Department for Education

Earnings and employment outcomes in the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) official statistics cover all employment and income reported to HMRC, whether from salaried employment, self-employment or freelance work.

The Graduate Outcomes survey publication provides annual pay information for graduates’ main employment during census week, 15 months after graduation. This question is not mandatory and salaries are self-reported, whether salaried work, self-employment or freelanced work. Salary information is published by annual salary bands or medians.

Skills England estimated the workforce size and demand levels in the creative industries sector in their publication ‘Assessment of priority skills in 2030’. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/assessment-of-priority-skills-to-2030/assessment-of-priority-skills-to-2030.

It is our 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.

As part of the childcare experience survey and the childcare and early years survey of parents, parents who claim 30 hours childcare are asked to indicate any additional charges they pay to their provider. The survey does not ask whether paying the fixed charges is conditional for taking up a place.

The department has recently updated statutory guidance for local authorities. This guidance reinforces that there must be no mandatory charges. The statutory guidance is clear that there must not be any mandatory charges for parents in relation to the free hours. We explain in the statutory guidance that while providers can charge for consumables, food and optional extra activities, as well as additional hours beyond the entitlements, that these must be voluntary for the parent. We furthermore provide a non-exhaustive list of items and services that providers cannot charge for.

Local authorities are empowered to ensure that providers follow this guidance through their provider agreements. How that will be enforced is a matter for the local authority to decide.

Negotiations with the European Commission on the UK’s association to Erasmus+ in 2027 have now concluded. We have secured significantly improved financial terms compared to default arrangements, ensuring a fairer balance between the UK’s contribution to the EU and the number of UK participants who receive funding. We negotiated a 30% discount, securing participation for 2027 at a cost of approximately £570 million, saving UK taxpayers around £240 million while securing the benefits of participation for young people in the UK and across the EU.

This commitment covers the 2027/28 academic year. Any participation in Erasmus+ into the next Multiannual Financial Framework from 2028-34 will need to be agreed in the future and be based on a fair and balanced contribution.

We expect over 100,000 UK participants to benefit from mobility and partnership opportunities from participation in 2027. Participants from the EU and other countries associated to the programme will also benefit from the UK’s association through being able to undertake a mobility to the UK or build partnerships with UK institutions. We will have detailed information on the UK’s Erasmus+ beneficiaries after our first year of participation.

Through Erasmus+, learners will have more chances to study, train, work, or volunteer abroad. They will gain language skills, build intercultural ties, and develop real-world skills employers value. For teachers, youth workers, sports sector professionals and other staff, Erasmus+ brings professional development and access to new and innovative practice. For schools, colleges, universities and other education providers, Erasmus+ re-opens structured partnerships and networks that drive quality, encourage research links and enhance international reputation.

The Service Pupil Premium (SPP) is additional funding for state-funded schools in England with children and young people of service families. It will be paid at a rate of £360 per eligible pupil in the 2026/27 financial year.

Schools can tailor their SPP expenditure to meet the specific pastoral and academic needs of individual service children and help mitigate the impact of matters such as family mobility, separation, or parental deployment. It is the responsibility of each school to decide how to use their SPP funding and to communicate this with parents.

Schools are encouraged to consider best practice in the use of SPP funding, set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-service-pupil-premium/service-pupil-premium-examples-of-best-practice

Guidance for schools, academy trusts and local authorities on supporting service pupils is published jointly by the department and the Ministry Of Defence here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/service-pupils-in-schools-non-statutory-guidance/service-pupils-in-schools-non-statutory-guidance.

This recommends that schools consider recording their use of SPP funding as part of their mandatory pupil premium statement, unless they have reason to believe this will identify individual pupils. An optional field in the template is provided for this purpose.

The Service Pupil Premium (SPP) is additional funding for state-funded schools in England with children and young people of service families. It will be paid at a rate of £360 per eligible pupil in the 2026/27 financial year.

Schools can tailor their SPP expenditure to meet the specific pastoral and academic needs of individual service children and help mitigate the impact of matters such as family mobility, separation, or parental deployment. It is the responsibility of each school to decide how to use their SPP funding and to communicate this with parents.

