Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department spent on SEND tribunal appeals in the last 12 months.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department paid His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service £13.471 million in 2024/25 to cover the operational costs of the SEND Tribunal, including administration, estates and salaries, for special educational needs appeals for children and young people aged 5 to 16.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of pre-schools that have closed due to financial difficulties in the South West in the last five years.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is our ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change. I can appreciate how devastating the closure of a nursery can be and the resulting impact this can have on families and the wider community. While the department does not hold the requested data, we can however confirm that childcare places in the South West region experienced a 5% increase in registered nursery places at group-based providers between 2023 and 2024.
The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. We have regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action the local authority is taking and, where needed, support with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract. Childcare Works additionally provide one-to-one targeted support for local authorities who need it, alongside a wider package of support for all local authorities to support them to deliver the childcare expansion programme.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number and proportion of pre-schools that rely on fundraising to cover (a) operational and (b) staffing costs in the South West.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The early years funding rates for the 2025/26 financial year for Gloucestershire are £5.71 for the 3 and 4 year-old entitlement, £7.94 for the 2 year-old entitlements, and £10.75 for children under 2s. This is slightly below national average due to relative differences in local costs of delivery and the proportion of children with additional needs which are reflected in the Early Years National Funding Formula (EY NFF) used to set local authority rates.
Regarding levels of additional needs, the EY NFF uses data on free school meals and the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (for the 2s and under formula only), disability living allowance and English as an additional language. The formulae also include an area cost adjustment to reflect variations in local staff and premises costs.
The department does not hold data on the proportion of settings using fundraising to support their income.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how funding rates for early years education in Gloucestershire compare with the rest of England; and what criteria these funding rates are based on.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The early years funding rates for the 2025/26 financial year for Gloucestershire are £5.71 for the 3 and 4 year-old entitlement, £7.94 for the 2 year-old entitlements, and £10.75 for children under 2s. This is slightly below national average due to relative differences in local costs of delivery and the proportion of children with additional needs which are reflected in the Early Years National Funding Formula (EY NFF) used to set local authority rates.
Regarding levels of additional needs, the EY NFF uses data on free school meals and the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (for the 2s and under formula only), disability living allowance and English as an additional language. The formulae also include an area cost adjustment to reflect variations in local staff and premises costs.
The department does not hold data on the proportion of settings using fundraising to support their income.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy for schools to (a) appoint a designated young carers lead and (b) implement a (i) flagging and (ii) registration scheme for young carers.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The statutory guidance 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' states that all school staff should be alert to the potential need for early help for young carers and requires designated safeguarding leads to be trained to understand and respond to their needs, ensuring young carers are supported to thrive in school.
We have no plans to introduce a registration scheme for young carers. Local authorities have a statutory duty to identify young carers who may need support and undertake a needs assessment where support may be needed, or upon request.
To further improve visibility and support, young carers were added to the school census as a distinct group in 2022/23. This has increased their visibility in the school system, providing valuable demographic data and insights into their educational outcomes.
Further, Ofsted’s new education inspection framework references young carers when assessing the impact of a school’s work on attendance, behaviour, personal development and wellbeing of disadvantaged pupils.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that Palestinian students in Gaza who are eligible to apply for visas and scholarships for UK courses beginning before December 2025 are able to access university places, in the context of many UK institutions having already closed their applications for the 2025 academic year.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government outlined plans for how it is supporting students travelling to the United Kingdom from Gaza in a policy statement published on 15 September 2025 available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/support-for-students-travelling-to-the-uk-from-gaza/scholarships-for-students-from-gaza.
To be eligible to come to the UK under this approach, students must submit a student visa application, which will need to be sponsored by their university, and pay associated fees.
Students must:
The government remains committed to doing everything we can to assist eligible students to leave Gaza, specifically those who hold full scholarships to UK universities with course start dates no later than 31 December 2025.
The government is making every effort to support this process. However, a student’s journey from Gaza to the UK cannot be guaranteed, and timelines remain subject to external factors, outside the government’s control.
The government is working with the devolved governments and universities to identify eligible students, and to ensure students receive the support they need for the duration of their studies.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the number of schools awaiting essential building repairs.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring schools and colleges have the resources and buildings they need is a key part of the department’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every young person the best start in life.
This government has given a long-term commitment through to the 2034/35 financial year to improve the condition of our schools and colleges across England. The department is investing almost £3 billion per year by the 2034/35 financial year in capital maintenance and renewal to improve the condition of the school and college estate, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26.
The department is also investing almost £20 billion in the School Rebuilding Programme through to the 2034/35 financial year, delivering rebuilding projects at over 500 schools across England within the existing programme and expanding rebuilding, with a further 250 schools to be selected within the next two years.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of levels of funding for supporting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has allocated high needs funding of over £12 billion specifically for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the current 2025/26 financial year. The funding announced at the 2025 Spending Review, which provided an increase of £4.2 billion for schools over the next three years, will enable a significant investment in the support available for pupils with SEND within mainstream schools, facilitating reform of the SEND system to make those schools more inclusive. We are continuing to engage closely with children, parents and experts as we develop plans to ensure all children get the outcomes and life chances they deserve.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
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 levels of changes in real-terms funding since 2010 on schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
School funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning that core school budgets will total £65.3 billion, compared with £61.6 billion in 2024/25. This is set to rise by a further £4.2 billion by the 2028/29 financial year. This settlement more than protects per-pupil funding in real terms and supports our mission to help all children and young people achieve and thrive.
The department’s schools funding statistics show what changes in school funding since 2010 have meant for per-pupil funding in real terms. The statistics can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-funding-statistics/2024-25. Based on the GDP deflator, real-terms funding per pupil fell in the mid-2010s but has since risen and is now above the 2010/11 financial year levels. School funding per pupil in the 2025/26 financial year is 8.7% higher than 2010/11 in real terms.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that school staff receive training on how to support pupils with epilepsy.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Governing bodies must ensure that the arrangements they put in place are sufficient to meet their statutory responsibilities and that policies, plans, procedures and systems are properly and effectively implemented. This includes the duty under Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions and the duties under the Equality Act 2010. The effectiveness of a school is assessed through inspection by Ofsted.