Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to provide opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to learn a musical instrument.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Music is an essential part of supporting children and young people to develop creativity and find their voice. The government believes creative subjects like music, art and drama are important elements of the rounded and enriching education every child deserves.
On 18 March 2025, the department announced its intention to launch a National Centre for Arts and Music Education to promote opportunities for children and young people to pursue their artistic and creative interests in school, including through the government’s network of music hubs. The department intends to launch this centre in September 2026, with a delivery lead appointed through an open procurement. Further details will be released in due course.
To support the delivery of music education, the government has committed £79 million per year for the music hubs programme, including the 2024/25 academic year. The 43 music hubs partnerships across England offer a range of services, including musical instrument tuition, instrument loaning and whole-class ensemble teaching. All partnerships have a local plan in place with an inclusion strategy that sets out specific support for disadvantaged children, including young people eligible for the pupil premium and those identified with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). To widen access to musical instruments, the government is investing £25 million in capital funding for musical instruments, equipment and technology from the 2024/25 academic year.
The government is also investing £2 million to support the Music Opportunities Pilot over a four-year period from the 2024/25 academic year to the 2027/28 academic year, backed by a further £3.85 million funding from Arts Council England and Youth Music. This pilot is delivered by Young Sounds UK in 12 areas of the country and aims to help disadvantaged children and young people, as well as those with SEND, to learn how to play an instrument of their choice or learn to sing to a high standard. The findings from the pilot will inform future policy on widening music opportunities.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve access to music education in schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Music is an essential part of supporting children and young people to develop creativity and find their voice. The government believes creative subjects like music, art and drama are important elements of the rounded and enriching education every child deserves.
On 18 March 2025, the department announced its intention to launch a National Centre for Arts and Music Education to promote opportunities for children and young people to pursue their artistic and creative interests in school, including through the government’s network of music hubs. The department intends to launch this centre in September 2026, with a delivery lead appointed through an open procurement. Further details will be released in due course.
To support the delivery of music education, the government has committed £79 million per year for the music hubs programme, including the 2024/25 academic year. The 43 music hubs partnerships across England offer a range of services, including musical instrument tuition, instrument loaning and whole-class ensemble teaching. All partnerships have a local plan in place with an inclusion strategy that sets out specific support for disadvantaged children, including young people eligible for the pupil premium and those identified with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). To widen access to musical instruments, the government is investing £25 million in capital funding for musical instruments, equipment and technology from the 2024/25 academic year.
The government is also investing £2 million to support the Music Opportunities Pilot over a four-year period from the 2024/25 academic year to the 2027/28 academic year, backed by a further £3.85 million funding from Arts Council England and Youth Music. This pilot is delivered by Young Sounds UK in 12 areas of the country and aims to help disadvantaged children and young people, as well as those with SEND, to learn how to play an instrument of their choice or learn to sing to a high standard. The findings from the pilot will inform future policy on widening music opportunities.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the number of young people not in education, employment or training in (a) Birmingham and b) Birmingham, Edgbaston constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department publishes statistics on those not in education, employment or training (NEET) for England from the Labour Force Survey for young people aged 16-24. An overview of the publication can be found here:https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief.
The number of 16-24-year-olds estimated as NEET in England at the end of 2024 is estimated to be 837,000, which is equivalent to 13.6% of the population. These estimates are not available at lower-level geographies due to limitations with sample sizes. Therefore, NEET rates for young people aged 16-24 in Birmingham and Birmingham Edgbaston constituency are not available.
However, local authorities are required to encourage, enable or assist young people’s participation in education or training and return management information for young people aged 16 and 17. Data for the 2023/24 academic year was published in ‘Participation in education, training and NEET age 16 to 17 by local authority’, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/participation-in-education-training-and-neet-age-16-to-17-by-local-authority/2023-24.
The data shows that of the 33,264 young people aged 16 and 17 years old who were known to Birmingham local authority at the end of 2023, 2,037 were NEET or their activity was not known. These statistics are published as transparency data, so some caution should be taken if using these figures.
In addition, 16-18 destination measures are published. These official statistics show the percentage of pupils not continuing to a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after completing 16-18 study. This can be used as a proxy to determine how many can be classified as NEET at the age of 18. The latest publication includes destinations in 2022/23 by parliamentary constituency boundaries at that time. Data can be found here for Birmingham Edgbaston parliamentary constituency: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8969680b-7fea-4615-ce51-08dd66bfee22.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to boost physical activity among children and young people.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to providing all young people with more opportunities to be physically active. We have set out our intention to support more children to be active by protecting time for PE in schools and working across government to support the role grassroots clubs play in expanding access to sport and physical activity.
To further support children to be active, this government committed £320 million for the primary PE and sport premium this academic year (2024/25), benefiting over 18,000 schools and around 3.9 million pupils in England.
The department has also launched an open procurement for a new grant programme from spring 2025, of up to £300,000 a year. This will focus on improving and increasing PE, school sport and physical activity opportunities for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.