Schools are encouraged to consider best practice in the use of SPP funding, set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-service-pupil-premium/service-pupil-premium-examples-of-best-practice

Guidance for schools, academy trusts and local authorities on supporting service pupils is published jointly by the department and the Ministry Of Defence here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/service-pupils-in-schools-non-statutory-guidance/service-pupils-in-schools-non-statutory-guidance.

This recommends that schools consider recording their use of SPP funding as part of their mandatory pupil premium statement, unless they have reason to believe this will identify individual pupils. An optional field in the template is provided for this purpose.

Graduates make a significant economic and financial contribution to the UK economy. A report commissioned by Universities UK and published in 2024 suggests that the UK higher education sector contributes around £265 billion to the UK economy and that every £1 of public funding invested in the sector’s teaching activities generated a total of some £13 in wider economic impact across the UK.

The Universities UK commissioned report can be found here: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/sites/default/files/field/downloads/2024-09/LE-UUK-Impact-of-university-TL-and-RI-Final-Report.pdf.

The new International Education Strategy reflects the positive impact of international students. It confirms our continued commitment to welcoming students who meet the requirements to study in the UK.

The system must, however, ensure that international students make a positive contribution to the communities in which they study. The ‘Restoring control over the immigration system’ White Paper contains measures that will achieve a reduction in net migration, whilst maintaining the UK’s globally competitive position and boosting our skills base.

The department expects the UK to remain an attractive study destination. The most recent data shows that applications from Sponsored Study visa main applicants in the year ending January 2026 were 2 per cent higher than the previous year. The data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/monthly-entry-clearance-visa-applications-january-2026/monthly-entry-clearance-visa-applications-january-2026.

Whilst we recognise international students’ value, reliance on international fee income is a risk to some providers' income. HE providers must ensure their business models provide long-term sustainability.

The new International Education Strategy reflects the positive impact of international students. It confirms our continued commitment to welcoming students who meet the requirements to study in the UK.

The system must, however, ensure that international students make a positive contribution to the communities in which they study. The ‘Restoring control over the immigration system’ White Paper contains measures that will achieve a reduction in net migration, whilst maintaining the UK’s globally competitive position and boosting our skills base.

The department expects the UK to remain an attractive study destination. The most recent data shows that applications from Sponsored Study visa main applicants in the year ending January 2026 were 2 per cent higher than the previous year. The data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/monthly-entry-clearance-visa-applications-january-2026/monthly-entry-clearance-visa-applications-january-2026.

Whilst we recognise international students’ value, reliance on international fee income is a risk to some providers' income. HE providers must ensure their business models provide long-term sustainability.

The new International Education Strategy reflects the positive impact of international students. It confirms our continued commitment to welcoming students who meet the requirements to study in the UK.

The system must, however, ensure that international students make a positive contribution to the communities in which they study. The ‘Restoring control over the immigration system’ White Paper contains measures that will achieve a reduction in net migration, whilst maintaining the UK’s globally competitive position and boosting our skills base.

The department expects the UK to remain an attractive study destination. The most recent data shows that applications from Sponsored Study visa main applicants in the year ending January 2026 were 2 per cent higher than the previous year. The data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/monthly-entry-clearance-visa-applications-january-2026/monthly-entry-clearance-visa-applications-january-2026.

Whilst we recognise international students’ value, reliance on international fee income is a risk to some providers' income. HE providers must ensure their business models provide long-term sustainability.

The new International Education Strategy reflects the positive impact of international students. It confirms our continued commitment to welcoming students who meet the requirements to study in the UK.

The system must, however, ensure that international students make a positive contribution to the communities in which they study. The ‘Restoring control over the immigration system’ White Paper contains measures that will achieve a reduction in net migration, whilst maintaining the UK’s globally competitive position and boosting our skills base.

The department expects the UK to remain an attractive study destination. The most recent data shows that applications from Sponsored Study visa main applicants in the year ending January 2026 were 2 per cent higher than the previous year. The data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/monthly-entry-clearance-visa-applications-january-2026/monthly-entry-clearance-visa-applications-january-2026.

Whilst we recognise international students’ value, reliance on international fee income is a risk to some providers' income. HE providers must ensure their business models provide long-term sustainability.

The government recognises that timber offers a solution as a renewable, low-carbon resource. It offers potential to reduce emissions and create jobs, as set out in the Timber in Construction Roadmap: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/timber-in-construction-roadmap-2025/timber-in-construction-roadmap-2025.

