Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce regional differences in social care provision for disabled children.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
On Thursday 20 March I announced the launch of the national Families First Partnership programme, backed by over £500 million in grant funding to support rollout. This includes the publication of the Families First Programme guide, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/families-first-partnership-programme.
The department’s goal for this programme is to improve access to support for families, including families with disabled children, right across the country. The aim is to rebalance the system of support away from crisis intervention and towards earlier help, delivering on the government’s mission to provide children with the best start in life, keep children safe and break down barriers to opportunity.
The department recognises there is geographical variation for a range of reasons. Through the rollout of this programme, local areas will co-design services with partners and families to better understand local need and services, to inform future delivery. We will work to support local authorities throughout the transformation period.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase access to assessments for Special Educational Needs in (a) Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency and (b) England.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department wants to drive a consistent and inclusive approach to supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to achieve and thrive in mainstream settings through early identification, effective support, high quality teaching and effective allocation of resources.
Through a graduated approach, teachers are responsible for monitoring the progress of all pupils and putting support in place where needed. Where a child who has SEND needs more support than their school can usually provide, schools, parents or carers can ask the local authority to carry out an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment.
The department recognises the critical role of educational psychologists within the SEND system, including their statutory contribution to EHC assessments. The department is investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists from 2024, building on the £10 million currently being invested in a cohort of over 200 trainees who began their training in 2023. Trainees will join the workforce to support the capacity of local authority educational psychology services, including in delivering assessments.
The department provides support and challenge to the Hertfordshire local area partnership by monitoring progress against its priority action plan and improvement plan and by providing advice and guidance via a SEND expert advisor. The partnership has also established a SEND Improvement Board, independently chaired by Dame Christine Lenehan, to oversee progress and provide appropriate challenge.
The department expects all local authorities to meet their statutory duties and we will continue to monitor and challenge Hertfordshire County Council’s EHC plan 20 week timeliness.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve the mental health of (a) teachers and (b) support staff.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High-quality teaching is the biggest in-school factor that makes a difference to a child’s education. Being taught by a good teacher can add almost half a GCSE grade per subject to a given pupil’s results. That is why, as well as working to recruit additional teachers, the department is working hard to retain our experienced teachers.
The department is working in partnership with the sector and mental health experts to improve staff mental health and wellbeing. Steps taken include continued promotion of the education staff wellbeing charter, which sets out shared commitments to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff in schools and colleges. More than 4,000 schools and colleges have signed up to the charter so far, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter.
The department has also funded mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders, which includes professional supervision and counselling. More than 2,600 leaders have benefitted from this support so far. This support can be accessed at: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/get-help/help-for-your-staff/wellbeing-services/professional-supervision/.
Furthermore, a range of resources have been made available to help schools prioritise staff wellbeing. For example, the department’s ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, developed alongside school leaders, provides tools to support schools to identify opportunities to cut excessive workload and improve staff wellbeing. This service can be accessed at: https://improve-workload-and-wellbeing-for-school-staff.education.gov.uk/.
Finally, guidance is available to support school leaders and staff to help manage behaviour in schools, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/behaviour-in-schools--2.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what eligibility criteria her Department is using to choose successful schools for Great British Energy's rooftop solar panels project.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recently announced, in partnership with Great British (GB) Energy, an £80 million (£40 million from the department and £40 million from GB Energy) initiative to install solar and other technologies such as electric vehicle chargers in 200 schools and colleges, prioritising those in areas of deprivation, to start in 2025/26.
This programme is targeting 200 schools and colleges in this first year 2025/26, so the department is not proposing a bidding round to select the schools and colleges to avoid burden on the system.
There will be a cluster of about 45 schools in each of the North West, North East and West Midlands, selected based on deprivation levels and other factors such as roof capacity. These schools have not yet been selected. Each cluster will also include a further education college which will work with the contractors appointed to promote careers in renewables to support growth in the construction and clean energy workforce. There will also be a minimum of 10 schools in each of the 9 government office regions to ensure regional spread.
Once we have appointed delivery partners, they will work through a department-supplied list of possible schools. The list will be based on specific criteria including deprivation, roof condition and location and this data set, combined with local data sets, will ultimately determine a long list of possible projects. Only once feasibility studies have been undertaken on each of the possible schools, will we be able to confirm which schools have been selected and what interventions have been determined as appropriate.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve access to social care provision for disabled children in all areas.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted to the answer of 30 April 2025 to Question 45293.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure disabled children can access social care support.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is taking forward significant reform of children’s social care, with the aim to rebalance the system towards earlier intervention and ensure that all children and families can access the right help at the point of need, rather than needing to meet a particular threshold. This is particularly the case for children with disabilities, whose need is potentially different from others who may require help and support from children’s social care. Disabled children may require support for the entirety of their childhood and sit across children’s social care, education and health, and their support offer should be adjusted to reflect this.
To that end, on Thursday 20 March, I announced the launch of the national Families First Partnership Programme, including the publication of the Families First Programme guide. The guide has been produced to support safeguarding partnerships across England implement Family Help and multi-agency child protection reforms and make greater use of Family Group Decision Making. The guide can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/families-first-partnership-programme.
The programme is backed by over £500 million of investment in the 2025/26 financial year, made available through England’s final local government finance settlement (LGFS) for the 2025/26 financial year. This doubles direct investment into preventative support, ensuring access to support at the earliest opportunity, which over time, we expect to safely reduce the number of looked after children, keeping more families together. More information on the LGFS can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/final-local-government-finance-settlement-england-2025-to-2026.
