Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the funding of the International Baccalaureate on (a) staffing levels and (b) curriculum breadth in state schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has made significant investments into 16 to 19 education funding. The base rate of funding per student has increased to £5,105 in 2025/26, up over 5% in comparison to last year. But we must make this funding work hard, tilting it towards key priorities. That is why the department has announced that we will focus large programme uplift funding, which is on top of the base funding, on those large programmes which include mathematics, further mathematics and other high value A levels. 16 to 19 funded institutions have the freedom to decide how they use their funding for the provision they offer, including whether they offer the International Baccalaureate. The impact of the scenarios referred to in the questions will depend on choices made by institutions.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 reducing funding for International Baccalaureate qualifications on social mobility for (a) students in state schools seeking (i) international and (ii) medical university places and (b) other students.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has made significant investments into 16 to 19 education funding. The base rate of funding per student has increased to £5,105 in 2025/26, up over 5% in comparison to last year. But we must make this funding work hard, tilting it towards key priorities. That is why the department has announced that we will focus large programme uplift funding, which is on top of the base funding, on those large programmes which include mathematics, further mathematics and other high value A levels. 16 to 19 funded institutions have the freedom to decide how they use their funding for the provision they offer, including whether they offer the International Baccalaureate. The impact of the scenarios referred to in the questions will depend on choices made by institutions.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 reducing funding for International Baccalaureate qualifications on trends in the difference in academic results between state and private schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has made significant investments into 16 to 19 education funding. The base rate of funding per student has increased to £5,105 in 2025/26, up over 5% in comparison to last year. But we must make this funding work hard, tilting it towards key priorities. That is why the department has announced that we will focus large programme uplift funding, which is on top of the base funding, on those large programmes which include mathematics, further mathematics and other high value A levels. 16 to 19 funded institutions have the freedom to decide how they use their funding for the provision they offer, including whether they offer the International Baccalaureate. The impact of the scenarios referred to in the questions will depend on choices made by institutions.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason it is her policy to reduce state school funding for the International Baccalaureate from 2026.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has made significant investments into 16 to 19 education funding. The base rate of funding per student has increased to £5,105 in 2025/26, up over 5% in comparison to last year. But we must make this funding work hard, tilting it towards key priorities. That is why the department has announced that we will focus large programme uplift funding, which is on top of the base funding, on those large programmes which include mathematics, further mathematics and other high value A levels. 16 to 19 funded institutions have the freedom to decide how they use their funding for the provision they offer, including whether they offer the International Baccalaureate. The impact of the scenarios referred to in the questions will depend on choices made by institutions.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many full-time equivalent civil servants are working on appointing the new contractor for St Michaels School in Paignton.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
St Michael’s School is part of the school rebuilding programme. The project team is made up of a project director, who is a civil servant, and a project manager. A number of technical specialists also support the project at different stages.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of school food guidelines.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This government is committed to raising the healthiest generation ever. It is important that children eat nutritious food at school and the department encourages schools to have a whole school approach to healthy eating. The school food standards define the foods and drinks that must be provided, which are restricted, and those which must not be provided.
To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for the future, we are acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support teachers' mental health.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
I refer the hon. Member for Torbay to the answer of 9 May 2025 to Question 44781.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of care experienced young people securing employment in the hospitality sector following the cessation of local authority support.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department is committed to ensuring that young people leaving care have stable homes, access to health services, support to build lifelong loving relationships and are engaged in education, employment and training.
The department fully recognises the potential benefits that employment in the hospitality sector offers to care leavers. 27 of the 237 organisations offering employment opportunities under our Care Leaver Covenant are from the hospitality industry. This includes Accor Hotels, Aramark, Birmingham Airport, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, PGL, Marston’s Brewery and Pubs, and Merlin Entertainments.
Further, our Care Leaver Ministerial Board, co-chaired by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend, the Deputy Prime Minister, has been established to secure cross-departmental action to improve the outcomes and experiences of care leavers, including in relation to their employment.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on the (a) length and (b) frequency of gaps in education for children in care that are the result of placement moves.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department recognises the need to improve the data available about children’s social care, including making it more relevant to the experience of children and young people during periods of change.
A core part of this work includes understanding the data needs of the children’s social care sector as a whole and scoping ways in which data gaps may be addressed over time. This year the department has published new statistics on stability measures for children looked after, providing further insight on school, placement and social worker stability for these children, here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/stability-measures-for-children-looked-after-in-england/2024.
Existing statutory data is collected for children missing education, school attendance, and children in care. However, it is not yet possible to accurately link these datasets to obtain the information requested, as the children missing education data is collected at a local authority level, while data for children looked after, and school attendance is collected at a child level. Addressing data gaps in children’s social care will be a long-term endeavour due to the need to agree data standards and definitions, as well as redesign local authority and departmental systems before rolling out nationally.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to provide financial support to (a) Eat That Frog in Torbay and (b) other community organisations which are support hubs for those who are (i) disabled and (ii) neurodivergent to ensure their long-time viability.
Answered by Janet Daby
The relationship between the department and Eat that Frog, as with all providers, is through the funding of learners through an agreed, published funding methodology. The department does not fund institutions/providers core costs, as the funding is driven by the learner funding methodology. In this case, as a Specialist Post-16 Institution (SPI), Eat that Frog is funded through the high needs funding methodology which is a combination of funding directly from the department and funding from the learners’ local authority, through their dedicated schools grant.
Some of the programmes and support provided through Eat that Frog is outside the scope of departmental funding, for example employment support, and therefore their remit is much wider than that of the department.