Department for Education

There were 129 private school closures between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2025. In 2024, there were 58 closures and in 2025 there were 71 closures.

The government does not collect pupil-level data from private schools.

There were 129 private school closures between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2025. In 2024, there were 58 closures and in 2025 there were 71 closures.

The government does not collect pupil-level data from private schools.

The ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ Schools White Paper and the SEND Consultation Document set out our plans to build an education system that ensures children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) get the right support at every stage of their education.

We are consulting on the reforms in the publication. You can access the consultation here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/send-strategy-division/send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-firs/.

Mainstream school funding allocations through the national funding formula for 2026/27 were published in November 2025, and incorporated in the 2026/27 dedicated schools grant (DSG) allocations to local authorities, published to the normal timescale in December 2025. This school funding is increasing by 2.6% per pupil in 2026/27 compared to 2025/26. High needs funding also allocated within local authorities’ DSG, which includes funding for special schools, was increased by over £1 billion, or 11%, in 2025/26. Funding will continue at this increased level in 2026/27.

On top of these allocations announced in 2025, we are investing £4 billion over three years to build an inclusive mainstream system. This includes £1.6 billion for a new Inclusive Mainstream Fund from 2026/27 for mainstream schools and other educational settings, with over £500 million per year over the next three years.

The ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ Schools White Paper and the SEND Consultation Document set out our plans to build an education system that ensures children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) get the right support at every stage of their education.

We are consulting on the reforms in the publication. You can access the consultation here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/send-strategy-division/send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-firs/.

Mainstream school funding allocations through the national funding formula for 2026/27 were published in November 2025, and incorporated in the 2026/27 dedicated schools grant (DSG) allocations to local authorities, published to the normal timescale in December 2025. This school funding is increasing by 2.6% per pupil in 2026/27 compared to 2025/26. High needs funding also allocated within local authorities’ DSG, which includes funding for special schools, was increased by over £1 billion, or 11%, in 2025/26. Funding will continue at this increased level in 2026/27.

On top of these allocations announced in 2025, we are investing £4 billion over three years to build an inclusive mainstream system. This includes £1.6 billion for a new Inclusive Mainstream Fund from 2026/27 for mainstream schools and other educational settings, with over £500 million per year over the next three years.

The ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ Schools White Paper and the SEND Consultation Document set out our plans to build an education system that ensures children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) get the right support at every stage of their education.

We are consulting on the reforms in the publication. You can access the consultation here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/send-strategy-division/send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-firs/.

Mainstream school funding allocations through the national funding formula for 2026/27 were published in November 2025, and incorporated in the 2026/27 dedicated schools grant (DSG) allocations to local authorities, published to the normal timescale in December 2025. This school funding is increasing by 2.6% per pupil in 2026/27 compared to 2025/26. High needs funding also allocated within local authorities’ DSG, which includes funding for special schools, was increased by over £1 billion, or 11%, in 2025/26. Funding will continue at this increased level in 2026/27.

On top of these allocations announced in 2025, we are investing £4 billion over three years to build an inclusive mainstream system. This includes £1.6 billion for a new Inclusive Mainstream Fund from 2026/27 for mainstream schools and other educational settings, with over £500 million per year over the next three years.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

Absence is a key barrier to opportunity. For children to achieve and thrive, they need to be in school. In the Schools White Paper, the department set a national commitment to improve the attendance rate to over 94% by 2028/29, equivalent to 100,000 pupils attending school full time and represent the fastest rate of improvement in over a decade.

Our statutory ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’ guidance requires schools to appoint an attendance champion, have a published attendance policy, and work with local authorities.

The department provides real-time data tools and attendance toolkits, which help schools, trusts and local authorities identify the drivers of absence and adopt effective practice to improve attendance to pre‑pandemic attendance levels.

In January, we launched our new regional improvement for standards and excellence attendance and behaviour hubs, which can support over 3000 schools, including enhanced support for up to 500 schools, helping schools build strong relationships with parents and helping teachers form strong relationships of trust with students.

Civil Service recruitment must follow the rules set out in legislation within the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaGA) 2010, which outlines the requirements to ensure that civil servants are recruited on merit, via fair and open competition.

Compliance with CRaGA is overseen by the independent Civil Service Commission, which publishes recruitment principles setting out the detailed rules departments must follow.

For departments who use Civil Service Jobs to manage their recruitment, applicants are asked to provide diversity data on a voluntary basis only and no details are shared with hiring managers.

