Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to improve collaboration between local authorities and multi-academy trusts in the delivery of SEND education in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area.
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) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. This work forms part of the government’s Opportunity Mission, which will break the unfair link between background and opportunity, starting with giving every child, including those with SEND, the best start in life.
Excellence exists in all parts of our school system, and this government believes schools can perform best when they collaborate with each other and with their local community. That is why, in the King’s Speech, the government committed to legislating on requiring all schools to cooperate with their local authorities on issues such as school inclusion and place planning.
This government wants to work with all parts of our school system so that together we can ensure there is strong partnership and high quality collaboration, especially around the sharing of expertise and good practice, that helps deliver an exceptional education for children and young people with SEND. I expect all schools, regardless of type, to support each other, to drive a self-improving system.
Departmental officials work closely with both Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole local authority and academy trusts to bring all parts of the system together. The department will continue with its work with the local area to ensure that they deliver further improvements in services.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that breakfast clubs in primary schools are accessible for children with special educational needs and disabilities who receive school transport.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Breakfast clubs will mean that many more pupils get a supportive start to the day and are ready to learn. They will also benefit parents and mean that many pupils who would not otherwise have had breakfast will be well fed to start the day.
As confirmed at the Autumn Budget 2024, this government will triple the investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million in the 2025/26 financial year, enabling 750 early adopter schools to open breakfast clubs from April 2025. All state-funded schools, including special and alternative provision schools, will be eligible to apply. Details on the application process for schools will follow shortly.
The department recognises that there will be barriers, such as staffing and transport, to opening breakfast clubs for some schools, including special and alternative provision schools. The early adopter programme will allow us to test and learn how best to overcome such barriers and refine the department’s support and advice to schools to ensure the programme works for these schools.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that breakfast clubs in primary schools are accessible for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Breakfast clubs will mean that many more pupils get a supportive start to the day and are ready to learn. They will also benefit parents and mean that many pupils who would not otherwise have had breakfast will be well fed to start the day.
As confirmed at the Autumn Budget 2024, this government will triple the investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million in the 2025/26 financial year, enabling 750 early adopter schools to open breakfast clubs from April 2025. All state-funded schools, including special and alternative provision schools, will be eligible to apply. Details on the application process for schools will follow shortly.
The department recognises that there will be barriers, such as staffing and transport, to opening breakfast clubs for some schools, including special and alternative provision schools. The early adopter programme will allow us to test and learn how best to overcome such barriers and refine the department’s support and advice to schools to ensure the programme works for these schools.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that primary level special schools receive funding for breakfast clubs.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Breakfast clubs will mean that many more pupils get a supportive start to the day and are ready to learn. They will also benefit parents and mean that many pupils who would not otherwise have had breakfast will be well fed to start the day.
As confirmed at the Autumn Budget 2024, this government will triple the investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million in the 2025/26 financial year, enabling 750 early adopter schools to open breakfast clubs from April 2025. All state-funded schools, including special and alternative provision schools, will be eligible to apply. Details on the application process for schools will follow shortly.
The department recognises that there will be barriers, such as staffing and transport, to opening breakfast clubs for some schools, including special and alternative provision schools. The early adopter programme will allow us to test and learn how best to overcome such barriers and refine the department’s support and advice to schools to ensure the programme works for these schools.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to deliver new Young Futures Hubs.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Young Futures Hubs will bring together services to help improve the way that children and young people can access opportunities and support in their local communities, in doing so, promoting their development, improving mental health, and preventing young people being drawn into crime.
Expertise has been brought together from across government departments to deliver on this manifesto commitment, and the government will be engaging with national and local partners, local communities and children and young people to co-design and explore options for the design and delivery of the hubs.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding for post-16 education.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Funding for post-16 education has been discussed with my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
As announced in the Budget, the government is providing an additional £300 million for further education to ensure young people are developing the skills they need to succeed.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report by the Sutton Trust entitled Lessons Learnt, published on 28 October 2024, if she will make her policy to (a) review and (b) reform the pupil premium.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Every child, regardless of background, deserves the opportunity to progress and succeed in school and beyond, and this government is committed to breaking the link between young people’s backgrounds and their future success.