The department has piloted a number of projects which explore the use of timber in school construction, including three prototypes using UK timber.

Our construction specification requires that new buildings meet an embodied carbon requirement, and that designs use natural materials to create a healthy learning environment. These specifications encourage the use of timber and other natural materials to meet the needs of our low carbon future.

Timber is a commonly used material in maintaining school buildings. School responsible bodies must ensure that the correct materials are used for any works to maintain fire, safety and other critical requirements.

Experts at Hand will be delivered through a blend of existing specialist capacity and new staff brought in over time, ensuring the expertise available grows sustainably as the offer develops.

We recently announced £26 million investment to train at least 200 educational psychologists per year, starting their training in 2026 and 2027, followed by further investment from 2028 to train even larger cohorts, subject to a future spending review. This builds on £31 million already being invested since 2023 to train around 200 educational psychologists per year.

The educational psychology doctorate is a three-year course and those who began their training in 2023 will graduate and enter the workforce in 2026/27. Together, these investments will result in approximately 200 trained educational psychologists graduating each year, in 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29, and 2029/30 respectively.

We also announced an investment of over £15 million in speech and language therapists (SaLTs). This is to upskill more SaLT support workers and to establish new SaLT advanced practitioners to ensure more therapists and support workers are working with education settings to support additional children and young people. We will also promote the Level 6 SaLT degree apprenticeship to boost the pipeline.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is a key step towards delivering the government’s Opportunity Mission to break the link between young people’s background and their future success.

The Bill’s impact assessments were submitted to the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) on 5 November 2024, in accordance with the Better Regulation Framework. Collective agreement was provided for measures in the Bill by the Home and Economic Affairs Committee and Parliamentary Business and Legislation Committee in advance of the Bill’s introduction, as required.

The department published the Bill’s impact assessments on 30 January 2025, ahead of the RPC’s final opinion being published on 31 January 2025. The RPC gave the Bill’s impact assessments a green-rating, finding them fit for purpose. Ministers were kept updated throughout.

The information is not held by the department.

The number of private school closures is publicly available from the ‘Get Information about Schools’ website. Where local circumstances show that converting a private school into a state funded school would meet local demand for school places, the conversion may be considered through the established legal process.

The number of private school closures is publicly available from the ‘Get Information about Schools’ website. Where local circumstances show that converting a private school into a state funded school would meet local demand for school places, the conversion may be considered through the established legal process.

City & Guilds of London Institute is an independent organisation. The government has no role in its governance or commercial decisions, including the sale of its charitable assets in October 2025.

The department did not hold discussions with parties involved in that sale prior to it taking place.

Following the sale of City and Guilds Ltd, the organisation has confirmed they will continue to deliver qualifications within the further education sector and work constructively with providers as usual.

City and Guilds of London Institute is an independent organisation. The government has no role in its governance or commercial decisions, including the sale of its charitable assets in October 2025.

Following the sale of City and Guilds Ltd, the organisation has confirmed they will continue to deliver qualifications within the further education sector and work constructively with providers as usual.

Ofqual remain actively engaged with City and Guilds Ltd.

His Majesty’s Treasury does not assess higher education provider quality and value for money, as these assessments are undertaken by the department and the Office for Students.

In 2026/27, the department expects to provide over £9.5 billion for the early years entitlements, more than doubling annual public investment in the early years sector compared to 2023/24, as we have successfully rolled-out the expansion of government-funded childcare for working parents.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action they are taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract. The department does not hold data on waiting lists. No local authorities have reported to us that they do not have sufficient childcare places.

For Ofsted data on Ofsted-registered early years providers who have left the Early Years Register, by region and local authority, please see attached table. The data shows that there has been a slow-down in providers leaving the market.

At 31 March 2025, there were 740 Gypsy Roma and Traveller of Irish Heritage Children Looked After. This represents 0.9% of all children looked after. The Office for National Statistics 2021 census reported that Roma and White Gypsy or Irish Traveller children account for 0.4% of the child population.

The Families First Partnership Programme, backed by £2.4 billion over three years, is delivering national reforms to Family Help, Multi‑Agency Child Protection, and Family Group Decision Making. Funding is ringfenced for prevention, with local authorities deciding how best to support vulnerable children, young people, and families, including those of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.