The positive action measures in the Equality Act 2010 allows employers to take proportionate action that aims to reduce disadvantage, meet different needs and increase participation.

Employers who choose to use positive action can help people who share a particular protected characteristic to overcome certain barriers under the measures. However, employers need to ensure they do this in a way which does not unfairly disadvantage other groups as this could amount to ‘positive discrimination’, which is unlawful.

The School Food Standards regulate the food and drink provided at both lunchtime and at other times of the school day. They allow schools the freedom to provide plant-based drinks as needed, including plain soya, rice or oat drinks enriched with calcium, and combination and flavoured variations of these drinks.

Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. The accompanying statutory guidance makes clear to schools what is expected of them in taking reasonable steps to fulfil their legal obligations and to meet the individual needs of pupils with medical conditions, including allergies.

We are currently consulting on revised statutory guidance on ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’. The consultation can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposal-on-support-for-pupils-with-medical-conditions-at-school’. This seeks views on proposals to strengthen how schools meet their duties, including improvements to allergy safety and broader medical condition management. Our aim is to ensure that every child can access education safely and confidently, regardless of their health needs or allergy.

All state funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education set out in the Relationships, Sex and Health education (RSHE) statutory guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.

The RSHE guidance requires primary schools to teach basic first aid, such as dealing with common injuries. In secondary schools, pupils learn additional skills, including cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and how and when to use a defibrillator.

Schools have flexibility in how they deliver this content, including which resources they choose to use and whether to participate in initiatives such as Restart a Heart month.

The department does not collect data on how many pupils have completed CPR training; schools are responsible for determining how best to meet curriculum requirements and ensure appropriate first aid education.

The government has commissioned Oak Academy to make lesson materials freely available.

My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced on 19 June 2025 that the government will establish a new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network to ensure all children and young people have access to high-quality PE and extracurricular sport, helping young people develop an interest in sport that continues beyond the school environment.

To deliver this, the department is preparing to procure a national partner to lead the new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network. This partner will work with government, Sport England and national governing bodies to make links across provision for children and young people to strengthen support to schools and increase access to opportunities. We expect to have the national partner in place by autumn 2026.

In parallel, we are modernising the PE curriculum. The Association for Physical Education is leading a group of expert drafters to develop a new curriculum that develops children’s physical capability and supports lifelong participation in sport and physical activity.

Initial teacher training (ITT) bursaries are offered to incentivise more applications to ITT courses. As such, we review bursaries annually to take account of several factors, including recruitment to date, forecast economic conditions, and teacher supply need in each subject. Between the 2023/24 and 2025/26 academic years, postgraduate ITT recruitment for religious education increased by 68%, one of the largest increases across all subjects.

New teachers benefit from three years of professional development through the initial teacher training and early career framework, which sets out the core knowledge, skills, and behaviours for great teaching, alongside expert mentoring and support. All trainee teachers must meet the Teachers’ Standards for qualified teacher status in full before they qualify, which requires that they ‘Demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge’.

Great teaching is the most important lever schools have for improving children’s attainment.

The department provides a range of funded offers to schools to help them access high-quality professional development, which includes the new courses on Reception and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) as part of the teacher training entitlement referenced in the Schools White Paper.

When designing new training, the department is careful to consider how it will work with the schedules of teachers and schools, with many of them including a flexible, self-study element.

For example, we have confirmed that the SEND and inclusion courses for teachers and leaders in schools and colleges will include a mixture of online self-study sessions and live facilitated sessions.

We have also announced a package of materials for schools and colleges to support the development and delivery of in-house, in person training.

As of 11 March 2026, 501 cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) cases were outstanding. There will always be a number of CETV cases in progress at any given time, as new CETV applications continue to be made.

Capita, the scheme administrator, is continuing to work through the most complex cases for members who have retired. 350 of the outstanding cases can only be processed clerically and the estimated average calculation times are between 20 and 30 hours per processed case.

Between 17 October 2025 and 11 March 2026, 1449 CETV cases were completed. Of these cases, in calendar days, the shortest processing length was zero days, applying to automated CETV cases completed on the day they were received. The longest processing length was 960 days, and the average time taken was 44 days.

The case that took 960 days to complete was subject to the government embargo on public pension schemes, as well as the Transitional Protection regulations coming into force on 1 October 2023, and the need to develop new guidance.

The department has not made such an assessment.

