Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support households (a) with children and (b) on a low income to (i) reduce their consumption of ultra-processed foods and (ii) use more minimally processed and nutritious foods.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s Eatwell Guide already advises that people should eat more fruit, vegetables, and wholegrain or higher-fibre foods, as well as less processed meat, and less food and drink that is high in sugar, calories, saturated fat, and salt.
The Eatwell Guide principles are communicated through a variety of channels, including the NHS.UK website and Government social marketing campaigns. For example, the Better Health Healthier Families website and the Healthy Steps email programme, which aims to help families with primary aged children in England to eat well and move more.
The range of actions that have already been taken to create a healthier environment to help children reduce their consumption of processed foods that are high in energy, saturated fat, salt, and free sugars, and to improve access to affordable, minimally processed foods, include:
- the Healthy Start scheme, which supported over 361,000 people in April 2025;
- the Nursery Milk Scheme, which provides a reimbursement to childcare providers in England and Wales for a daily 1/3 pint portion of milk to children and babies; and
- the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme, which provides approximately 2.2 million children in Key Stage 1 with a portion of fresh fruit or vegetables per day at school.
In relation to foods and drinks high in calories, saturated fat, salt, and free sugars, work on our commitments is progressing through:
- implementing the television and online advertising restrictions for less healthy food or drink;
- consulting on plans to ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children under 16 years old; and
- giving local authorities stronger, clearer powers to block new fast-food outlets near schools and where young people congregate.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether each Integrated Care System is required to reduce the number of (a) people with a learning disability and (b) autistic people from their area in mental health hospitals by 10 per cent within 2025-26.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service planning guidance for 2025/26 includes a focus on improving care for people with a learning disability and autistic people and contains the objective to deliver a minimum 10% reduction in the use of mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people in 2025/26. As part of operational planning, each integrated care board (ICB) is expected to: reduce the number of adults with a learning disability, including those who may also be autistic, in mental health inpatient care by 20% from a 31 March 2024 baseline by 31 March 2026; and reduce the number of autistic adults, with no learning disability, in mental health inpatient care by 20% from a 31 March 2024 baseline by 31 March 2026.
The baseline is from Assuring Transformation data and was extracted from 31 March 2024. The expectation is that ICBs will have been working towards achieving a 10% reduction from the 31 March 2024 baseline by 31 March 2025 and will build on this during 2025/26. They are therefore expected to achieve a 20% reduction from the 31 March 2024 baseline by 31 March 2026.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to introduce mandatory neurodiversity training for all (a) teachers and (b) education staff.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department is committed to improving support for all children and young people. Statutory Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Teacher induction training must cover adaptive teaching and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and this includes training which would support effective teaching of neurodiverse pupils.
The department has reviewed the content for the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework, adding significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and supporting and improving inclusivity for pupils with SEND.
From September 2025, the department has also enhanced the requirement on providers of Early Career Teacher training to develop, in conjunction with educational experts, SEND specific training materials.
The government is expanding the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme, providing neurodiversity training to teachers and staff in a further 1200 mainstream primary schools.
The department recognises that continuous improvement is essential and have committed to a full review of the Early Career Teacher Entitlement in 2027.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what baseline figure his Department will use to measure progress on reducing the number of (a) people with a learning disability and (b) autistic people in mental health hospitals by 10 per cent within 2025-26.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service planning guidance for 2025/26 includes a focus on improving care for people with a learning disability and autistic people and contains the objective to deliver a minimum 10% reduction in the use of mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people in 2025/26. The baselines being used to measure progress against operational planning guidance are: adults with a learning disability, including those who may also be autistic, in mental health inpatient care as of 31 March 2024, based on Assuring Transformation data extracted from 31 March 2024; and adults who are autistic, with no learning disability, in mental health inpatient care as of 31 March 2024, based on Assuring Transformation data extracted from 31 March 2024.
The expectation is that integrated care boards will have been working towards achieving a 10% reduction from the 31 March 2024 baseline by 31 March 2025, and will build on this during 2025/26. They are therefore expected to achieve a 20% reduction from the 31 March 2024 baseline by 31 March 2026.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve the use of innovative technologies to treat glaucoma through the 10-Year Health Plan.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan will deliver the three big shifts our National Health Service needs to be fit for the future: from hospital to community; from analogue to digital; and from sickness to prevention. All of these are relevant to preventing and managing conditions such as glaucoma in all parts of the country. More tests and scans delivered in the community and better joint working between services will support the management of conditions, including glaucoma, closer to home.
The plan will draw directly from the extensive engagement we have undertaken with the public, patients, and staff, including in the eye care sector. We are in the final stages of working on the plan and will publish it shortly.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will continue to play a crucial role in evaluating new medicines, medical devices, and other technologies, to determine their clinical and cost-effectiveness, before recommending them for NHS use.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking through the NHS 10-Year Health Plan to improve glaucoma care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan will deliver the three big shifts our National Health Service needs to be fit for the future: from hospital to community; from analogue to digital; and from sickness to prevention. All of these are relevant to preventing and managing conditions such as glaucoma in all parts of the country. More tests and scans delivered in the community and better joint working between services will support the management of conditions, including glaucoma, closer to home.