The government aims to shift children’s social care toward earlier intervention. Central to this is the development of multi‑disciplinary Family Help teams working within communities to provide early, wraparound support. These reforms aim to improve outcomes, prevent escalation of need, and reduce long‑term costs by safely decreasing the number of children entering care.

The Office for Students and the department measure graduate employment and earnings outcomes using multiple data sources including the Graduate Outcomes Survey and Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data. The OfS uses Condition B3 measures to help monitor and ensure course quality, which in particular includes progression to high-skilled employment. The LEO publication data measures outcomes 3, 5 and 10 years after graduation, and helps inform research on value for money in higher education. Course value in all subjects is informed by a wide range of factors, including graduate earnings at different points in graduates’ careers. Student number controls are no longer an active policy.

The government is committed to supporting local areas to create high-quality places that are suitable to meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We want more pupils to access the right support in a local mainstream setting, enabling them to learn alongside their peers and siblings, instead of travelling a long way to a special school.

​The department is investing at least £3.7 billion in high needs capital funding between 2025/2026 and 2029/2030, to support local authorities to provide places for children and young people with SEND, or who require alternative provision.

​Specialist places for pupils with special educational needs are not provided on the basis of specific distinct needs. The department publishes data on the breakdown of pupils by their recorded primary need type and school type on gov.uk although this may not fully reflect the total number of pupils who experience mental health difficulties, anxieties or depression. The department also publishes data on specialist placement capacity on gov.uk since 2023 but this is not broken down by type of need.

Higher education (HE) employment outcomes are measured at multiple points after graduation, including after 15 months in the Graduate Outcomes survey, and after 3, 5 and 10 years in the HE Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) publication data. Together these datasets provide evidence to inform policy. The HE LEO publication can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/leo-graduate-and-postgraduate-outcomes/2022-23.

The department recognises that employment trajectories differ by occupation and industry sector and takes the full range of data and evidence into account in its research and policy design.

Any decision on the continuation of the Taith programme following the UK’s association to Erasmus+ in 2027 rests with the Welsh Government.

The department is reintroducing targeted, means-tested maintenance grants of up to £1,000 per year, funded by a levy on international student fees, with both being introduced in the 2028/29 academic year.

This will ensure that the proceeds from international student fees benefit domestic learners, furthering our national opportunity mission, and creating stronger economic links between both home and international students.

This government is clear that it welcomes and values the contributions to our society, economy and higher education providers made by overseas students who want to come to the UK. But it is right to ensure that the financial benefit these students provide also helps our most disadvantaged home students.

As outlined in the International Education Strategy, the UK aims to both grow the value of education exports to £40 billion per year by 2030, whilst ensuring the sustainable recruitment of high-quality students, in line with the Immigration White Paper.

International higher education (HE) students are only one part of the UK’s wider international education offer, which includes education exports and transnational education provision across the entire sector, from early years to schools, colleges and universities.

Introducing a £925 flat-fee International Student Levy on English HE providers will support sustainable international student recruitment, whilst ensuring students contribute to the communities where they study, with the levy revenue funding the reintroduction of targeted maintenance grants for disadvantaged students.

The UK’s world‑class HE sector will continue to offer an attractive and fulfilling experience to students from around the globe.

The department’s position is that a duty of care in higher education (HE) may arise in certain circumstances. Such circumstances would be a matter for the courts to decide, based on the specific facts and context of the case being considered, and will be dependent on the application by a court of accepted common law principles.

The department continues to work closely with students, parents, mental health experts and the HE sector to drive meaningful change in mental health practice through the HE mental health implementation taskforce. The taskforce published its second stage report, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/higher-education-mental-health-implementation-taskforce.

The government has carefully considered the impact of changes to adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) funding as part of the wider Spending Review process. That is why we have confirmed continued funding through to 2027/28, alongside consultation on reform, to ensure families continue to receive support while we improve how it is delivered.

The current consultation, available at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/adoption-and-special-guardianship-support-fund-team/adoption-support-that-works-for-all/supporting_documents/adoption-support-that-works-for-all-consultation-document-feb-2026pdf recognises that while many adopted and kinship children thrive, support can be slow, fragmented and inconsistent when needs arise. It sets out a vision for a more predictable and joined-up system, with universal and targeted early help, clearer support pathways and stronger multi‑disciplinary working across social care, health and education where people need more intensive support. The consultation is also a key opportunity for stakeholders to share their views on what support is effective for children. A report on the outcomes of the consultation, together with next steps, will be published later this year.

