Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to review the School Food Standards.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is important that children eat nutritious food at school and the department encourages schools to have a whole school approach to healthy eating. The School Food Standards regulate the food and drink provided at lunchtime and at other times of the school day, including, for example, breakfast clubs. The School Food Standards restrict foods high in fat, salt and sugar, as well as low quality reformed or reconstituted foods. They ensure that pupils always have healthy options for their school lunch.
School governors have a responsibility to ensure compliance and should provide appropriate challenge to ensure the school is meeting its obligations.
To support governors in their role around compliance, the department, along with the National Governance Association, is running a pilot online training course on school food for governors and trustees. This launched on 4 November 2024 and will run until 1 April 2025. This will help governors to improve their understanding of the standards and give governing boards confidence to hold their school leaders to account on their whole school approach to food. The department will evaluate the training programme’s reception and effectiveness in the short term.
The department’s aim is to deliver better life chances for all through a system which works for all. As part of this, as with all government programmes, we will keep our approach to school food under continued review.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with local authorities on the future of the Holiday Activities and Food programme after March 2025.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has received its overall budget and we are now working through the details of the budget settlement. Departmental budgets for 2025/26 will be confirmed in due course, including the exact funding available for this type of support for children, young people and families during the holidays.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to embed a Whole Education Approach to mental health and wellbeing in all education settings.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to improving mental health outcomes for all children and young people, as this is critical to breaking down barriers to opportunity and learning.
The department, along with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, provides guidance to schools and colleges on a whole school or college approach to promoting and supporting mental health and wellbeing, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/614cc965d3bf7f718518029c/Promoting_children_and_young_people_s_mental_health_and_wellbeing.pdf. The department has also provided a free to access resource hub for mental health leads, which can be found here: https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/.
Over 70% of all schools and colleges have accessed grants from the department to train a senior mental health lead, who develops their knowledge and skills to embed a whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing. Information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/senior-mental-health-lead-training. In addition, as of April 2024, Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) cover 44% (4.2 million) of pupils in schools and learners in further education (FE) in England. Coverage of MHSTs is expected to cover at least 50% by the end of March 2025.
A key part of our approach is ensuring the right support is available to every young person that needs it, which is why we have committed to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school. 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.
For early years settings, the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children have the best start in life and are kept healthy and safe. The EYFS statutory framework can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2.
The department works closely with the FE sector to 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, which was published in March 2024.
To raise standards 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.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help reduce waiting times for SEND services in schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
For too long the education and care system has not met the needs of all children, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Parents and carers have struggled to get their children the support they need, with many children and young people having to wait far longer than they should for the services they need.
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with SEND, or in alternative provision, receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department will be focusing on a community-wide approach, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, and ensuring that special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to educate pupils on the potential danger of open water swimming.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Water safety is a vital life skill, which is why swimming and water safety is a compulsory part of the PE and Sport National Curriculum at Key Stages 1 and 2. Pupils should be taught how to perform safe self rescue in a variety of water based situations, including open water.
Schools can also use the Personal, Social, Health and Economic curriculum to equip pupils with a sound understanding of risk and with the knowledge necessary to make safe and informed decisions, which is a vital part of water safety.
The Department is working in partnership with members of the National Water Safety Forum, in particular the Royal Life Saving Society UK, Swim England, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Together with the Department, these organisations are supporting more schools to teach primary and secondary pupils important aspects of water safety, such as cold water shock, rip tides and keeping safe near frozen water. New resources for pupils in Key Stages 1 to 3 have been provided by the National Water Safety Forum, supporting teachers to deliver water safety in a classroom environment.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2022 to Question 37614 on Schools: Buildings, which schools had at least one construction element in condition grade (a) C and (b) D in (i) Bolton South East, (ii) Bolton West and (iii) Bolton North East constituencies when that data was collated; and which of those schools (A) have received and (B) expect to receive in the next two years funding from the School Rebuilding Programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Condition Data Collection (CDC) is one of the largest and most comprehensive data collection programmes in the UK’s public sector. It collected data on the building condition of government funded schools in England. It provides a robust evidence base to enable the Department to target capital funding for maintaining and rebuilding school buildings.