The plan will draw directly from the extensive engagement we have undertaken with the public, patients, and staff, including in the eye care sector. We are in the final stages of working on the plan and will publish it shortly.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will continue to play a crucial role in evaluating new medicines, medical devices, and other technologies, to determine their clinical and cost-effectiveness, before recommending them for NHS use.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his department is taking to help prevent irreversible blindness due to glaucoma progression.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Regular sight tests play a crucial role in the early detection of glaucoma, which is often symptomless in the early stages. Free National Health Service sight tests are available for many, including individuals diagnosed with glaucoma or those aged 40 years old and over with a close family history of glaucoma. Patients with suspected glaucoma will be referred for further investigation, any clinically necessary treatment, and ongoing monitoring, which can delay its progression.
NHS England has been testing how IT connectivity between primary and secondary eye care services and the development of a single point of access could improve the referral and triage of patients, reducing the time from referral to treatment. It could also allow for more patients to be managed closer to home, within community optometry. This could benefit all patients with eye care needs, including those with suspected or diagnosed glaucoma.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the average shortfall between Government funding and the actual cost to nurseries of delivering a funded nursery place.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
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. This is key to the government’s Plan for Change, which starts with reaching the milestone of a record number of children being ready for school. That also means ensuring the sector is financially sustainable and confident as it continues to deliver entitlements and high-quality early years provision going forward.
In 2025/26 alone, this government plans to spend over £8 billion on early years entitlements and we have increased the early years pupil premium by over 45%. On top of this, we are providing further supplementary funding of £75 million for the Early Years Expansion Grant.
To set early years funding rates, we uplift the national average rate from the previous year taking into account cost pressures facing the sector, including forecasts of average earnings and inflation, and the National Living Wage. We use the early years national funding formulae (EYNFF) to distribute the early years entitlements budget to local authorities. The EYNFF includes a base rate for each child, which is the same minimum funding for every child no matter where they live or whether they have additional needs. This rate is based on the core costs of childcare provision and has been informed by the cost of childcare review.
To make sure we can account for the differences in costs across the country, such as on staffing and premises costs, we also apply an area cost adjustment for each area. This approach only increases funding, it never reduces the base rate or additional needs funding.
The average hourly funding rate provided for 3 and 4-year-olds since 2018 is as follows:
Year | 3 and 4-year-old combined rate |
2017/18 | £4.76 |
2018/19 | £4.75 |
2019/20 | £4.75 |
2020/21 | £4.83 |
2021/22 | £4.88 |
2022/23 | £5.04 |
2023/24 (April – August) | £5.28 |
2023/24 (September – March) | £5.62 |
2024/25 | £5.88 |
2025/26 | £6.12 |
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding rates for early years providers offering free nursery places.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
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. This is key to the government’s Plan for Change, which starts with reaching the milestone of a record number of children being ready for school. That also means ensuring the sector is financially sustainable and confident as it continues to deliver entitlements and high-quality early years provision going forward.
In 2025/26 alone, this government plans to spend over £8 billion on early years entitlements and we have increased the early years pupil premium by over 45%. On top of this, we are providing further supplementary funding of £75 million for the Early Years Expansion Grant.
To set early years funding rates, we uplift the national average rate from the previous year taking into account cost pressures facing the sector, including forecasts of average earnings and inflation, and the National Living Wage. We use the early years national funding formulae (EYNFF) to distribute the early years entitlements budget to local authorities. The EYNFF includes a base rate for each child, which is the same minimum funding for every child no matter where they live or whether they have additional needs. This rate is based on the core costs of childcare provision and has been informed by the cost of childcare review.
To make sure we can account for the differences in costs across the country, such as on staffing and premises costs, we also apply an area cost adjustment for each area. This approach only increases funding, it never reduces the base rate or additional needs funding.
The average hourly funding rate provided for 3 and 4-year-olds since 2018 is as follows:
Year | 3 and 4-year-old combined rate |
2017/18 | £4.76 |
2018/19 | £4.75 |
2019/20 | £4.75 |
2020/21 | £4.83 |
2021/22 | £4.88 |
2022/23 | £5.04 |
2023/24 (April – August) | £5.28 |
2023/24 (September – March) | £5.62 |
2024/25 | £5.88 |
2025/26 | £6.12 |
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of regional variations in the cost of delivering nursery provision in England.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
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. This is key to the government’s Plan for Change, which starts with reaching the milestone of a record number of children being ready for school. That also means ensuring the sector is financially sustainable and confident as it continues to deliver entitlements and high-quality early years provision going forward.
In 2025/26 alone, this government plans to spend over £8 billion on early years entitlements and we have increased the early years pupil premium by over 45%. On top of this, we are providing further supplementary funding of £75 million for the Early Years Expansion Grant.
To set early years funding rates, we uplift the national average rate from the previous year taking into account cost pressures facing the sector, including forecasts of average earnings and inflation, and the National Living Wage. We use the early years national funding formulae (EYNFF) to distribute the early years entitlements budget to local authorities. The EYNFF includes a base rate for each child, which is the same minimum funding for every child no matter where they live or whether they have additional needs. This rate is based on the core costs of childcare provision and has been informed by the cost of childcare review.
To make sure we can account for the differences in costs across the country, such as on staffing and premises costs, we also apply an area cost adjustment for each area. This approach only increases funding, it never reduces the base rate or additional needs funding.
The average hourly funding rate provided for 3 and 4-year-olds since 2018 is as follows:
Year | 3 and 4-year-old combined rate |
2017/18 | £4.76 |
2018/19 | £4.75 |
2019/20 | £4.75 |
2020/21 | £4.83 |
2021/22 | £4.88 |
2022/23 | £5.04 |
2023/24 (April – August) | £5.28 |
2023/24 (September – March) | £5.62 |
2024/25 | £5.88 |
2025/26 | £6.12 |