Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of defunding the BTEC Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care on the future health and social care workforce pipeline.

In October, the department published a consultation which detailed our plans to introduce V Levels, which will offer a vocational alternative to A levels and T Levels. We have proposed a range of subjects for delivery through V Levels, including Health and Care Services.

For students looking for a career in health, we would expect students to take the Health T Level. Young people with a range of prior attainment are accessing T Levels. The GCSE grade split for students receiving T Level results is very similar to those receiving results for Applied General Qualifications.

To ensure students can continue to access high quality qualifications in social care, we introduced a large Technical Occupation Qualification in Social Care (1080 GLH), which will be available for first teach from 1 August 2026. We are also exploring whether a T Level in Social Care could be viable in future.