The department works closely with the Lincolnshire councils and local further education (FE) colleges to ensure there is sufficient post-16 provision in Lincolnshire.

The department works with local authorities to assess significant change applications from schools for new post-16 provision or to close existing provision to ensure that any closure proposals do not create 16 to 19 sufficiency challenges within an area.

In October 2025, we published the ‘Post-16 education and skills white paper’, setting out reforms to the skills system. This includes the introduction of V Levels to sit alongside A and T Levels, the Further Study pathway, supported by a new Foundation Certificate, to support students to progress onto V, T or A levels and also the Occupational pathway. This is supported by a new Occupational Certificate, assisting students develop skills to go into apprenticeships or employment.

Assessments by the Education Select Committee, Public Accounts Committee and National Audit Office highlight common challenges across the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system that mean children and young people do not get the effective early intervention they need and leave parents struggling to secure appropriate support.

As set out in our ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ White Paper, the government is seeking to reshape the SEND system to make all mainstream early years settings, schools and colleges truly inclusive. We are also investing billions of pounds to adapt classrooms and corridors, train teachers, educators and assistants, and bring experts like speech and language therapists into settings.

We are consulting on these proposals and will continue to work with a wide range of partners to refine them and deliver them.

The department collects and publishes figures on the number and proportion of pupils in special schools. The number of pupils in special schools (State-funded and non-maintained) has increased from 109,177 in 2015/16 to 169,630 in 2024/25. This is an increase of 60,453. The proportion of pupils in special schools was 1.3% in 2015/16 and 1.9% in 2024/25, an increase of 0.6 percentage points.

The department will publish new guidance in the spring to support higher education (HE) providers in understanding their responsibilities under the Prevent Duty. This will include advice on assessing whether external speech may be unlawful or linked to terrorism, and on carrying out due diligence for invited speakers.

The Prevent Duty does not apply to all charities, and not all HE providers have charity status. The planned guidance will therefore offer more detailed, sector-specific advice on managing risks associated with external speakers in HE settings than guidance intended for the wider charity sector.

The planned guidance will work alongside guidance issued by the Office for Students which supports providers in meeting duties under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023.

We inherited the student loans system, including Plan 2, which was devised by the previous government. Threshold freezes have been introduced to protect taxpayers and students now, alongside future generations of learners and workers.

It is reasonable to ask those graduates who do benefit financially from higher education to contribute towards the cost of their studies. Graduates generally benefit from higher earnings, and ensuring they repay more of their loan is fair for those workers who have not gone to university or graduates on lower salaries.

There is precedent for multi-year threshold freezes. Plan 2 was held at £21,000 from its introduction until 2018 and was subsequently frozen for three years from financial years 2022/23 to 2024/25.

The student finance system is heavily subsidised by government, and lower-earning graduates will always be protected. Any outstanding loan, including interest, is cancelled at the end of the repayment term and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants. In financial year 2025/26 34% of loan debt for full-time Plan 2 graduates was forecast not to be repaid. We have to make the choices required to manage spend and the impact of these legacy loans.

‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026’ sets clear expectations for how organisations must safeguard children. Inspectorates and regulators are key to ensuring organisations follow their statutory duties. Ofsted inspects early years provision, schools, further education and skills providers, and all children’s social care services including children’s homes, fostering agencies and adoption services.

Joint Targeted Area Inspections are multi-agency inspections carried out by Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services and HM Inspectorate Probation.

Out-of-school settings have a common law duty of care to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harm, alongside other statutory obligations relating to Disclosure and Barring Service requirements and health and safety legislation.

DfE will provide a formal response to the call for evidence on safeguarding in these settings in due course, following ongoing stakeholder engagement.

The department is establishing a Child Protection Authority to strengthen the child protection response regardless of where harm takes place.

Information on the immigration status of care leavers is not held centrally by the department.

The Best Start in Life website launched on 1 September 2025, bringing together information and support from across government in one place. The content has been shaped by user research with parents, and serves as a key access point for online support and guidance.

Fostering is a challenging role that requires skills and dedication from those who foster, and it is crucial that foster carers receive the support they need to enable them to fulfil this role.