However, in line with the Cabinet Office May 2026 elections guidance, during the three weeks preceding local authority elections the department takes special care in relation to announcements, including academy closures, and other public actions which could have a bearing on the elections.

Local authorities are the decision makers for proposals to close maintained schools. Local authorities are subject to their own restrictions when elections are taking place.

The government has announced plans to address deficits through making available the High Needs Stability Grant, which will cover 90% of all local authorities‘ high needs dedicated schools grant (DSG) deficits accumulated to the end of the 2025/26 financial year, subject to the authority submitting and securing the department approval for a local special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reform plan.

Safety Valve agreements will come to an end and will be replaced by the new, wider approach to managing DSG deficits and delivering reform across all local areas.

For the 2025/26 financial year, total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND is over £12 billion. Of that total, the West Midlands is being allocated over £1.2 billion through the high needs funding block of the DSG. Of that amount, Walsall Council is being allocated over £67 million.

The government has announced plans to address deficits through making available the High Needs Stability Grant, which will cover 90% of all local authorities‘ high needs dedicated schools grant (DSG) deficits accumulated to the end of the 2025/26 financial year, subject to the authority submitting and securing the department approval for a local special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reform plan.

Safety Valve agreements will come to an end and will be replaced by the new, wider approach to managing DSG deficits and delivering reform across all local areas.

For the 2025/26 financial year, total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND is over £12 billion. Of that total, the West Midlands is being allocated over £1.2 billion through the high needs funding block of the DSG. Of that amount, Walsall Council is being allocated over £67 million.

On 23 February, we published the ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ White Paper, alongside a ‘SEND Reform: Putting Children and Young People First’ consultation. We announced an investment of over £40 million to increase support available from speech and language therapists and educational psychologists, including for those with speech, language and communication needs.

We are providing around £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and integrated care boards, to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer, designed to strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings by providing access to universal and targeted support from key services, including speech and language therapists.

The government is investing £200 million to give all staff in schools, colleges and nurseries the training needed to better support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in mainstream settings.

We are extending the Early Language and Support for Every Child programme, trialling new ways of working to better identify and support children with speech, language and communication needs in early years settings and primary schools.

We are continuing to invest in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention, which significantly impacts oral language and early literacy, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.

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Officials in the department engaged with the Department for Transport when developing the updated Relationships Sex and Health Education guidance.

The updated guidance, published in July 2025 has a new section on personal safety which includes how to recognise risk and keep safe around roads. The Department for Transport has dedicated interactive websites for schools with materials that focus on their THINK! campaign.

Officials also engage on active travel for schools. Bikeability, the government owned cycle training programme, is funded by Active Travel England in schools across England. Up to £30 million was allocated to the programme for 2025/26 and funding for the forthcoming 3-year period is due to be announced shortly. Almost 6 million children have received Bikeability cycle training since 2007, with 500,000 children booking onto training in 2024/25.

The department is reviewing all local government reorganisation (LGR) proposals to consider the potential impact on education and children’s services, including plans to reform special educational needs and disabilities provision. Huntingdonshire is in tranche three of the LGR process and the statutory consultation on proposals will close on 26 March. I encourage all local areas to respond to the consultation.

For financial years 2022/23 to 2024/25, Oak National Academy (Oak) was allocated funding of £47 million. Any in-year underspend by Oak is returned to the department and reallocated to other education priorities, as with all other programmes.

The government has publicly announced Oak’s future scope, including its updating of materials to align with the refreshed national curriculum, its technical support for the department’s development of the digital curriculum, and Oak’s redevelopment of reception year resources. The precise level of funding for this work is being agreed through the department’s business planning process. Oak’s remit and funding for the coming year will be set out in a published letter to the Chair of the Oak Board.

In September 2025, we published the findings of an independent review and a market impact assessment of Oak which examined the effectiveness of the organisation and the extent to which it is meeting its strategic aims and delivering value for money. The reports have informed the government’s decisions about the future remit and funding of Oak and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oak-national-academy-independent-review-and-market-impact-assessment. Oak has also published an independent evaluation at: https://www.thenational.academy/about-us/meet-the-team#documents.

For financial years 2022/23 to 2024/25, Oak National Academy (Oak) was allocated funding of £47 million. Any in-year underspend by Oak is returned to the department and reallocated to other education priorities, as with all other programmes.

