Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities experiencing increases in children missing education, including Lancashire County Council.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Children Missing Education data was first collected on a voluntary basis in Autumn 2022. Lancashire reported 4,690 Children Missing Education at any point in the 2024/25 academic year. This is a decrease from 4,820 in 2023/24, and an increase from 2,280 when collection began in 2021/22.
The government is committed to breaking down the barriers to opportunity for our young people, and education is key in providing the strong foundations to better life chances.
Local authorities already have a duty to locate and support children back into education where necessary, and we have published statutory guidance on ‘Children Missing Education’, and ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’ that reinforces the roles and responsibilities of schools and local authorities to work together in this area. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will go further, requiring councils to maintain registers of children not in school, ensuring fewer young people slip under the radar.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to introduce additional statutory duties or guidance for local authorities to track and support children missing education.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Children Missing Education data was first collected on a voluntary basis in Autumn 2022. Lancashire reported 4,690 Children Missing Education at any point in the 2024/25 academic year. This is a decrease from 4,820 in 2023/24, and an increase from 2,280 when collection began in 2021/22.
The government is committed to breaking down the barriers to opportunity for our young people, and education is key in providing the strong foundations to better life chances.
Local authorities already have a duty to locate and support children back into education where necessary, and we have published statutory guidance on ‘Children Missing Education’, and ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’ that reinforces the roles and responsibilities of schools and local authorities to work together in this area. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will go further, requiring councils to maintain registers of children not in school, ensuring fewer young people slip under the radar.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of whether the approval process for parenting interventions outside the Best Start Family Hubs approved menu enables local authorities to commission programmes delivered by voluntary, faith-based and community organisations; and what steps her Department is taking to support a wider range of parenting interventions reflecting local community needs.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
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.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of whether evidentiary requirements attached to parenting interventions in the Best Start Family Hubs programme affect the ability of local authorities to commission parenting programmes that are not included in the approved menu of interventions.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
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.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the increase in the number of children classified as children missing education (CME) in Lancashire over the last decade; and what assessment she has made of the potential implications of this for her policies.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Children Missing Education data was first collected on a voluntary basis in Autumn 2022. Lancashire reported 4,690 Children Missing Education at any point in the 2024/25 academic year. This is a decrease from 4,820 in 2023/24, and an increase from 2,280 when collection began in 2021/22.
The government is committed to breaking down the barriers to opportunity for our young people, and education is key in providing the strong foundations to better life chances.
Local authorities already have a duty to locate and support children back into education where necessary, and we have published statutory guidance on ‘Children Missing Education’, and ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’ that reinforces the roles and responsibilities of schools and local authorities to work together in this area. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will go further, requiring councils to maintain registers of children not in school, ensuring fewer young people slip under the radar.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government has considered piloting or introducing an exemption to childcare funding rules where a relative is a registered childminder meeting all regulatory requirements.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
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.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Department plans to review the eligibility criteria for government-funded childcare for children cared for by qualified and Ofsted-registered relatives.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
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.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish her Department's (a) business case, (b) workforce plan, (c) equality impact assessment and (d) redundancy mitigation measures for the plans to close six offices.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
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.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the effectiveness of tuition fee-based funding model for higher education.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Around £10.8 billion in tuition fee loans administered by the Student Loans Company were paid directly to higher education providers in the 2024/25 financial year.
To provide long-term funding certainty for the sector, so that it can focus on reform, we will increase tuition fee caps for all higher education providers in line with forecast inflation of 2.71% in 2026/27 and 2.68% in 2027/28 and then legislate when parliamentary time allows to increase tuition fee caps automatically for future years.
We expect the sector to demonstrate that, in return for the increased investment that we are asking students to make, they deliver the best outcomes for those students and the country.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the financial return to the economy of public investment in higher education.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Research by London Economics estimates that teaching and learning activities provided by the UK higher education (HE) sector generated £94.8 billion, which was equivalent to an average £13 return for every £1 of public investment in 2021/22. The combined research and knowledge exchange activities of UK universities generated a total economic impact of approximately £62.84 billion. This equates to an average of £9.90 for every £1 invested. Spending by UK HE providers also produces indirect effects, positively impacting the economy.