Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of when mainstream schools will have the baseline staffing levels required to deliver the universal inclusion expectations set out in the Schools White Paper.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Recruiting and retaining expert teachers is at the heart of the government’s Plan for Change, with good progress already being made: the teaching workforce has grown by 2,346 FTE between 2023/24 and 2024/25, in secondary and special schools; the schools where they are needed most.
We are investing £200 million in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) training to upskill staff in every school, college and nursery over the course of this Parliament. This training will cover children with SEND in their earliest years, through to age 25.
We are providing around £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), to work together to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer, which will give schools direct access to support, advice, training and specialist expertise from professionals such as speech and language therapists (SaLTs), educational psychologists (EPs) and specialist teachers.
We are investing £15 million to establish new speech and language therapist advanced practitioners in every ICB geographical area, to get more SaLTs working in educational settings.
In addition, we will continue to train at least 200 EPs per year in 2026 and 2027, backed by £26m.
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Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what capital and revenue funding allocations have been made to local authorities in Lancashire for a) primary schools, b) secondary schools and c) specialist school places over the next 2 years.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Revenue funding through the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for Lancashire in 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years are presented in the table below. Funding for 2027/28 will be confirmed later this year.
Lancashire School Funding
Financial Year | 2025/26 | 2026/27 |
Overall DSG | £1,052,000,000 | £1,096,000,000 |
Mainstream primary Per Pupil | £5,627 | £5,939 |
Mainstream secondary Per Pupil | £7,088 | £7,440 |
High Needs Funding | £219 million | £235 million |
*Mainstream funding includes premises and excludes growth.
Local authorities meet the costs of special school places in their area through their high needs block funding in the DSG, with the total high needs funding for Lancashire set out above.
The methodology for the Inclusive Mainstream Fund was published on 25 March. This details distribution of the £400 million schools will receive in 2026/27 to prepare and deliver improved inclusion practice.
We have announced over £82 million of Basic Need capital grant funding to support Lancashire in creating mainstream school places needed due to forecasted growth in pupil numbers between May 2024 and September 2028. The £82 million will be paid across the 2023/24 to 2027/28 financial years.
In financial years 2025/26 and 2026/27, Lancashire has been allocated just under £19.7 million and just over £23.8 million respectively through High Needs Provision Capital Allocations.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how SEND costs in England will be funded over this Parliament.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Overall, core schools funding (including funding for mainstream schools and high needs funding for young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)) is increasing by £1.7 billion in the 2026/27 financial year, and will total £67.0 billion, compared to £65.3 billion in 2025/26. High needs funding will be over £12 billion in England in the 2026/27 financial year, following a £1 billion increase in 2025/26. The additional funding announced at the 2025 Spending Review will deliver an above-real-terms per-pupil increase up to the 2028/29 financial year and enable us to transform the SEND system. Moreover, departmental budgets will increase above previously planned funding at Autumn Budget 2025 by £3.5 billion in 2028/29 to support investment in the SEND system.
In our recent publication ’SEND reform: putting children and young people first’, we announced a £4 billion investment over the three years of the spending period to make every school inclusive and transform outcomes for children with SEND. This investment includes over £1.6 billion for the Inclusive Mainstream Fund, £1.8 billion for Experts at Hand, £200 million for Best Start Family Hubs and over £200 million for a national training package. More details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-first.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the aggregate monetary level of Dedicated Schools Grant High Need deficits that will not be written off by central Government.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has set out plans to address these deficits up to the end of 2025/26, providing grants to cover 90% of each council’s deficit once they have produced and received approval for a strong plan to drive sustained action in accordance with our new system set out today in the Schools White Paper. This will help to improve outcomes for children and bring costs under control through effective early intervention, stopping needs from escalating. Asking authorities to contribute the remaining 10% reflects the shared responsibility we all have in delivering a system that provides value for money and supports better outcomes for children and young people.
For deficits that arise in 2026/27 and 2027/28, local authorities can expect that we will continue to take an appropriate and proportionate approach though it will not be unlimited. Future support will take into account local authorities' successful delivery of their approved Local SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) reform plan.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 22 of her Department's consultation document entitled SEND Reform: Putting Children and Young People First, CP1509, how will mediation be used to resolve disputes more quickly.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Research shows that mediation can reduce the likelihood of disputes escalating to appeals, enabling families and local authorities to work collaboratively to resolve disagreements more quickly and collaboratively.
We are engaging with a wide variety of stakeholders, including families, local authorities, representative groups and providers, to identify what more can be done to raise awareness of mediation, address the barriers to effective mediation and share best practice. As a first step, we intend to improve mediation through clearer national guidance for families and professionals, and by supporting improved local authority compliance with existing duties.
Where early resolution is not possible, the special educational needs and disabilities tribunal will continue to act as an important legal backstop for key decisions about education, health and care plans.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff within her Department are reliant on a visa for employment.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department currently sponsors 28 individuals on a Skilled Worker visa through a Certificate of Sponsorship.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her department has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the eligibility criteria for free childcare for working parents to include postgraduate research students.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
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.
Parents of students are eligible for the universal 15 hours of free early education which is available to all three and four-year-olds regardless of family circumstances.
Students who work in addition to studying may be eligible for 30 hours free childcare if they meet the income requirements. PhD stipends are non-taxable income and therefore do not count towards the income requirements of the 30 hours childcare entitlement.
The government recognises the value of parents continuing in education and provides a range of support for students in higher education to assist them with childcare.
Through the Student Loans Company, the department offers a specific Childcare Grant (CCG) to support students with the costs of childcare whilst they are in study. The CCG offers parents support of up to 85% of their childcare costs up to a maximum of £183.75 a week for one child and £315.03 for two children. CCG support is provided to individuals where both parents are students, the student is a lone parent, or the student parent’s partner is on a low income. The government has no plans to extend CCG to postgraduate research students.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 88 of the policy paper entitled UK Government Resilience Action Plan, published on 14 July 2025, how many meetings have been attended by civil servants within their Department in relation to the Home Defence Programme; which directorate in the Department owns the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme; and what the job title is of the civil servant leading and cohering the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Resilience Action Plan sets out the government’s strategic approach to how we will strengthen our domestic resilience and invest to protect the nation. Officials from the department regularly attend meetings to discuss the implementation of the Resilience Action Plan as well as matters of national security and defence.
The department is actively supporting this work. Officials in the department are in regular discussions with the Ministry of Defence and other government departments about the critical role children and young people play.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will review best practice guidance for play-based learning for five to seven year-olds.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell to the answer of 23 March 2026 to Question 117074.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what statutory time limits will apply when SEND Tribunals quash local authority decisions under the proposed Specialist Provision Package framework; and what safeguards will be put in place to prevent cycles of reconsideration impacting on provision.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government set out its proposals for reforming the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Tribunal in its ‘SEND Reform: Putting Children and Young People First’ consultation document.
The department proposes that the SEND Tribunal will make binding judgments on local authority decisions to not undertake an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment, whether a child or young person meets the threshold for a specialist provision package or whether the package(s) offered is suitable. The Tribunal will also consider whether a local authority’s decision about the placement named in an EHC plan is reasonable and, if they find against the local authority, it will have the power to require the decision to be retaken.
The SEND reform proposals are subject to consultation and further details will be set out in the government’s response to the consultation.