Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve educational opportunities for young people in the Forest of Dean.

All young people should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter who they are or where they’re from. Through our work to deliver the Opportunity Mission, the department will improve opportunities and life chances across the country, including for young people in the Forest of Dean, breaking the unfair link between background and success.

The department is committed to helping all young people to achieve and thrive at school and to build skills for opportunity and growth, ensuring that every young person can follow the pathway that is right for them.

High and rising standards in every school are at the heart of this mission. The department aims to deliver these improvements through excellent teaching and leadership, a high- quality curriculum and a system which removes the barriers to learning that hold too many children back.

As one of our first steps for change, the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers. Additionally, we have launched an independent, expert-led Curriculum and Assessment Review which seeks to deliver an excellent foundation in the core subjects of reading, writing and maths. The Review also seeks to deliver a curriculum which is rich and broad, inclusive and innovative, readying young people for life and work, reflecting the diversities of our society.

The department has also introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to give every family the certainty that they will be able to access a good local school for their child, where they can achieve and thrive, regardless of where they live.

The government is developing a comprehensive strategy for post‐16 education and skills, to break down barriers to opportunity, support the development of a skilled workforce in all areas, including the Forest of Dean, and drive economic growth through our Industrial Strategy.

This includes the establishment of Skills England to ensure we have the highly trained workforce needed to deliver the national, regional and local skills needs of the next decade. It will ensure that the skills system is clear and navigable for individuals, for both young people and older adults, strengthening careers pathways into jobs across the economy.

The Forest of Dean benefits from colleges such as ​Hartpury College, which is delivering ​£16.7 million​ of FE and skills provision. The college is delivering T Levels in agriculture related subjects.

The Autumn Budget 2024 provided an additional £300 million revenue funding for further education (FE) for the 2025/26 financial year to ensure young people are developing the skills this country needs. £50 million of this funding has been made available to FE colleges and sixth-form colleges for the period April to July 2025. This one-off grant will enable colleges, such as Hartpury College, to respond to current priorities and challenges, including workforce recruitment and retention. Schools and academies will also continue to get grant funding for their 16 to 19 provision over this period.

Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) support the department’s long term priority to drive local economic growth by reshaping the skills system to better align provision of post-16 technical education and training with local labour market needs.

The Gloucestershire LSIP, which includes the Forest of Dean, recognises local challenges, such as the net exportation of young people and a declining working-age population, and identifies key skills needs in priority local sectors, including agriculture, agritech and land management, construction, and digital industries. The plan proposes a range of actions to resolve issues, such as enhancing careers advice for young people in education and developing new provision through quality apprenticeships, T Levels and full time 16 to 19 study programmes, as well as via routes including Boot Camps and adult education budget programmes. The LSIP also advocates better signposting and guidance for employers to increase awareness of local existing provision which may already meet skills needs.

The department is developing new foundation apprenticeships to give more young people a foot in the door at the start of their working lives whilst supporting the pipeline of new talent that employers will need to drive economic growth and could benefit young people in the Forest of Dean. This signals an important step towards realising a youth guarantee, which brings together a range of existing and new entitlements and provision so that 18 to 21-year-olds can access training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work in England. The department and the Department for Work and Pensions are developing the guarantee with mayoral authorities to provide local, tailored support and will work with local areas on future expansion.