The department is fully focused on supporting the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. That is why removing barriers to opportunity and raising school standards are at the heart of our mission to transform life chances and ensure all children can achieve and thrive.
The department is providing over £2.9 billion of pupil premium funding in 2024/25 to improve the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils in England.
The department will continue to take time to consider the various funding formulae going forward, recognising the importance of establishing a fair funding system that directs funding where it is needed. We will consider the pupil premium as part of that process, and decisions on pupil premium funding for 2025/26 will be taken later this year.
The department will continue to support schools to achieve maximum impact from the pupil premium.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the attainment gap for pupils in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council area.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Removing barriers to opportunity and driving high and rising standards at all schools are at the heart of the government’s opportunity mission which aims to transform children’s life chances.
The Education Policy Institute's Annual Report 2024 outlined that the disadvantage gap in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole is 10.2 months at the end of key stage 2 and that this grows to 16.1 months at the end of key stage 4. Far too many disadvantaged children are being failed and this government is determined to change this by raising standards and creating opportunities for all our children enabling them to achieve and thrive.
This is why the department has already started work to recruit an additional 6,500 expert teachers and has launched an independent, expert-led Curriculum and Assessment Review that will look closely at key challenges to attainment.
The department is also committed to making quick progress to deliver on its commitment to offer breakfast clubs in all state-funded primary schools, ensuring every primary school child is well prepared for school. The government confirmed it will triple its investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million in the 2025/26 financial year to help ensure children are ready to learn at the start of the school day and help to drive improvements to behaviour, attendance, and attainment.
Alongside this, pupil premium funding is allocated to schools to support the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils and is worth over £2.9 billion in the 2024/25 financial year.
Departmental officials also continue to work closely with the multi-academy trusts and schools in the area to promote continued collaboration, sector-led networks and initiatives to remove barriers to opportunity for all children in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the availability of pastoral support for (a) children and (b) young people.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Schools and colleges are best placed to decide what pastoral support to put in place to meet the needs of their pupils. Pastoral support should promote good mental wellbeing and respond to emerging issues. There is a range of support available to schools, including a government-commissioned mental wellbeing toolkit, which is available here: https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/targeted-support/.
This practical guide and tool were designed to help schools and colleges identify and embed the most effective targeted support options for their setting.
To ensure the right support is available to every young person that needs it, the department has committed to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school. As of April 2024, Mental Health Support Teams cover 44% (4.2 million) of pupils in schools and learners in further education (FE) in England and are expected to cover at least 50% by the end of March 2025. The government will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.
Pastoral support is also available to children and young people in other education settings.
The department continues to work closely with the FE sector to promote and support providers to develop and implement a whole college approach to mental health and wellbeing. This is supported by the Association of Colleges refreshed Mental Health and Wellbeing Charter, published in March 2024. The department encourages colleges to sign up to effectively integrate a whole-college approach.
To raise standards for mental health support in the higher education sector, the Office for Students has provided £400,000 of funding to the student mental health charity, Student Minds. This has enabled significant expansion of the University Mental Health Charter Programme, with 113 universities now signed up. The programme helps universities to adopt a whole-institution approach to mental health, bringing universities together to drive forward continuous improvement in mental health support for students.
For early years, the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements all early years providers must meet to ensure that children have the best start in life and are kept healthy and safe. It sets out the importance of strong, warm and responsive relationships between staff and children. The framework is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2.
The EYFS also states that each child must be assigned a key person. Their role is to help ensure that every child’s care is tailored to meet their individual needs to help the child become familiar with the setting, offer a settled relationship for the child and build a relationship with their parents and/or carers.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the availability of school places in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities. The department engages with councils on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional places and to consider alternatives where necessary. When local authorities are experiencing difficulties, the department supports them to find solutions as quickly as possible. Where local authorities are failing in their duty, the government will intervene.
The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council will receive just over £561,000 in the 2025/26 financial year to support the provision of new school places needed by September 2026.