The government has publicly announced Oak’s future scope, including its updating of materials to align with the refreshed national curriculum, its technical support for the department’s development of the digital curriculum, and Oak’s redevelopment of reception year resources. The precise level of funding for this work is being agreed through the department’s business planning process. Oak’s remit and funding for the coming year will be set out in a published letter to the Chair of the Oak Board.

In September 2025, we published the findings of an independent review and a market impact assessment of Oak which examined the effectiveness of the organisation and the extent to which it is meeting its strategic aims and delivering value for money. The reports have informed the government’s decisions about the future remit and funding of Oak and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oak-national-academy-independent-review-and-market-impact-assessment. Oak has also published an independent evaluation at: https://www.thenational.academy/about-us/meet-the-team#documents.

For financial years 2022/23 to 2024/25, Oak National Academy (Oak) was allocated funding of £47 million. Any in-year underspend by Oak is returned to the department and reallocated to other education priorities, as with all other programmes.

The government has publicly announced Oak’s future scope, including its updating of materials to align with the refreshed national curriculum, its technical support for the department’s development of the digital curriculum, and Oak’s redevelopment of reception year resources. The precise level of funding for this work is being agreed through the department’s business planning process. Oak’s remit and funding for the coming year will be set out in a published letter to the Chair of the Oak Board.

In September 2025, we published the findings of an independent review and a market impact assessment of Oak which examined the effectiveness of the organisation and the extent to which it is meeting its strategic aims and delivering value for money. The reports have informed the government’s decisions about the future remit and funding of Oak and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oak-national-academy-independent-review-and-market-impact-assessment. Oak has also published an independent evaluation at: https://www.thenational.academy/about-us/meet-the-team#documents.

The department’s £28.3 million funding will deliver a range of support for schools, including new training for primary schools, delivered through the English Hubs programme, to help children progress from the early stages of phonics through to reading fluently by the time they leave primary school.

Since the launch of a new continuous professional development (CPD) programme ‘Unlocking Reading’ in January 2026, 59% of secondary schools in England have signed up to the in-person training. We do not currently have a breakdown of how many of these are in Essex, but would encourage all secondary schools to express their interest via the website:https://fft.org.uk/literacy/unlocking-reading/

The local English Hubs for schools in Essex are New Vision and Myland English Hubs. 29 schools in Essex are currently English Hub partner schools, receiving intensive support from literacy specialists with the teaching of early reading.

Over 300 schools in Essex have received some form of support from the English Hubs programme since its launch, and 100 schools in Essex are signed up to access CPD provided by the Hubs this academic year.

I refer the hon. Member for Epping Forest to the answer of 28 November 2025 to Question 92868.

The government’s Plan for Change is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

In 2023/24, just 17% of the postgraduate initial teacher training target for physics trainees was met. In 2025/26, this increased to 78%, with 1,095 new entrants, reaching the highest number for physics since comparable statistics began in 2014/15.

We are continuing to support physics teacher recruitment with bursaries worth £29,000 and scholarships worth £31,000 tax free. We are also supporting retention alongside increased recruitment, with an offer of a targeted retention incentive, which has a value of up to £6,000 after tax for physics teachers in years 1-5 of their career who choose to work in the most disadvantaged schools. This comes on top of near 10% pay rises for all teachers and leaders in the last two years, and we continue to work with sector leaders to reduce workloads, improve wellbeing and increase flexible working.

The department appreciates the publication of the report and look forward to giving it our full consideration. We agree that a healthy breakfast at the start of the school day sets children up ready to learn. This is why the department is committed to delivering on the pledge to provide free breakfast clubs in every state-funded school with primary-aged children. Since April 2025, we have delivered over seven million breakfasts and offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country. We are investing a further £80 million to fund approximately 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027.

Alongside the rollout of free breakfast clubs, we are going further in our mission to lift 100,000 children out of poverty by expanding free school meals to children in all households receiving Universal Credit from the 2026/27 school year.

The department appreciates the publication of the report and look forward to giving it our full consideration. We agree that a healthy breakfast at the start of the school day sets children up ready to learn. This is why the department is committed to delivering on the pledge to provide free breakfast clubs in every state-funded school with primary-aged children. Since April 2025, we have delivered over seven million breakfasts and offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country. We are investing a further £80 million to fund approximately 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027.

Alongside the rollout of free breakfast clubs, we are going further in our mission to lift 100,000 children out of poverty by expanding free school meals to children in all households receiving Universal Credit from the 2026/27 school year.

