Sonia Kumar

​​The department wants to break down barriers to opportunity for every child, no matter what their background, and have an education system in which all children and young people can achieve and thrive.

All children deserve to have the best start in life, and the department will achieve this by ensuing access to high-quality early education and childcare. By upgrading space in primary schools, the department will create an additional 3,000 nurseries which will transform life chances.

The department has moved quickly to start driving up school standards by beginning work to recruit an additional 6,500 expert teachers, and have already launched an independent, expert-led curriculum and assessment review to deliver our ambition for every child and young person to study a curriculum which is rich and broad, inclusive and innovative.

The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will ensure our education and children’s social care systems transform life chances for millions of children and young people, by ensuring the school system is fair for every child. Every primary school, including those in Dudley, will be required to provide free breakfast clubs, to ensure that every child, no matter their background, is well prepared for the school day. We will limit the number of branded uniform items that a school can require to cut costs for parents and families.

The schools national funding formula (NFF) distributes funding based on school and pupil characteristics. The NFF targets funding to schools which have the greatest numbers of pupils with additional needs. In 2024/25, 10.2% of the formula is targeted towards deprived pupils. The department is considering the impact of the formula on local authorities, including Dudley. It is important that there is a fair education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed.

More widely, for too many children, living in poverty robs them of opportunity and affects their ability to learn. Child poverty has gone up by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family.

My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, therefore announced the appointment of the Secretary of State for Work and Pension and the Secretary of State for Education to be the joint leads of a new ministerial taskforce, to begin work on a Child Poverty Strategy. The government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, tackle the root causes, and give every child the best start at life.

The government will support the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university, regardless of their background.

Too many people across our country do not get the opportunity to succeed. The government will act to change this.

The government recognises that UK higher education creates opportunity, is a world-leading sector in our economy and supports local communities. The government is committed to a sustainable funding model, which supports high value provision thereby powering opportunity and growth and meeting the skills needs of the country.

The government knows that Britain needs a modern transport network to help kickstart economic growth and we are working to address these issues and build a truly accessible and inclusive transport system that works for everyone.

I am committed to championing the rights of disabled people, putting their views at the heart of our actions. Ensuring accessibility for all passengers is at the heart of our passenger-focussed approach.

The King’s Speech announced that the government will bring forward legislation through a Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill and Rail Reform Bill, to improve the performance of railways by reforming rail franchising, establishing Great British Railways and bringing train operators into public ownership.

The Better Buses Bill will also put the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England, to ensure networks can meet the needs of the communities who rely on them. These measures will deliver benefits for all passengers, including disabled people.

Together these measures will bring benefits across the country, including to the people of Dudley.

The Dudley constituency will benefit from a number of Department for Transport projects. These include the substantial projects of the new Dudley bus and Metro Interchange, and the first phase of the Wednesbury Metro tram extension to Dudley. These are both under construction.

In addition, Dudley Council is benefitting from Highways Maintenance funding for its local road maintenance and pothole programme.

Under new leadership the DWP will shift from being a department for welfare to being the department for work. We will create a new jobs and careers service, bringing together Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service.

The service will be focused on helping people get into work and get on at work, not only monitoring and managing benefits claims. For our employment support systems, the outcomes that will matter are higher engagement, higher employment and higher earnings.

Jobcentre teams in Dudley and across the Black Country are supporting people into work and helping those in work to progress to higher paid jobs. We are working with local and national employers to help fill vacancies quickly, delivering Sector-Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs), recruitment days, and job fairs.

We work closely with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to shape and deliver the skills offer to residents. The devolved adult education budget forms the basis for our partnership work with discussions around pre-employment training, SWAPs and English for Speakers of Other Languages provision, with input from local Colleges and providers on delivery and plans. The Department is also an integral stakeholder on the West Midlands Local Skills Improvement Plans Delivery Board.

Recent examples of collaboration include Path 2 Apprenticeships, aimed at 19 to 29-year-olds, with Apprenticeship placements in a variety of sectors such as Business Administration, Construction and Hospitality, and an upskilling and recruitment programme, due to be piloted in Coventry, where we are working with employers to address progression and recruitment needs.

We currently have SWAPs linked to vacancies with Midland Metro Ltd as well as jobs in the Social Care, education and HGV sectors.

A recent job fair hosted by Dudley Jobcentre was supported by 20 employers and training providers, including NHS, Betfred, The Army, Edgeview Homes, and Trinity Personnel, and was well attended by jobseekers. The team work closely with Dudley Metropolitan Council and the local NHS to promote their vacancies to residents. Customers with health barriers benefit from additional time with their Work Coach to explore provision available, including the Work and Health Programme and Thrive into Work, and those over 50 have access to a range of support, including the Mid-life MOT with a focus on work, health and pensions.

The Youth Hub in Merry Hill Shopping Centre works with Dudley council to offer bespoke training and support to young people, including Movement to Work. We also offer an outreach service at the Dudley Archives and Local History Centre and the Black Country Skills Shop, working closely with the National Careers Service. This includes partnership work with Dudley Children’s Services to identify care leavers across the borough, offering training and employment opportunities. Our Supporting Families Employer Advisors also work alongside key partners in Dudley to offer a tailored service for families and individuals as a route back into work.

