Sonia Kumar

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 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 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.

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.

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.

The Government, through the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) is committed to funding high quality, timely research that leads to improved outcomes for patients and the public and makes the health and social care system more efficient, effective, and safe. Research evidence is vital for improving treatments and outcomes for people, including those with cardiovascular disease.

The Department is proud to invest £1.5 billion per year on health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research. Over the past five financial years between 2019/20 and 2023/24, the NIHR has invested £145.4 million on cardiovascular disease and stroke research directly through NIHR research programmes. Our wider investments in NIHR infrastructure, including strengthening specialist facilities, workforce, and support services to enable research in the health and care system, have enabled significant cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke research funded by other funders to take place.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including CVD. As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas.

Women’s health hubs bring together healthcare professionals and existing services to provide integrated women’s health services in the community, centred on meeting women’s needs across their life course. Hubs have potential to have a positive impact on reducing inequalities in treatment of menstrual health conditions including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Birmingham, RAND, and the Cambridge Rapid Evaluation Centre conducted a scoping evaluation of women’s health hubs established between 2001 and 2022. The report was published in September 2024, and it identified reducing inequalities and improving quality of care as key aims of women’s health hub pilots. The report found that hub leaders were committed to reducing inequalities and many were implementing strategies to do so, but noted that evidence on hub benefits was still evolving.

The report highlights that the impact on inequalities could be determined through a set of measures, one of these being diagnosis for conditions such as endometriosis. The report is available at the following link:

https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hsdr/JYFT5036/#/abstract

The Department has invested £25 million over 2023/24 and 2024/25 to support the establishment of at least one pilot women’s health hub in every integrated care system, with one of the aims being to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities. Care for menstrual problems, including PCOS and endometriosis, is included as a core service for these pilot hubs.

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.

We are committed to a modernised approach to international development, based on a reconnected Britain, with a strong focus on poverty and hunger. We will reset our relationship with the global South, founded on genuine respect and partnership to support our common interests.

In [my/her] first international visit, [I/the Minister for Development] travelled to Rio to endorse the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. And on 22 August, [I/the Minister for Development] announced an additional £15 million of vital assistance to Sudan, South Sudan and Chad to support vulnerable people forced to flee violence and seek safety. This funding will provide food parcels for 145,000 people in Sudan and around 60,000 vulnerable refugees in Chad. Displaced people in South Sudan will also receive critical nutrition services for children under 5 and their caregivers.

Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission to take back our streets.

​We will put thousands of neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities so that residents have a named officer they can turn to when things go wrong.

​We will crack down on those causing havoc on our high streets by introducing tougher powers via a Crime and Policing Bill, including a new Respect Order to tackle repeat offending.

Estimate from the Crime Survey of England and Wales (for the year ending March 2023) showed the two most common methods of entry in theft of vehicles in England and Wales are “Offender manipulated signal from remote locking device” (40%) and “Offender used a key/electric fob” (32%). This information is published by the Office for National Statistics.

The Government works closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime and the police-led National Vehicle Crime Working Group, which focuses on tackling vehicle crime through various workstreams. This includes training police officers on the methods used to steal vehicles, focusing on prevention and deterrence of theft of and from vehicles, encouraging vehicle owners to secure their vehicles, and working with industry to address vulnerabilities in vehicles.

The Government keeps all legislation under review. We will be introducing a Crime and Policing Bill and will consider what measures are needed to support efforts to tackle and prevent vehicle crime.

Estimate from the Crime Survey of England and Wales (for the year ending March 2023) showed the two most common methods of entry in theft of vehicles in England and Wales are “Offender manipulated signal from remote locking device” (40%) and “Offender used a key/electric fob” (32%). This information is published by the Office for National Statistics.

The Government works closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime and the police-led National Vehicle Crime Working Group, which focuses on tackling vehicle crime through various workstreams. This includes training police officers on the methods used to steal vehicles, focusing on prevention and deterrence of theft of and from vehicles, encouraging vehicle owners to secure their vehicles, and working with industry to address vulnerabilities in vehicles.

The Government keeps all legislation under review. We will be introducing a Crime and Policing Bill and will consider what measures are needed to support efforts to tackle and prevent vehicle crime.

This Government is fully committed to rejuvenating our high streets and supporting the businesses and communities that make our town centres successful.

Through the English Devolution Bill we will introduce a strong new ‘right to buy’ for valued community assets which will help this Government safeguard our high streets. This measure will empower local communities to reclaim and revitalise empty shops, pubs, and community spaces, helping to revamp our high streets and eliminate the blight of vacant premises.

Outside of local government grants Dudley as a borough has received over £182 million of central government funding over the last ten years, in addition to devolved funding and powers worth £1.1 billion as part of the WMCA.

This Government is fully committed to rejuvenating our high streets and supporting the businesses and communities that make our town centres successful.

Through the English Devolution Bill we will introduce a strong new ‘right to buy’ for valued community assets which will help this Government safeguard our high streets. This measure will empower local communities to reclaim and revitalise empty shops, pubs, and community spaces, helping to revamp our high streets and eliminate the blight of vacant premises.

Outside of local government grants Dudley as a borough has received over £182 million of central government funding over the last ten years, in addition to devolved funding and powers worth £1.1 billion as part of the WMCA.