Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support (a) foster carers, (b) kinship carers and (c) adoptive parents.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Transformation Fund, announced in the spring, builds on the £15 million investment for foster care in the Budget. The department will provide an additional £25 million over two years, beginning in the 2026/27 financial year.
Foster carers receive the national minimum allowance to cover the costs of looking after children in their care, uplifted each year in line with inflation and earnings. Our investment includes the rollout of the Mockingbird Family model, which offers peer support to foster carers and children. We also continue to fund Fosterline, a free helpline for current and prospective foster carers.
To support kinship carers, the government announced £40 million to pilot the Kinship Allowance in some local authorities, supporting eligible kinship carers with the additional costs of taking parental responsibility for a kinship child. The pilot will launch in late autumn and support approximately 5,000 kinship children until March 2029. In addition, the department funds training and peer support groups for kinship carers.
In April, the department announced £8.8 million for Adoption England to improve adoption services and support regional adoption agencies to respond more effectively to adoptive families in crisis. The £50 million adoption and special guardianship support fund will continue to enable families to access a significant package of therapeutic support.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support (a) dyscalculic learners and(b) learners with maths learning difficulties.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including dyscalculia, receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The department funds the Maths Hubs programme, a school-led network aimed at improving the teaching of mathematics for all pupils in publicly funded schools. The programme covers primary, secondary and special schools and uses a mastery-based teaching approach, which aims to secure understanding of key concepts. This includes training for teachers on techniques such as avoiding cognitive overload by breaking the learning down into small manageable steps, using representations to expose mathematical structure, and ensuring that learning is sequenced in a coherent manner so it makes sense to pupils.
Professionals can access online training to develop their understanding how the curriculum support learners. This includes approaches to support learners who face barriers to understanding of maths, such as those with SEND or dyscalculia.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has considered including water-only policies in updated school food standards.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is engaging with stakeholders on revising the school food standards, to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history. Schedule 1 of the school food standards outlines the permitted drinks. These include a variety of drinks such as plain water, milk and plain soya, rice or oat drinks. Beyond the school food standards, headteachers, governors and their caterers are best placed to make decisions about their school food policies, including drinks policies. As with all aspects of the school food standards review, we will consider our approaches to drinks.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure the provision of (a) clear and (b) consistent statutory guidance on educational guardianship.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All independent and state boarding schools must have regard to the ‘Keeping children safe in education’ guidance and must meet the national minimum standards for boarding schools. Section 22 of those standards sets out the requirements of schools in relation to educational guardians appointed by a school.
Parents of international child students who make private educational guardianship arrangements for their children should ensure that they apply due diligence to any arrangements.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to incorporate soil health education into the National Curriculum.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The national curriculum provides a broad framework within which schools have the flexibility to develop the content of their own curricula. Soil health can be taught within both the geography and science curricula.
The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The Review wants to ensure a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum that readies young people for life and work. The Review Group published an interim report on 18 March, and the final report with recommendations will be published in the autumn.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support (a) early education and (b) childcare providers.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to giving children the best start in life and has set the ambition through the government’s Plan for Change for a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn.
The department has set a target for 75% of children to achieve a good level of development by the end of reception, by 2028. This target aims to ensure that children are school-ready and have met their early learning goals by the age of five.
Next year alone, the department plans to provide over £8 billion for early years entitlements, which is a more than 30% increase compared to 2024/25.
The early years pupil premium rate has increased by over 45% compared to the 2024/25 financial year, which is equivalent to up to £570 per eligible child per year. The department is also providing further supplementary funding of £75 million for the early years expansion grant and £25 million through the forthcoming National Insurance contributions grant for public sector employers in early years.
State-funded primary-phase schools have submitted bids for up to £150,000 of capital funding to refurbish spare internal space to create or expand school-based nurseries. This is the first stage in our plan to deliver 3,000 school-based nurseries and will help deliver on the department’s commitment to ensure families across the country have access to high-quality childcare and early education.
The department is also delivering programmes to support the sector to attract talented staff and childminders by creating conditions for improved recruitment, alongside programmes to better utilise the skills of the existing workforce.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support SEND transport providers.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Stroud to the answer of 7 February 2025 to Question 27291.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that teacher pension payments are not suspended as a result of (a) administrative issues and (b) delays related to proof of life documentation.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department has kept the Disclosure of Death Registration Information (DDRI) check under review with the scheme administrator to ensure that it continues to meet the objectives of both protecting members and the scheme.