We are working with The Salvation Army to raise awareness of their UK Shared Prosperity Fund provision, which includes employment and volunteering opportunities. Our Schools Advisers work with over 15 secondary schools and colleges across the Dudley area, supporting students to transition into work, training, or further study. The team provide advice on the labour market, traineeships and apprenticeships, and insight into what local employers are looking for.

NHS England is delivering a range of interventions that are expected to improve early diagnosis and treatment for patients with suspected and diagnosed pancreatic cancer. For early diagnosis, this includes providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those patients at inherited high-risk, to identify lesions before they develop into cancer, and diagnose cancers sooner. New pathways are being created to support faster referral routes for people with non-specific symptoms that could be linked to a range of cancer types. General practice direct access to diagnostic tests is also being increased.

To improve the consistency of access to treatments, NHS England is funding an audit into pancreatic cancer which aims to stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes. The Royal College of Surgeons began work on this audit in October 2022, and the first report is expected in October 2024.

NHS England’s Getting it Right First Time programme has also appointed a team of five specialist clinicians to lead a national review into services for pancreatic cancer patients in England. The workstream supports the delivery of the Optimal Care Pathway, a Pancreatic Cancer UK-led initiative which has brought together 300 health professionals and people affected to agree on how standards of diagnosis, treatment, and care of those patients with pancreatic cancer and their families can be improved, as well as gathering examples of good practice to share.

The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), provides funding for research projects which aim to understand the underlying causes of myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and find new treatments for the condition. For example, the NIHR, together with the Medical Research Council, have funded the world’s largest genome-wide association study of ME/CFS. This £3.2 million study, termed DecodeME, will analyse samples from 25,000 people with ME/CFS to search for genetic differences that may indicate underlying causes or an increased risk of developing the condition. By helping us to understand ME/CFS better, this research has the potential to lead to new treatments for the condition.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning specialist ME/CFS services that meet the needs of their population, subject to local prioritisation and funding. The process of commissioning services should take into account best practice guidance such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidance on ME/CFS diagnosis and management, published in October 2021.

It is the duty of clinicians to keep themselves appraised of best practice, in particular guidance issued by the NICE. Whilst guidelines are not mandatory, clinicians and commissioners are expected to take them fully into account when designing services to meet the needs of their local population. The NICE promotes its guidance via its website, newsletters, and other media.

In October 2023, the British Association of Clinicians in ME/CFS published the ME/CFS National Services Survey. This report provides insight into the services being delivered for adults, children, and young people with ME/CFS.

The Department has been working with NHS England to develop an e-learning course on ME/CFS for healthcare professionals, to support staff to be able to provide better care and improve patient outcomes. This has involved feedback and input from patients. The Medical Schools Council will promote the NHS England e-learning package on ME/CFS to all United Kingdom medical schools, and encourage medical schools to provide undergraduates with direct patient experience of ME/CFS. A decision on next steps on ME/CFS at the national level will be taken in the coming weeks.

The Government recognises that prevention will always be better, and cheaper, than a cure. We will take action to prevent and tackle the obesity crisis head on, creating the healthiest generation of children ever.

As set out in the King’s Speech, we are committed to implementing the advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink. A 9:00pm television watershed and 24-hour ban on paid-for advertising of less healthy food and drink products are due to come into force on 1 October 2025. The Government is also committed to banning the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16-year-olds. We will also stop the targeting of school children by fast food outlets by empowering councils to block the development of new fast food shops outside schools.

Officials in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities Midlands Region work closely with local partners, including local authorities and the National Health Service, to support them with local initiatives to promote a healthy lifestyle and tackle obesity.

Since 2019 the National Health Service has made free period products available to every hospital patient who needs them, including long-term in-patients. The Department for Education’s period product scheme provides access to free period products for all state-funded primary and secondary schools, as well as Government funded 16- to 19-year-old education organisations in England. Since 1 January 2021, a zero rate of VAT has applied to sanitary products, and in January 2024 this was extended to include period pants.

As part of our health mission, the Government is committed to ensuring people live well for longer. This includes tackling the determinants that underpin stark health inequalities, to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions.

We are working closely with local Directors of Public Health to ensure the ring-fenced Public Health Grant funds evidence-based activity to improve health and tackle health inequalities. The grant allocated to the Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council for 2024/25 was £23,251,698. In addition, £1,221,970 was allocated to invest in drug misuse services. Dudley is one of 75 local authorities with high levels of deprivation receiving funding to improve outcomes for families with babies as part of the £300 million Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme.

We are also working alongside NHS England Midlands and the Black Country Integrated Care System to support a range of local initiatives and to embed the Core20PLUS5 approach, focused on clinical areas with the most need of accelerated improvement in the poorest 20% of the population and other underserved population groups identified locally. Work also continues with the West Midlands Combined Authority to take forward a health in all policies approach across the wider determinants of health.