Information regarding applications for approval to make a material change is recorded and retained on the Independent Education and School Safeguarding Division's customer relationship management system, against the school’s individual record. Once a material change application is approved, the department's publicly available register of schools in England, the ‘Get Information About Schools’ service, is amended to reflect the change to the school's registered details.

In 2026/27, we expect to provide over £9.5 billion for the early years' entitlements. This will more than double 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.

We have announced over £400 million of funding to create tens of thousands of places in new and expanded school based nurseries to help ensure more children can access the quality early education where it is needed and get the best start in life. The first phase of the programme is creating up to 6,000 new nursery places, with schools reporting over 5,000 have been made available from September 2025.

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 we will 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.

In 2025/26, the average rate per hour that the department pays to local authorities is £11.54 for under 2s, £8.53 for 2-year olds, and £6.12 for 3-and-4-year olds although this will vary by local authorities to reflect how costs vary across the country. Local authorities then use local formulae to determine the rate they pay to providers and there is a statutory duty that at least 96% (rising to 97% in 2026/27) is passed onto providers.

To inform decisions on the rate at which early years providers are funded for delivering entitlements, the department uses an analytical model which uses data from the early years census and the survey of childcare and early years providers, a large-scale and robust survey on the childcare market in England, sampling over 9,000 providers. It also considers various government forecasts such as AEG and CPI and factors in the national living wage to determine cost pressures for the early years sector.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) publishes confirmation of the interest rates and repayment threshold to apply in the upcoming financial year annually on GOV.UK. Furthermore, SLC have extensive guidance on the operation of the student loan repayments system available on GOV.UK.

We will publish a children’s rights impact assessment alongside a child‑friendly version of the strategy later this month.

Development of the UK Government’s Child Poverty Strategy was guided by a children’s rights approach throughout. This included actively engaging with children and young people, as well as organisations that represent them, ensuring their voices and lived experiences shaped policy development.

We are committed to continuing this approach as the strategy is implemented, by hearing directly from children and their families. This will ensure their experiences and feedback are considered when evaluating the strategy’s implementation and areas to improve delivery of the strategy are identified.

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 of January 2025, 1.7 million eligible children were registered for childcare entitlements. This includes the number of 3 and 4 year-olds registered for the universal entitlement, the number of children aged 9 months to 2 years registered for the working parent entitlement, and the number of 2 year-olds registered for early learning for two year-olds entitlement. Additional take up statistics for early years entitlements can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare/2025.

Furthermore, the Childcare Experience Survey explores some of the reasons that parents do not take up entitlements, though this does not cover the latest expansion to 30 hours from 9 months.

The department remains committed to improving awareness of and access to the early years' entitlements.

The ‘Childcare and early years providers survey: 2025’ shows turnover rate for all early years educators in private group-based providers is 16% and 7% in school-based providers. Estimated turnover rates have fallen for both provider types. Fieldwork for the survey was carried out between May and July 2025.

In 2026/27, we expect to provide over £9.5 billion, more than doubling the government’s commitment to funded childcare and reflects above inflation increases to both funding rates and National Living Wage.

Early education is delivered by a mixed market, the majority of which are private, voluntary and independent provision who set their own rates of pay. Hourly pay increased by 8.2% at school-based providers and by 6.3% at group-based providers against a backdrop of a 6.7% increase in the national living wage between 2024 and 2025.

Whilst many schools are taking action to reduce costs, too many families still tell us that the cost of school uniform remains a financial burden. ​This is why we have introduced legislation to limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kit that schools can require.

When determining the level at which to set the limit, we considered the available evidence and engaged with a range of stakeholders, including schools, to ensure we struck the right balance between reducing costs for parents and recognising the benefits that some branded items can bring to school life.

The majority of primary schools, and nearly a third of secondary schools, already successfully operate within the proposed limit. It is therefore right that schools currently asking for large numbers of compulsory branded items are required to remove them.

The department recognises that while technology can support learning and development, we are aware of concerns regarding its impact on wellbeing and the potential for this to affect attendance. In response to these concerns, the government has recently launched a consultation, inviting views from parents, educators and experts to help shape guidance on the use of technology by children. This consultation aims to ensure that our approach is evidence-based and reflects the needs and experiences of those directly affected.

As part of our commitment to understanding the impact of digital device use, we are also funding EdTech (education technology) testbeds to evaluate the impact of digital tools on issues such as workload, wellbeing and inclusion.

