Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness and value for money of the £53 million spent on the Oak National Academy in the last three years, in the context of levels of financial pressures on schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
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.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on Oak National Academy’s plans for spending unspent money from the £53 million grant it received from the Government in the last three years.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
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.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to increase levels of transparency on the Oak National Academy's future funding and scope, in the context of the absence of a public consultation.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
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.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government will maintain or reform the “safety valve” and “deliverability” programmes for local authorities following the centralisation of SEND funding; and how councils such as Walsall will be supported in the interim years until 2028-29.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
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.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional support, will be provided to West Midlands councils in 2025-26, 2026-27 and 2027-28 to manage growing SEND costs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
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.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of delaying decisions on school closures until after the 2026 local elections in relevant local authorities.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
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.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2025 to Question 77413 on Teachers: Workplace Pensions, how many unresolved cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) cases are outstanding as of 10 March 2026; and of those resolved since 17 October 2025 what is the (a) shortest, (b) mean average and (c) longest time taken to process requests.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
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.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will set out how much of the teacher training proposed in the Schools White Paper will be delivered in person.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
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.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on ensuring children have access to practical road safety and cycle training.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
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.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has she made of the potential impact of proposed local government reorganisation in Cambridgeshire on her proposed plans to reform SEND provision in that area.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
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.