Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce students’ reliance on paid employment alongside their studies; and how it intends to ensure that students living in rural or employment-scarce areas have equal access to financial security, opportunity, and an acceptable quality of life while in higher education.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To help higher education students with cost-of-living pressures, we are future-proofing maintenance loans by increasing them in-line with forecast inflation every year and reintroducing targeted means-tested maintenance grants of up to £1,000 per year from 2028/29. This year, we increased maximum maintenance loans by 3.1%, to £10,544 for students living away from home studying outside London, £13,762 for students living away from home studying in London, and £8,877 for students living at home.
Kathryn Mitchell, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Derby, will bring together sector experts and chair the Higher Education Access and Participation Task and Finish Group. Its remit includes developing options to address regional disparities in access for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to encourage universities to work with their local authorities on strategic approaches to meeting student housing needs.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to review how regional cost-of-living disparities are taken into account when calculating student maintenance support, particularly for lower-income students studying in rural university towns with limited housing supply.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To help higher education students with cost-of-living pressures, we are future-proofing maintenance loans by increasing them in-line with forecast inflation every year and reintroducing targeted means-tested maintenance grants of up to £1,000 per year from 2028/29. This year, we increased maximum maintenance loans by 3.1%, to £10,544 for students living away from home studying outside London, £13,762 for students living away from home studying in London, and £8,877 for students living at home.
Kathryn Mitchell, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Derby, will bring together sector experts and chair the Higher Education Access and Participation Task and Finish Group. Its remit includes developing options to address regional disparities in access for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to encourage universities to work with their local authorities on strategic approaches to meeting student housing needs.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to answer Questions 102720, 102721, 102722 and 102723.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The response to Written Parliamentary Questions 102720, 102721, 102722 and 102723 was published on 28 January 2026.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the current student maintenance support system in light of sustained increases in rent, food, and energy costs; and what steps it is taking to ensure that student finance reflects real-world living expenses across all regions, including for students studying at rural institutions.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To help higher education students with cost-of-living pressures, we are future-proofing maintenance loans by increasing them in-line with forecast inflation every year and reintroducing targeted means-tested maintenance grants of up to £1,000 per year from 2028/29. This year, we increased maximum maintenance loans by 3.1%, to £10,544 for students living away from home studying outside London, £13,762 for students living away from home studying in London, and £8,877 for students living at home.
Kathryn Mitchell, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Derby, will bring together sector experts and chair the Higher Education Access and Participation Task and Finish Group. Its remit includes developing options to address regional disparities in access for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to encourage universities to work with their local authorities on strategic approaches to meeting student housing needs.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department provides guidance to local authorities on ensuring that children and young people moving into temporary accommodation are supported to make necessary changes to personal information and continue to access education.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Schools and colleges in England must follow the ‘Keeping children safe in education’ 2025 statutory guidance when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure that all children of compulsory school age in their area are receiving suitable education. To support this duty, every local authority must have a Fair Access Protocol in place to ensure that vulnerable children, including those who are homeless, can be secured a school place as quickly as possible where they fail to secure one through the usual admissions processes.
The government has also tabled an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to introduce a new duty on local housing authorities to notify educational institutions, GP practices and health visiting services when a child is placed in temporary accommodation. Guidance will be provided for local authority housing officers and the public bodies receiving notifications.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether disabled young carers in families affected by sodium valproate-related harm are being (a) identified and (b) supported within the education system.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We know that families with children with disabilities, including those affected by sodium valproate harm and where the children may be caring for other family members, are crying out for change.
The department’s upcoming full Schools White Paper will build on the work we have already done to create a system that is rooted in inclusion, where children receive high-quality support early on and can thrive at their local school. This work includes the new standards on inclusion introduced by Ofsted in their new education inspection framework last November, and we are pleased to note that the needs of pupils with disabilities and those who are young carers are fully recognised in the inspection toolkit for the new framework.
Schools are also required to identify and record all pupils who are young carers on the school census regardless of the reason they may be providing care for family members.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support the financial sustainability of childminders in the context of the removal of the wear and tear allowance.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
This department is taking a range of measures to support the financial sustainability of childminding businesses and other early years providers. From April 2026, local authorities will be required to pass at least 97% of their funding directly to providers, an increase from 96%.
We are also working with local authorities and others to ensure that childminders and other early years providers can be paid monthly for the funded hours they provide, making their income more stable. From 1 November 2024, the government introduced new flexibilities to help childminders join and stay in the profession, supporting the government’s commitment to roll out expanded childcare entitlements and give children the best start in life.
In addition, the expansion of the early years entitlements will benefit childminders in different ways. The national average three and four-year-old hourly funding rate of local authorities is increasing by 4.1%, the two-year-old hourly funding rate is increasing by 3.3%, and the nine months to two-year-old hourly funding rate is increasing by 3.4%.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to help ensure that defibrillators which have reached the end of their operational life will in state-funded schools in England will be replaced and funded by her Department.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In 2023, the department provided over 20,000 defibrillators to state-funded schools in England. The programme aimed to ‘plug the gaps’ in existing provision to ensure that all schools have access to a device.
Defibrillators provided by the department are fully supported for the eight-year lifecycle of the device. New pads will be delivered automatically every two years, and replacement batteries provided four years after the initial delivery.
For schools who have existing defibrillators and for schools who wish to purchase additional defibrillators, the department has worked with the NHS to set up Defibs4Schools, which provides devices and consumables of a suitable specification. More information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/automated-external-defibrillators-aeds-in-schools.
Following completion of the programme, the department will evaluate the impact of the rollout to inform future decisions.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department’s policies of national implementation models of online parenting support in Australia.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department recognises the importance of parenting support as being critical to a child’s development and aims to help more parents support their child’s communication, language, literacy, social and emotional skills. Parents have the biggest influence on their child’s early learning and many benefit from well-timed support and advice.
Best Start Family Hubs provide both a building that is a welcoming place for families, and a network of services, including virtual and digital support. Help for families will be delivered through open-access parenting programmes via blended delivery of physical, virtual and outreach activities. It will include the Best Start Parent Hub website that brings together trusted advice and guidance parents need in one place, links families to their local Best Start Family Hub, and allows parents to check their eligibility for childcare support. The department is considering how best to implement digital parenting support as part of the national Best Start in Life offer.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to identify any additional charges associated with accessing funded childcare; and what steps they are taking to ensure that single parents are not deterred from taking up entitlements for cost reasons.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department has surveyed providers offering entitlements places and the parents accessing them to understand how the entitlements are being delivered to parents. This includes the use of additional extras and charges associated with entitlement hours.
Government funding is intended to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week of free, high quality, flexible childcare. The 15 or 30 hours must be able to be accessed free of charge to parents. There must not be any mandatory charges for parents in relation to the free hours. Government funding is not intended to cover the cost of meals, other consumables, additional hours or additional services.
A High Court judgment reaffirmed this position and the department subsequently updated its statutory guidance for local authorities last year on the entitlements to provide clarity on the matter for local authorities, providers and parents.