Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to restore the academy conversion support grant.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has no plans to restore the academy conversion support grant. Voluntary conversion is a choice for schools and trusts to make.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what action is being taken to support SEND transport costs in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Central government funding for home-to-school travel is provided through the Local Government Finance Settlement which is administered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Settlement for the 2025/26 financial year makes available over £69 billion for local government, a 6.8% cash terms increase in Core Spending Power on 2024/25.
To put local government on the road to financial sustainability, the government recently consulted on funding reforms, including a bespoke relative needs formula for home-to-school transport. The consultation response was published here on 20 November:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-fair-funding-review-20.
Challenges in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system are creating pressure on home-to-school travel. We have committed to reform the SEND system to enable more children to thrive in local mainstream settings. These reforms will be set out in a Schools White Paper early in the new year.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to support independent specialist education colleges.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises the role special post-16 institutions play in providing specialist education in the further education (FE) sector, catering for young people whose needs cannot be met in general FE colleges.
We have been clear that a more inclusive education system is needed to give children and young people the opportunities they need to achieve and thrive. There remains a crucial role for specialist providers, not only in supporting children and young people with particularly complex needs, but also in building capability across the system.
The department supports independent specialist education colleges through regulatory approval, funding and guidance. Colleges can apply to join the Section 41 approved list, giving families the right to request them in an education, health and care plan and ensuring compliance with the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice.
The department also provides high-needs funding for eligible institutions, alongside local authority contributions, and issues guidance on safeguarding, governance and curriculum standards.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure the provision of childcare in all rural areas.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
In our Plan for Change we have set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn. We will measure our progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment by 2028.
The government has committed to working with the sector to better support parents in poorer and rural areas. We have announced over £400 million of funding to create tens of thousands of places in new and expanded school-based nurseries to help ensure more children can access the quality early education where it is needed and get the best start in life. The first phase of the programme is creating up to 6,000 new nursery places, with schools reporting over 5,000 have been made available in September 2025.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action they are taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve the recruitment and retention of further education staff in rural areas.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department has announced an additional £190 million for 16 to 19 education in 2025/26 to help colleges, schools, and other providers recruit and retain expert teachers. This is in addition to over £400 million already planned for 16 to 19 education, and £155 million to support increased National Insurance costs. It is separate from my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s £600 million investment to address construction sector skills shortages. This funding will be delivered nationally and support colleges across the country, including land-based colleges that play a vital role in rural areas.
To support early-career further education (FE) teachers in technical subjects, the department is offering retention payments of up to £6,000 after tax in 2024/25 and 2025/26, including in rural and coastal areas.
Our national 'Teach in FE' campaign raises awareness and directs prospective teachers, including industry professionals to job listings and support services.
We also run ‘Taking Teaching Further’, a two-year programme helping industry experts retrain as FE teachers.
Together, these initiatives support our pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers across FE, secondary, and specialist schools during this Parliament, as part of our Plan for Change.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made on the expansion of mental health support teams in rural schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.
As of March 2025, 41% of schools and colleges worked with an MHST, representing 52% of pupils and learners across the country, and we estimate this will increase to 50% of schools and colleges by March 2026, representing 60% of pupils and learners.
Data by degree of rurality shows that as of March 2025, the MHST coverage is 24% of schools in rural hamlets, 21% of schools in rural villages and 36% of schools in rural towns and fringes.
The expansion of MHSTs to all schools and colleges by 2029/30 will prioritise rollout based on NHS identification of local need and reaching the most vulnerable children first.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking support (a) schools and (b) parents with school transport in rural areas.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department’s home-to-school travel policy aims to make sure that no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. Local authorities are responsible for arranging free home-to-school travel for eligible children. A child is eligible if they are of compulsory school age, 5 to 16, attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance, their special educational needs, a disability or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so. There are extended rights to free travel for children from low-income families.
In addition, the Bus Services Bill will put the power over local bus services in the hands of local leaders to ensure networks can meet the needs of communities who rely on them.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure rural schools are able to access the Breakfast Clubs Early Adopters scheme.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In order to test and learn about how best to support schools in implementing new free universal breakfast clubs, the department has selected over 750 early adopter schools who began delivering from the start of the 2025 summer term, ahead of national roll out to all schools with primary-aged children.
Schools have been selected to ensure a representative sample of all primary schools across a range of locations, including rural schools.
By taking this approach, we will be able to gain insights into any challenges and barriers schools may face, in order to develop solutions ahead of national roll out.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made on launching a new National Music Education Network.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
On 18 March, the department announced its intention to launch a new National Centre for Arts and Music Education.
We intend to appoint the delivery partner for the Centre through an open, competitive procurement. We will engage with sector stakeholders to refine the details of the Centre ahead of the commercial process later this year. We will set out further detail shortly.
The National Centre will deliver on the manifesto commitment to deliver a Music Education Network. The department’s intention is to launch the National Centre in September 2026.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many breakfast club early adopters there are in (a) rural and (b) urban areas.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In order to test and learn about how best to support schools in implementing new free universal breakfast clubs, the department has selected over 750 early adopter schools to deliver from summer term 2025, ahead of national roll out to all schools with primary aged children.
Just under a third of the breakfast club early adopter schools are in rural areas, meaning over two thirds are in urban areas. This is a representative of the split of the overall make-up of state-funded schools with primary aged pupils across England. Schools have been selected to ensure a representative sample, to ensure the early adopter scheme learns from a variety of schools, including schools that are large and small, with high and low levels of deprivation, and in a range of locations.