Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to reduce space requirements for children under two years of age in early years education settings.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We are currently considering the feedback to the department’s consultation on the use of ‘free flow’ outdoor space for children aged two years and above in early years settings.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 nurseries pricing structures on families who usually use fewer than 30 funded hours of nursery provision and are being asked to increase these hours to ensure nurseries can keep operating.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to rolling out the expanded childcare entitlements, working hand in hand with the early years sector.
In 2026/27, the government is expecting to spend over £9 billion on early years entitlements, supporting more parents to balance family life and work.
The department updated existing statutory guidance for local authorities, which emphasises transparency at the heart of how the entitlement should be passed on to parents.
Providers should set out how many government-funded hours parents are receiving, to ensure parents understand their usage of the entitlements.
Providers remain able to charge parents for any additional, private paid hours according to their usual terms and conditions, provided taking up private paid hours is not a condition of accessing the entitlements place.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of the current funding model for higher education on (a) students and (b) University staff.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to creating a secure future for our world-leading higher education (HE) sector and has already taken a number of actions to help move the sector towards a more stable financial footing, including the difficult decision to increase maximum tuition fee limits for the 2025/26 academic year by 3.1%, in line with the forecast rate of inflation.
We have published an Equality Impact Assessment of the impact of changes to fee limits and student support for the 2025/26 academic year on undergraduate students with protected characteristics and disadvantaged students.
The department recognises that some HE providers are making difficult decisions around staffing in order to safeguard their financial sustainability. Ultimately the sector is independent from government and as such must continue to make the necessary and appropriate financial decisions to ensure their long-term sustainability.
However, we expect providers to work with staff, to help identify how best to operate efficiently. All efficiency measures taken by the sector should provide a better long-term future for students, staff and the country.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will centralise the payment of national non-domestic rates for (a) private, (b) voluntary and (c) independent early years settings.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is the government’s ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
The small business rate relief scheme provides up to 100% relief for eligible businesses occupying one property with a rateable value of £12,000 or below, and reduced bills up to £15,000. Further, if a nursery is a charity, charitable rate relief provides 80% off rates bills, which can be topped up to 100% by the local authority.
The government funds local authorities to deliver the early years entitlements through the early years national funding formula for the 3 and 4-year-old entitlement and a separate formula for the 2-year-old and below entitlement. The hourly funding rate paid to local authorities for these entitlements is designed to recognise the average costs across different provider types and is intended to reflect staff and non-staff costs, including business rates. In 2025/26 alone, the department plans to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, an additional £2 billion (over 30% increase) compared to 2024/25, as we roll out the expansion of the entitlements.
There are no current plans to extend the centralised payment system to private, voluntary or independent early years settings or to make these settings exempt. However, all processes are kept under review.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make non-domestic early years settings exempt from business rates.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is the government’s ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
The small business rate relief scheme provides up to 100% relief for eligible businesses occupying one property with a rateable value of £12,000 or below, and reduced bills up to £15,000. Further, if a nursery is a charity, charitable rate relief provides 80% off rates bills, which can be topped up to 100% by the local authority.
The government funds local authorities to deliver the early years entitlements through the early years national funding formula for the 3 and 4-year-old entitlement and a separate formula for the 2-year-old and below entitlement. The hourly funding rate paid to local authorities for these entitlements is designed to recognise the average costs across different provider types and is intended to reflect staff and non-staff costs, including business rates. In 2025/26 alone, the department plans to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, an additional £2 billion (over 30% increase) compared to 2024/25, as we roll out the expansion of the entitlements.
There are no current plans to extend the centralised payment system to private, voluntary or independent early years settings or to make these settings exempt. However, all processes are kept under review.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has taken steps with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) rateable values and (b) small business rates relief on (i) nurseries and (ii) pre-schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is the government’s ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
The small business rate relief scheme provides up to 100% relief for eligible businesses occupying one property with a rateable value of £12,000 or below, and reduced bills up to £15,000. Further, if a nursery is a charity, charitable rate relief provides 80% off rates bills, which can be topped up to 100% by the local authority.
The government funds local authorities to deliver the early years entitlements through the early years national funding formula for the 3 and 4-year-old entitlement and a separate formula for the 2-year-old and below entitlement. The hourly funding rate paid to local authorities for these entitlements is designed to recognise the average costs across different provider types and is intended to reflect staff and non-staff costs, including business rates. In 2025/26 alone, the department plans to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, an additional £2 billion (over 30% increase) compared to 2024/25, as we roll out the expansion of the entitlements.
There are no current plans to extend the centralised payment system to private, voluntary or independent early years settings or to make these settings exempt. However, all processes are kept under review.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which groups were consulted on the withdrawal of funding for non-specialist assistive software through the Disabled Students' Allowance.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department engaged with individual disability experts with relevant experience to gather feedback on the proposals. These experts were consulted in a personal capacity, and the department is therefore not able to provide their personal information.
This policy change relates to non-specialist spelling and grammar software only. The decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) funding was made on the grounds that there are now free to access versions available with the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs, and it is therefore not an effective use of public money to continue to fund this type of software through DSA.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department plans to provide for (a) dance, (b) drama, (c) music and (d) musical theatre higher education courses in each of the next three years.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is determined that the higher education (HE) funding system should deliver for our economy, for universities and for students. The HE sector needs a secure financial footing, which is why, after seven years of frozen fee caps under the previous government, we took last year the difficult decision to increase maximum tuition fee limits for the 2025/26 academic year by 3.1%, in line with the forecast rate of inflation.
In return for the increased investment we are asking students to make we expect the sector to deliver the very best outcomes, both for those students and for the country.
Additionally, the government provides annual funding to the HE sector through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG), which supports teaching of expensive-to-deliver subjects, access and participation and world-leading specialist providers.
My right hon. Friend, The Secretary of State for Education will shortly issue guidance to the Office for Students, setting out SPG funding for the 2025/26 academic year and her priorities for it. Funding for subsequent years will be agreed following the government’s spending review.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Office for Students will be required to provide a third category for registration; and whether this will take into account the specialised environments of small specialist providers.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole to the answer of 18 March 2025 to Question 36617.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the savings to her Department from the withdrawal of funding for non-specialist assistive software through the Disabled Students' Allowance.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Funding under the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) is in general not available for goods and services that may be needed by the general student population, whether disabled or not. The department has withdrawn funding for non-specialist software as this falls outside the scope of the DSA. We will monitor the savings from the implementation of this policy.
This policy change relates to non-specialist spelling and grammar software only. The decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from DSA funding was made on the grounds that there are now free to access versions available with the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs, and it is therefore not an effective use of public money to continue to fund this type of software through the DSA.