Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether investment in family hubs will be included in the upcoming Child Poverty Strategy.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted to the answer of 03 July 2025 to Question 63139.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of (a) a hub and spoke model and (b) the utilisation of detached youth work within Young Futures Hubs on (i) outreach and (ii) access for young people.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government has committed to the creation of a new Young Futures Programme, which will establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships. Young Futures Hubs will bring together services to improve access to opportunities and support for young people at community level, promoting positive outcomes and enabling them to thrive.
Officials from across several departments are already working jointly, using evidence of what works to start to shape the Young Futures Hubs model. We are engaging with local areas, communities, statutory partners, charities, and other stakeholders, including assessing evidence they have supplied, to support the design of the Young Futures Hubs and explore options for their delivery. This includes considering how best to engage with those young people who would benefit most from support.
Across Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships, the government is adopting a phased approach to learn from what works. To roll-out Young Futures Hubs, building on the success of existing infrastructure and provision, we will establish a number of early adopter hubs, the locations of which will be determined by where they will have the most impact. These early adopters and work in local areas and will inform the longer-term development of the programme, including how quickly we move to a greater number of hubs.
Young Futures Hubs are just one part of delivering support within a much wider youth landscape and they will work closely with core services and wider initiatives spanning youth, education, employment, social care, mental health, youth justice and policing. The government is developing a National Youth Strategy to set out a new long-term vision for young people and an action plan for delivering this.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how local areas will be supported to implement Young Futures Hubs.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government has committed to the creation of a new Young Futures Programme, which will establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships. Young Futures Hubs will bring together services to improve access to opportunities and support for young people at community level, promoting positive outcomes and enabling them to thrive.
Officials from across several departments are already working jointly, using evidence of what works to start to shape the Young Futures Hubs model. We are engaging with local areas, communities, statutory partners, charities, and other stakeholders, including assessing evidence they have supplied, to support the design of the Young Futures Hubs and explore options for their delivery. This includes considering how best to engage with those young people who would benefit most from support.
Across Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships, the government is adopting a phased approach to learn from what works. To roll-out Young Futures Hubs, building on the success of existing infrastructure and provision, we will establish a number of early adopter hubs, the locations of which will be determined by where they will have the most impact. These early adopters and work in local areas and will inform the longer-term development of the programme, including how quickly we move to a greater number of hubs.
Young Futures Hubs are just one part of delivering support within a much wider youth landscape and they will work closely with core services and wider initiatives spanning youth, education, employment, social care, mental health, youth justice and policing. The government is developing a National Youth Strategy to set out a new long-term vision for young people and an action plan for delivering this.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to help promote reading through (a) digital formats and (b) media platforms commonly used by young people.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted to the answer of 26 June 2025 to Question 61425.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to promote reading through (a) digital formats and (b) media platforms commonly used by young people.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department wants children to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information, and teachers should encourage pupils to develop reading habits by listening to, discussing, and reading a wide range of literature. Departmental officials are working with the sector and other departments to consider how we can encourage reading for pleasure across a variety of formats and support children to develop a lifelong love of reading.
The National Literacy Trust's 2025 annual literacy survey shows that more children who enjoyed reading engaged with a variety of formats, both on paper and on screen. It showed that paper remained the most popular format for reading among children and young people in 2025, but some types of content were preferred on screen, such as song lyrics and news articles.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 access to books in low-income households on reading outcomes among children eligible for free school meals.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted to the answer of 20 June 2025 to Question 59345.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 developing a strategy to ensure the full participation of blind and partially sighted students in education through the use of (a) assistive and (b) mainstream technology.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Assistive technology (AT), such as dictation tools and screen readers, can break down barriers to opportunity for students with disabilities and is a key part of helping every child to achieve and thrive.
With rapid improvements in the accessibility features built into standard devices, schools now have more access to AT than ever before. Evidence shows that, when used effectively, AT is a key component of high-quality teaching for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)..
An independent evaluation report of recent training found that effective AT use positively influences the independence, confidence, attainment, behaviour and engagement of students with SEND. Training participants also felt that effective AT use can positively impact the use of support staff and teacher time.
The government is committed to helping teachers use technology to support their students with SEND. We are embedding evidence-based practice and broadening the effective use of AT. This includes commissioning brand new research to see how different agencies can best come together to encourage schools to use AT as effectively as possible, and ensuring the effective use of AT will become part of national training for all new teachers in 2025.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 a (a) national and (b) mandatory Code of Practice to tackle bullying in schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying.
The department has issued guidance to schools on how to prevent and respond to bullying as part of their overall behaviour policy. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying.
The department is establishing up to 90 new regional improvement in standards and excellence Attendance and Behaviour Hubs, which will focus on supporting senior leaders to develop safe, supportive school cultures with high expectations for attendance and behaviour, including using data to identify and address areas of concern.
In addition to this, the department has engaged with charities, academics, parents and young people, to understand the issues around bullying. We will use that input to inform ways of testing practice that can be shared through hubs.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 increases in employer National Insurance contributions on the viability of SEND transport provision in Hertfordshire.
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 information her Department holds on the number of special schools that have shortened school (a) days and (b) weeks for funding reasons; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children with special educational needs and disabilities receive a full education.
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) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The department does not hold data on reasons why special schools have changed their school day or week.
To support children with SEND in special schools, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year. Total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND is over £12 billion in 2025/26. Of this total, Hertfordshire County Council is being allocated over £207 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), to support SEND provision in Hertfordshire. This is an increase of £17.6 million on their 2024/25 DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF), and a 9.8% increase per head of their 2 to 18 year-old population, on their equivalent 2024/25 NFF allocation.