The National Minimum Standards (NMS) for fostering sets out the minimum expectations for the support, supervision and training that all fostering services must provide to foster carers, ensuring consistently high quality care for children. The NMS sets out the expectation that each foster carer receives at least the national minimum allowance for the child in their care.

We have committed to reviewing and updating the NMS as part of our wider programme of reforms. The government’s action plan published in February 2026, ‘Renewing Fostering: Homes for 10,000 More Children’, sets out our approach to recruiting more foster carers, and strengthening support for foster families. This includes the development of an enhanced training and support package for foster carers, which will be rolled out from 2026/27.

The government has accepted the relevant recommendations of the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review to ensure that young people become more digitally literate through a refreshed computing curriculum, including essential AI content, that builds digital confidence from an early age. We are considering how digital content can be integrated across other subjects to build strong, transferrable digital skills, and will replace the computer science GCSE with a broader qualification reflecting the full computing curriculum.

Work is underway to develop the new curriculum, and the department will conduct a public consultation on the draft programmes of study in summer 2026. To increase the number of pupils who will benefit from the reformed national curriculum, we are legislating so that academies will be required to teach it, alongside maintained schools.

We are continuing to invest in the National Centre for Computing Education to support teachers to teach about these topics with confidence.

In the Best Start in Life strategy, the government committed to expanding access to high-quality, evidence-based parenting and home-learning support. This ensures that families receive interventions that best promote children’s early development and help close the gap before they start school.

The department is committed to ensuring that parenting support in England is grounded in high-quality evidence and reflects the needs and circumstances of our population. As part of this commitment, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education visited Australia in December 2025, where she engaged in roundtables and met with ministers to discuss the Australian early years system.

We will continue to monitor emerging national and international practice while taking a careful and evidence-led approach to future decisions including the programmes in Australia.

In line with my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s announcement last year, we intend to invest up to £250,000 per year for 3 years (a total of £750,000) from the 2026/27 financial year to partner with an organisation to deliver a national chess in schools programme. This programme will aim to increase pupils’ participation in chess in schools across all nine regions of England.

It will prioritise mainstream primary and secondary schools with higher proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals, as well as special schools and alternative provision settings, and will include work to improve access for girls and pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

Fostering services are required to maintain their own records and registers of approved foster carers in line with the National Minimum Standards and associated regulations.

We recently published the ‘Renewing Fostering: Homes for 10,000 More Children’ action plan which sets out our ambitious plans to strengthen fostering. At the same time, we launched a call for evidence, which sought views on how to improve the foster care system, including questions on a national fostering register.

We are currently analysing the responses to this call for evidence. These insights will help us consider the potential merits, benefits and practical implications of introducing a national register for foster carers as part of future policy development.

The department is aware that some universities are making difficult decisions about their provision. As autonomous institutions, universities are free to choose which courses they deliver. While the government is supportive of language provision, we play no role in the delivery of these specific schemes.

As education is a devolved matter, it would not be appropriate for the government to comment on provision at Scottish universities.

We want to ensure that all children and young people have access to a high-quality language education. In response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, we set out our commitment to strengthen the languages pipeline, including at A level and degree.

Teacher recruitment in modern languages is kept under review. Incentives, bursaries and training reforms aim to support a sustainable pipeline, recognising that universities play an important but independent role in this.

The government continues to assess national capability needs in security, diplomacy, defence and trade, ensuring language skills requirements are understood across departments.

The department has published our plan for higher education reform through the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, which sets out our ambition for a world leading sector that supplies the skills our labour market needs.

The department is aware that some universities are making difficult decisions about their provision. As autonomous institutions, universities are free to choose which courses they deliver. While the government is supportive of language provision, we play no role in the delivery of these specific schemes.

As education is a devolved matter, it would not be appropriate for the government to comment on provision at Scottish universities.

We want to ensure that all children and young people have access to a high-quality language education. In response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, we set out our commitment to strengthen the languages pipeline, including at A level and degree.

Teacher recruitment in modern languages is kept under review. Incentives, bursaries and training reforms aim to support a sustainable pipeline, recognising that universities play an important but independent role in this.

The government continues to assess national capability needs in security, diplomacy, defence and trade, ensuring language skills requirements are understood across departments.

The department has published our plan for higher education reform through the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, which sets out our ambition for a world leading sector that supplies the skills our labour market needs.