy will tackle overall child poverty, including a focus on children in deepest poverty lacking essentials. This is set out in more detail in the 23 October publication ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing our Strategy’, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy.
In addition, homeless children are included in the Fair Access Protocol, which is a mandatory mechanism developed by local authorities in partnership with all schools in their area. Its aim is to ensure that vulnerable children, and those who are having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, are allocated a school place as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with teachers on recent trends in the level of (a) misogynistic and (b) violent attitudes towards women and girls expressed by boys in education settings.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As set out in the government’s Plan for Change, the Safer Streets Mission aims to reduce serious harm and increase public confidence in policing and in the criminal justice system. Integral to this is the ambition to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. The department plays an important role in delivering that ambition.
The relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, currently under review, is designed to provide a comprehensive basis, from primary school onwards, for building respectful, healthy relationships, recognising prejudice and the impact of stereotypes, and understanding what counts as harmful or abusive behaviour. The guidance is clear that schools should be alive to issues such as everyday sexism, misogyny, homophobia and gender stereotypes and take positive action to build a culture where these are not tolerated, and any occurrences are identified and tackled. The RSHE curriculum is supported by teacher training modules available online.
The department’s Ministers and officials engage regularly with school staff and their representative bodies on a wide range of issues, including on the behaviour of pupils and students. As part of the work to review the current RSHE statutory guidance, we have been discussing with stakeholders and are planning further engagement directly with teachers.
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Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the increase in university tuition fees on university enrolment.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
An Equality Impact Assessment of changes to tuition fees and student support for the 2025/26 academic year was published on GOV.UK on 20 January when the Higher Education (Fee Limits and Fee Limit Condition) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 were laid before Parliament. These regulations increase maximum tuition fee limits in 2025/26 by 3.1%, based on forecast inflation using the RPI All Items Excl Mortgage Interest (RPIX) inflation index.
The government expects that a 3.1% increase in maximum tuition fees, which will be accompanied by a similar increase in fee loans in 2025/26 for full-time, full-time accelerated and part-time undergraduate courses, will have a broadly neutral impact as the total level of debt for students who qualify for up-front tuition fee loans should remain unchanged in real terms.
The government also considers that the increase in maximum tuition fees will not significantly alter participation decisions for most students as the value of tuition fees will remain unchanged in real terms.
The government plans to lay further regulations in February increasing maximum fee loans for 2025/26 by 3.1%.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to support students with (a) the cost of living and (b) accommodation costs.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is determined that the higher education funding system should deliver for our economy, for universities and for students. This government is committed to supporting the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university.
The government recognises the impact that the cost of living crisis has had on students. That is why we are increasing the maximum maintenance loans for living costs for the 2025/26 academic year by 3.1%, in line with the forecast rate of inflation, to ensure that more support is targeted at students from the lowest income families.
Maximum maintenance loans will increase in line with forecast inflation, giving students up to an additional £414 a year of support in the 2025/26 academic year. This is the increase in the maximum loan for living costs for students living away from, and studying in, London from £13,348 to £13,762.
Therefore, a student living away from home and studying outside London on a household income of £25,000 or less will qualify for a maximum loan for living costs of £10,544 for the 2025/26 academic year, an increase of £317 compared to 2024/25. Students living away from home and studying in London will qualify for higher rates of loan, as will students eligible for benefits and some disabled students.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will pause the defunding of applied general qualifications scheduled for 2025 and 2026.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In July 2024, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced a short pause to the defunding of qualifications to enable a review of 16-19 qualification reforms at Level 3 and below. This ensured that 95 qualifications set to lose funding this summer continue to be available to students, in accordance with the decisions of awarding organisations. This was followed by a Written Ministerial Statement by Baroness Smith, on 25 July, which is available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-07-25/hlws20.
The department is now working to review defunding decisions and qualifications available at level three and it will set out the position before Christmas.
The department has not announced any defunding for 2026.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to provide mandatory training for social workers on identifying signs of coercive and controlling behaviour.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The regulator for the social work profession, Social Work England, sets the professional standards which all social workers must meet. The professional standards include that social workers must be able recognise the risk indicators of different forms of abuse and neglect and their impact on people, their families and their support networks. Social workers complete initial education and training courses which are approved by the regulator against the education and training standards. The provision of continuous professional development for employed social workers is a matter for their employer.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to increase the number of school places in areas where there exists a shortage.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities. The department collects pupil forecasts and school capacity data from local authorities annually through the School Capacity survey. The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on the data they provide.
Nearly £1.5 billion of allocations have already been confirmed to support local authorities to create school places needed over the next three academic years, up to and including the 2026/27 academic year. This represents £745 million for September 2024, £195 million for September 2025 and over £520 million for September 2026.
The department also engages with local authorities on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional places and to consider alternatives where necessary. When local authorities are experiencing difficulties, the department supports them to find solutions as quickly as possible. Published guidance makes clear the expectation that schools, academy trusts, dioceses, parents and other civic partners work collaboratively with local authorities to support them in the delivery of their place planning responsibilities. This government is reviewing this further to ensure it meets the needs of local areas.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number school places in Liverpool.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Data on state-funded school places is published at local authority level in the annual school capacity statistics publication. The latest data available shows that, as at 1 May 2023, there were 75,150 state-funded school places, (39,570 primary and 35,580 secondary), in Liverpool. The annual school capacity statistics publication can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to help ensure Kings Leadership Academy in Liverpool is ready to accept pupils from September 2025.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
To open a free school, the department must be satisfied that the site is suitable and deliverable. The department has acquired the site for the school. However, there are a number of planning conditions that the department needs to satisfy before the school opens. The department is working closely with the Local Planning Authority, Liverpool City Council and the Great Schools Trust to address the planning requirements for the school.