The DDRI check was introduced as a proportionate means to ensure that recipients of pension payments from the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme continue to be eligible.
The process allows 28 days for a pensioner member to respond to an enquiry to certify their ongoing entitlement. Where a pension has been paused because confirmation has not been received within that timescale, it is normally reinstated within 10 working days with payment of any arrears. The scheme administrator is currently working on further enhancements, such as issuing additional notifications by alternative communication methods, including by email.
This approach avoids the need to require all recipients to confirm eligibility on an annual basis, and protects them, and taxpayers, from the consequences of any overpayments.
Ultimately, the Teachers’ Pension Scheme Pension Board provides oversight of the effectiveness of all elements of the administration of the scheme.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for her policies of differences in levels of funding between 14-16-year-old students who undertake their Key Stage 4 education at a (a) mainstream school and (b) further education college.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Further education (FE) and sixth form colleges are able to enrol students aged 14 to 16 on a full time study programme and receive funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). If they wish to do so, colleges need to meet specific criteria, including Ofsted rating, and have to put in place necessary requirements. It is up to localities to judge the need for this provision and colleges are expected to have discussed their intent to directly enrol 14 to 16 year-olds with relevant local authorities before making the necessary arrangements to be able to offer this provision. Currently there are 14 colleges across England which offer full time education for 14 to 16-year-olds. The department’s published guidance on the full time enrolment of 14 to 16 year-olds in FE and sixth form colleges in the 2024/25 academic year can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/full-time-enrolment-of-14-to-16-year-olds-in-further-education-and-sixth-form-colleges/full-time-enrolment-of-14-to-16-year-olds-in-further-education-and-sixth-form-colleges-2023-to-2024-academic-year.
Colleges are also funded where they make part time provision for children aged 14 years or older who are currently electively home educated. They can also receive funding for the education of those aged 14-16 who have achieved qualifications at least equivalent to a full level 2, and who want to enrol on a level 3 course.
Funding for 14 to 16 year-olds in FE colleges is based on the same approach as for 16 to 19 year-olds. A modified version of the 16 to 19 funding formula is used to calculate allocations for directly recruited, full time 14 to 16 year-olds to reflect their circumstances. This includes provision of pupil premium funding where these young people qualify. This year, 2024/25, there will be a significant increase of £750 per full time 14 to 16 student that has not yet achieved GCSE English and mathematics. This is as a result of extending to programmes at all levels the English and mathematics funding only previously available for those on level 3 programmes without grade 4 in the subjects.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of 14-16 year old provision in further education colleges.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Further education (FE) and sixth form colleges are able to enrol students aged 14 to 16 on a full time study programme and receive funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). If they wish to do so, colleges need to meet specific criteria, including Ofsted rating, and have to put in place necessary requirements. It is up to localities to judge the need for this provision and colleges are expected to have discussed their intent to directly enrol 14 to 16 year-olds with relevant local authorities before making the necessary arrangements to be able to offer this provision. Currently there are 14 colleges across England which offer full time education for 14 to 16-year-olds. The department’s published guidance on the full time enrolment of 14 to 16 year-olds in FE and sixth form colleges in the 2024/25 academic year can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/full-time-enrolment-of-14-to-16-year-olds-in-further-education-and-sixth-form-colleges/full-time-enrolment-of-14-to-16-year-olds-in-further-education-and-sixth-form-colleges-2023-to-2024-academic-year.
Colleges are also funded where they make part time provision for children aged 14 years or older who are currently electively home educated. They can also receive funding for the education of those aged 14-16 who have achieved qualifications at least equivalent to a full level 2, and who want to enrol on a level 3 course.
Funding for 14 to 16 year-olds in FE colleges is based on the same approach as for 16 to 19 year-olds. A modified version of the 16 to 19 funding formula is used to calculate allocations for directly recruited, full time 14 to 16 year-olds to reflect their circumstances. This includes provision of pupil premium funding where these young people qualify. This year, 2024/25, there will be a significant increase of £750 per full time 14 to 16 student that has not yet achieved GCSE English and mathematics. This is as a result of extending to programmes at all levels the English and mathematics funding only previously available for those on level 3 programmes without grade 4 in the subjects.