The department is working with the Department for Health and Social Care and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport when considering our future investment into PE and school sport, to ensure this enables the maximum benefit to providing children with opportunities to be physically active.
The department also launched an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review in 2024 which will seek to deliver a curriculum which is rich and broad, inclusive and innovative, so that all children and young people do not miss out on subjects such as music, art, PE and drama, as well as vocational subjects. The interim report of findings was published on 18 March 2025.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will take steps to provide additional funding to universities to help support international students from Sudan whose families have been displaced by the war in that country.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government appreciates the difficult circumstances that students from Sudan may currently be facing.
Students experiencing financial difficulties should contact their university to discuss their circumstances. Higher education (HE) providers have their own hardship funds to support students who have financial issues and, like domestic students, international students can apply to their provider to access these funds. HE providers also offer a range of dedicated support to their international students pre-arrival, on-arrival and during their studies.
In addition, the UK Council for International Student Affairs offers a range of information and guidance for international students who may be experiencing unexpected financial hardship, which can be found here: https://www.ukcisa.org.uk/Information--Advice/Fees-and-Money/Unexpected-financial-hardship.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has had discussions with representatives of Oxford Cambridge and RSA on the adequacy of the GCSE Computer Science examination taken by students on 25 May 2023.
Answered by Nick Gibb
This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have asked its Chief Regulator, Dr Jo Saxton, to write to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the level of overcrowding in social housing in Birmingham on (a) primary and (b) secondary school children's education outcomes in that area.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has evaluated the national impact of poverty on educational outcomes. Evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation, Star Assessments and Renaissance Learning shows that disadvantaged pupils have fallen further behind non disadvantaged pupils compared with pre COVID-19 pandemic levels, at Key Stages 1, 2 and 4. This is indicated by a rise in the disadvantage gap index between 2019 and 2022 at KS2 and KS4. That is why the Department has increased its range of support for pupils, families, and schools.
In 2022/23, the Department will be allocating approximately £2,000 per pupil for all pupils who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years, which will be delivered through the National Funding Formula, the Pupil Premium, and the 2022/23 School Supplementary Grant together. The Pupil Premium, of which £107.5 million will be allocated to Birmingham schools in 2023/24, enables schools to provide extra support for disadvantaged pupils to help improve their academic and personal achievements. Of the 82,408 eligible pupils in Birmingham, £1,455 per pupil will go to each primary school, £1,035 per pupil to each secondary school, and schools will also receive £ 2,530 per looked after and previously looked after child.
Support also includes the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), where funding has been allocated to schools based on rates of disadvantage. Since the launch of the NTP in November 2020, around 2.85 million tutoring courses have been started, as at 6 October 2022. The six million courses the Department committed to creating in the Schools White Paper will be delivered by 2024. The Department has made available almost £5 billion for education recovery, including multi year direct investment, so that schools can deliver evidence based interventions, based on pupil’s needs. Collectively, these programmes are making a difference to pupils and schools. Recent data from the Education Policy Institute and Rising Stars/Hodder Education shows that for primary age pupils, most year groups have either caught up in English and mathematics or are now on average 4 to6 weeks behind pre COVID-19 pandemic levels, a significant increase from previous studies which suggested pupils were 2.5 to 3 months behind.
In addition, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities leads an interministerial group for Levelling Up to facilitate cross Government work on the Levelling Up agenda. This group includes Ministers from all Departments leading on missions, including an ambition to reduce the number of poor quality rented homes by one half and for 90% of pupils to achieve the expected level at Key Stage 2. The group provides an opportunity for support, challenge, and accountability on the progression of these missions.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timetable is for the publication of a Government response to the report by the Competition and Markets Authority entitled Children’s social care market study: final report, published on 10 March 2022.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
The department is rapidly working on a detailed implementation strategy in response to the three independent reviews into children’s social care published in 2022. A response will be published early this year.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools in Birmingham (a) applied and (b) were successful with their application to the School Rebuilding Programme in the last two years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department announced the next 239 schools prioritised for the School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) on 16 December 2022. This included 10 schools of the 30 nominations received from within the Birmingham Local Authority area. This is in addition to the five schools previously announced in rounds one to three of the programme and means that a total of 15 schools will be rebuilt or refurbished as part of the SRP.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent estimate of the number of children in poverty in Birmingham who are not eligible for free school meals.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Education, including free school meals (FSM), is a devolved matter and the response outlines the information for England only.
The latest published statistics from the Department are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics. The figures show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming FSM. This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy, over one third of school children are now provided with FSM, at a cost of over £1 billion a year. The Department currently has protections in place, ensuring that eligible pupils keep their FSM entitlement even if their household circumstances improve.
The Department believes that the current eligibility threshold level, which enables children in low income households to benefit from FSM while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one. The Department will continue to keep FSM eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them, as well as continuing to monitor current issues that impact disadvantaged families, such as the rising cost of living, and its impact on FSM.