The key, high level findings of the CDC programme were published in May 2021 in the ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey: Key Findings’ report. This is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
Individual CDC reports have been shared with every school and their responsible body to use alongside their existing condition surveys to plan maintenance schedules and investment plans. The Department plans to publish detailed school level CDC data. The Department is still preparing the data and will publish it as soon as possible.
Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Our funding is directed both to maintaining the condition of the school estate and rebuilding schools. The Department has allocated over £13 billion for improving the condition of schools since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed this financial year.
The ten year School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) is condition led. 400 of the 500 available places on the programme have been provisionally allocated. A list of these schools and the methodology used to select them is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.
The following table shows the constituencies specified that have schools or colleges selected for the SRP:
Parliamentary constituency | Schools selected for SRP |
Bolton West |
|
City of Durham |
|
The 239 schools announced in December 2022 will enter delivery at a rate of approximately 50 per year, over a five year period from 2023. The Department is currently undertaking due diligence on these schools prior to scheduling them, with schools prioritised according to the condition of their buildings, readiness to proceed, and efficiency of delivery. The scope and funding for each project will be confirmed following detailed feasibility studies and condition surveys of buildings.
Where a school identifies significant safety issues with a building, that cannot be managed within local resources, the Department considers additional support on a case-by-case basis. This includes applications for Urgent Capital Support (UCS) from eligible institutions. Schools eligible for Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) can apply for UCS where there are urgent health and safety issues that threaten school closure and cannot wait until the next CIF bidding round.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that political and Ministerial changes at his Department do not affect the (a) smooth running of this year’s exams and (b) his Department's ability to address any issues arising from them.
Answered by Will Quince
The responsibility for maintaining standards in exams lies with Ofqual, the independent regulator of qualifications. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education is assured that the exam boards and Ofqual have well established processes in place to manage any issues arising with the delivery of exams and awarding and are keeping the department informed. This is not affected by political or ministerial changes.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much public funding the University of Bolton has received in each year between 2010 and 2022.
Answered by Andrea Jenkyns
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes data on the finances of higher education providers in the UK.
Income data by the source is available for each UK higher education provider in Table 7 of HESA’s Higher Education Provider Data: Finance pages for the academic years 2015/16 to 2019/20 are available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/finances/table-7.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure effective support for refugees arriving from Afghanistan, including the enrolment of school aged children.
Answered by Robin Walker
Work is underway across government departments, and with charities and local authorities, to ensure refugees arriving from Afghanistan are properly supported so they can rebuild their lives. Local authorities will receive a funding package to support the resettlement of these families.
We are prioritising making sure that children of all ages have access to education, including by working with local authorities and other networks to make sure this can happen as soon as possible.
We are providing at least £12 million in extra education funding, which prioritises additional school places for children and young people, but also covers school transport, extra English lessons, specialist teachers and more.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that pupils in Bolton South East constituency have access to a secular or community-ethos school.
Answered by Robin Walker
The government is committed to offering parents and children a diverse education system consisting of a wide variety of schools and this includes faith schools. Within Bolton South East, 24 of the 47 primary and secondary schools are not designated as faith schools.
The vast majority of parents are offered a place at a school of their choice. For the Bolton local authority, in 2021, 97.6% of parents received an offer from one of their top three choices of primary school, while 94.4 % received an offer from one of their top three choices of secondary school.
Faith schools have played an important role in our education system for many years and are popular with parents. They have a strong track record of delivering excellent education and achieving high standards and, on average, perform better than non-faith schools. These schools, like all other schools, play a vital role in promoting integration and supporting pupils to understand different faiths and communities.
Although faith schools have greater freedom to maintain their religious ethos, they remain subject to the same obligations as other state funded schools to promote community cohesion and integration, and to teach a broad and balanced curriculum.