We continue to review emerging research and collaborate with experts to understand the broader effects of technology on children’s wellbeing.

Our priority remains supporting regular attendance and the best outcomes for all pupils.

It is for private schools, as private businesses, to manage their operations and take decisions on closure. All children of compulsory school age are entitled to a state-funded school place, should they need one. The department continues to support local authorities to ensure sufficient places for pupils.

As of April 2025, 88% of pupils and learners and 76% of schools and colleges in Gloucester constituency were covered by a Mental Health Support Team (MHST), compared to 52% of pupils and learners and 41% of schools and colleges nationally. Further data for 2024/25 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision. This has been available since 16 May 2025 at national, regional and local authority level and since 10 July 2025 at constituency level.

Around six in ten pupils nationally are expected to have access to an MHST by April 2026. Data on MHST coverage is collected annually.

The department recognises the value of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset in supporting high‑quality research and evidence‑based policymaking. LEO already underpins a wide range of official statistics and analytical publications, and independent researchers can access the underlying data securely through the Office for National Statistics Secure Research Service.

The department works with its partners to improve user experience, streamline access processes, and to expand support materials to assist third party use of LEO data.

A further five years of funding to develop LEO access has recently been confirmed for this purpose along with the largest ever increase of funding to the development of LEO.

Improvements must balance the potential merits with our obligations to safeguard personal data and the public’s trust. We keep arrangements for data access under regular review to ensure they remain proportionate, secure and in line with data protection requirements.

The government is committed to expanding access to high-quality, evidence‑based parenting and home learning support as part of the Best Start in Life Strategy, delivered through the national rollout of Best Start Family Hubs.

Local authorities are expected to commission from departmental menus of programmes with the strongest evidence base, which include both in-person and digital options.

Delivering these programmes through open-access models within Best Start Family Hubs, aims to normalise parenting support by making it widely available and integrated within a broader system of help for families. This approach is intended to broaden access, ensure families can seek support in a non‑judgemental, accessible environment and reduce barriers, including stigma.

The department will continue to evaluate the impact of Best Start Family Hubs to ensure they are delivering positive outcomes for children and families and informing future policy development.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education does not plan to publish the business case, workforce plan, equality impact assessment or redundancy mitigation measures for the department’s plans to close six offices. This is an internal business decision and does not impact the department’s remit, strategy or delivery plans, nor have any direct impact on the sector. As such, it is not appropriate for the department to comment on the plans externally.

Parents are free to choose the childcare that is right for them and their children, and childminders are not prevented from caring for related children.

However, the restriction on funding relatives is set out in the Childcare Act 2006. Section 18(4) of this Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative.

Allowing childminders to receive funding for looking after related children would not be an effective use of public money and may have a negative impact on the viability of existing childcare businesses.

A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing childcare for a related child, but this would have to be from local authority funds independent of the dedicated schools grant.

Although childminders cannot receive entitlements funding for related children, flexibilities within staff to child ratios can be used to enable childminders who are caring for related children to avoid limiting the income they can earn.

Parents are free to choose the childcare that is right for them and their children, and childminders are not prevented from caring for related children.

However, the restriction on funding relatives is set out in the Childcare Act 2006. Section 18(4) of this Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative.

Allowing childminders to receive funding for looking after related children would not be an effective use of public money and may have a negative impact on the viability of existing childcare businesses.

A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing childcare for a related child, but this would have to be from local authority funds independent of the dedicated schools grant.

Although childminders cannot receive entitlements funding for related children, flexibilities within staff to child ratios can be used to enable childminders who are caring for related children to avoid limiting the income they can earn.

The department is clear that local authorities should commission parenting programmes with a strong and credible evidence base, ensuring families receive support that improves outcomes and increases the proportion of children achieving a good level of development nationally. To support this, the Best Start in Life programme provides an approved menu of evidence‑based parenting interventions, giving local areas confidence that commissioned programmes are effective and represent value for money.

The department has also ensured appropriate flexibility, so that where a local authority can demonstrate that a programme outside the approved menu has a robust evidence base and meets local need, it has been considered.

Evidence‑based parenting programmes are one part of a wider offer of high-quality support to families. Also included are stay‑and‑play opportunities, low‑intensity parenting, peer‑support activities, and strong outreach. The department encourages local authorities to work with voluntary, community and faith organisations, while ensuring that any programmes they deliver, meet clear evidence standards.