Programmes delivered by local government over many years have paved the way for these reforms, including evidence from the Supporting Families, and Strengthening Families, Protecting Children programmes. We will also take forward lessons so far from the ten local areas part of the Families First for Children Pathfinder. Best practice for improving the support provided to disabled children includes appointing special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) specialist lead practitioners to lead work with families and recruiting SEND expertise into local authorities’ ‘front doors’ to ensure timely and effective decision making and promote access to services at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether increases to employer National Insurance contributions will impact transportation services for children with SEND.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted to the answer of 29 January 2025 to Question 26397.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the disparities in educational outcomes for children in care.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve.
We are committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. Every local authority must appoint a Virtual School Head, who has a statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of all children in their care, wherever they live or are educated. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll.
Looked-after children have highest priority in school admissions and attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,630 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s Personal Education Plan (PEP). The PEP should set out the support needed to help realise the short and long-term academic outcomes for each child, and should focus on the child’s strengths, weaknesses, and outcomes they want to achieve, including attaining a higher education (HE) placement.
The government recognises the critical importance of continuity and stability throughout a looked-after child’s life. Under the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review guidance and regulations, the child’s allocated social worker should do everything possible to minimise disruption to their education. School changes should be minimised, and any necessary transitions well planned and supported. Where a change to a looked-after child’s educational arrangements is unavoidable, their PEP should set out arrangements to minimise disruption to education and training, especially during exam periods and other critical periods in their education.
The government is committed to ensuring that looked-after children and care leavers are given the skills they need to succeed in life and recognises the important role that HE has in this. To ensure care experienced students are supported to gain the qualifications needed to access HE, the department provided £14 million of funding in 2024/25 to extend Pupil Premium Plus nationally to children in care and care leavers at post-16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head and can be used on a range of measures to raise attainment and engagement in education, employment, and training such as mentoring, tuition, and targeted careers advice. We will be continuing this funding to local authorities in 2025/26. We are also making the Virtual School Head role for children with a social worker statutory through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, enabling earlier intervention to address the educational barriers these children can face.
Care leavers who enter HE are entitled to a statutory bursary of £2,000 from their local authority and many universities offer additional support within their access and participation regimes. This includes things like additional financial support, pastoral support and 365 days per year housing whilst they are at university.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve educational outcomes for children in care.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve.
We are committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. Every local authority must appoint a Virtual School Head, who has a statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of all children in their care, wherever they live or are educated. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll.
Looked-after children have highest priority in school admissions and attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,630 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s Personal Education Plan (PEP). The PEP should set out the support needed to help realise the short and long-term academic outcomes for each child, and should focus on the child’s strengths, weaknesses, and outcomes they want to achieve, including attaining a higher education (HE) placement.
The government recognises the critical importance of continuity and stability throughout a looked-after child’s life. Under the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review guidance and regulations, the child’s allocated social worker should do everything possible to minimise disruption to their education. School changes should be minimised, and any necessary transitions well planned and supported. Where a change to a looked-after child’s educational arrangements is unavoidable, their PEP should set out arrangements to minimise disruption to education and training, especially during exam periods and other critical periods in their education.
The government is committed to ensuring that looked-after children and care leavers are given the skills they need to succeed in life and recognises the important role that HE has in this. To ensure care experienced students are supported to gain the qualifications needed to access HE, the department provided £14 million of funding in 2024/25 to extend Pupil Premium Plus nationally to children in care and care leavers at post-16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head and can be used on a range of measures to raise attainment and engagement in education, employment, and training such as mentoring, tuition, and targeted careers advice. We will be continuing this funding to local authorities in 2025/26. We are also making the Virtual School Head role for children with a social worker statutory through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, enabling earlier intervention to address the educational barriers these children can face.
Care leavers who enter HE are entitled to a statutory bursary of £2,000 from their local authority and many universities offer additional support within their access and participation regimes. This includes things like additional financial support, pastoral support and 365 days per year housing whilst they are at university.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage (a) children in care and (b) care leavers to (i) progress into higher education and (ii) complete their course or placement.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve.
We are committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. Every local authority must appoint a Virtual School Head, who has a statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of all children in their care, wherever they live or are educated. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll.
Looked-after children have highest priority in school admissions and attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,630 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s Personal Education Plan (PEP). The PEP should set out the support needed to help realise the short and long-term academic outcomes for each child, and should focus on the child’s strengths, weaknesses, and outcomes they want to achieve, including attaining a higher education (HE) placement.
The government recognises the critical importance of continuity and stability throughout a looked-after child’s life. Under the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review guidance and regulations, the child’s allocated social worker should do everything possible to minimise disruption to their education. School changes should be minimised, and any necessary transitions well planned and supported. Where a change to a looked-after child’s educational arrangements is unavoidable, their PEP should set out arrangements to minimise disruption to education and training, especially during exam periods and other critical periods in their education.
The government is committed to ensuring that looked-after children and care leavers are given the skills they need to succeed in life and recognises the important role that HE has in this. To ensure care experienced students are supported to gain the qualifications needed to access HE, the department provided £14 million of funding in 2024/25 to extend Pupil Premium Plus nationally to children in care and care leavers at post-16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head and can be used on a range of measures to raise attainment and engagement in education, employment, and training such as mentoring, tuition, and targeted careers advice. We will be continuing this funding to local authorities in 2025/26. We are also making the Virtual School Head role for children with a social worker statutory through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, enabling earlier intervention to address the educational barriers these children can face.
Care leavers who enter HE are entitled to a statutory bursary of £2,000 from their local authority and many universities offer additional support within their access and participation regimes. This includes things like additional financial support, pastoral support and 365 days per year housing whilst they are at university.