Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children taking up early years entitlements in 2026-27 in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency are projected to be from households in the bottom two deciles of income distribution.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The latest January 2025 statistics on Funded early education and childcare were published in July here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare/2025.
Figures on the number of children registered for government funded entitlements in Buckinghamshire can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8be865c0-9f87-475e-9475-08de4155ee12.
Statistics from households in the bottom two deciles of income distribution are not readily available, nor are figures at parliamentary constituency level. Statistics for January 2026 have a provisional release date on GOV.UK of July 2026.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that 16 to 18-year-olds leave school with access to employment, apprenticeships or training opportunities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We are supporting young people to stay on and succeed in education and training until at least age 18, and ensure they can take up opportunities to move into work and/or further study. For example, eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, backed by £90 million, are helping young people access support for training, apprenticeships or work.
We have introduced foundation apprenticeships and are expanding them into more sectors, like hospitality and retail.
We will ensure that a post-16 destination is identified for every year 11 pupil, and those most at risk of becoming NEET receive personalised transition support
We are piloting the automatic allocation of a place at a further education (FE) provider for anyone aged 16-17 who doesn’t already have one.
We are also investing in improved Risk of NEET Indicator tools and attendance tracking in FE, so that young people at risk of falling out of education are identified and supported.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to (a) encourage people into the educational psychologist profession and (b) retain educational psychologists in the profession.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Educational psychologists play a critical role in the support available to children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities. That is why the department is already investing more than £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists over two cohorts, starting their studies in 2024 and 2025. This is in addition to the £10 million currently being invested in the training of more than 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023.
As these trainees complete their studies, they will join the workforce to support local authority educational psychology services, including contributing to statutory assessments. Trainees who have had their training funded by the department are required to remain in local authority employment for a minimum period. For trainees beginning their course in September 2024, this period is three years.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total lifetime cost is of Private Finance Initiative contracts relating to school and college buildings in (a) Essex, and (b) the UK.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The department directly manages the PF2 contracts for the Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP) projects that were entered into by the Secretary of State for Education. All other schools’ PFI contracts were entered into by the relevant contracting counterparty, which is the relevant local authority.
The cost information requested on PFI projects in Essex and England is published annually by HMT at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pfi-and-pf2-projects-2024-summary-data.
Please note that, with the exception of the department’s PF2 projects, all information on PFI contracts is collated from local authorities and the department is unable to guarantee the accuracy of this information. Further details are available from the local authorities.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish the details of the review the Department is undertaking regarding assistive technologies for disabled students provided through the Disabled Students’ Allowances grant.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department keeps all support funded through Disabled Students’ Allowance under regular review to ensure that it continues to meets the needs of disabled students. Any future proposals will be communicated publicly.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with her Chinese counterpart on (a) student numbers and (b) research funding in the UK higher education sector.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not had discussions with a Chinese counterpart on student numbers in UK higher education (HE). Policy for HE research funding for England is the responsibility of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). UK Research and Innovation, which falls under DSIT's remit, is the biggest public funder of research.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of removing the BTEC Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care on students who do not meet the entry requirements for A Levels or T Levels.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In October, the department published a consultation which detailed our plans to introduce V Levels, which will offer a vocational alternative to A levels and T Levels. We have proposed a range of subjects for delivery through V Levels, including Health and Care Services.
For students looking for a career in health, we would expect students to take the Health T Level. Young people with a range of prior attainment are accessing T Levels. The GCSE grade split for students receiving T Level results is very similar to those receiving results for Applied General Qualifications.
To ensure students can continue to access high quality qualifications in social care, we introduced a large Technical Occupation Qualification in Social Care (1080 GLH), which will be available for first teach from 1 August 2026. We are also exploring whether a T Level in Social Care could be viable in future.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of defunding the BTEC Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care on the future health and social care workforce pipeline.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In October, the department published a consultation which detailed our plans to introduce V Levels, which will offer a vocational alternative to A levels and T Levels. We have proposed a range of subjects for delivery through V Levels, including Health and Care Services.
For students looking for a career in health, we would expect students to take the Health T Level. Young people with a range of prior attainment are accessing T Levels. The GCSE grade split for students receiving T Level results is very similar to those receiving results for Applied General Qualifications.
To ensure students can continue to access high quality qualifications in social care, we introduced a large Technical Occupation Qualification in Social Care (1080 GLH), which will be available for first teach from 1 August 2026. We are also exploring whether a T Level in Social Care could be viable in future.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of (a) national progression rates from foundation to other low-level courses in colleges and (b) employment outcomes from those rates.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Progression rates for further education achievers aged 16+ at Below Level 2 and Essential Skills into sustained further learning (by level of learning destination) between 2018/19 and 2022/23 in i) England, ii) Dorset and iii) the South West are shown in the following tables:
The department does not publish data on employment outcomes for learners progressing to other lower-level learning from foundation courses, but it does publish sustained employment outcome rates for learners achieving at Below Level 2 and in Essential Skills between 2018/19 and 2022/23 in England, as shown in the following table: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/aa7ce8db-5a14-4898-4a4c-08de398c3998.
These statistics are available in the ‘Further education outcomes’ publication. This answer is based on the latest statistics that were released on 18 December 2025 and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/further-education-outcomes/2022-23. The next update to this series will be published in November 2026.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of progression rates from foundation to other low-level courses in colleges in the South West.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Progression rates for further education achievers aged 16+ at Below Level 2 and Essential Skills into sustained further learning (by level of learning destination) between 2018/19 and 2022/23 in i) England, ii) Dorset and iii) the South West are shown in the following tables:
The department does not publish data on employment outcomes for learners progressing to other lower-level learning from foundation courses, but it does publish sustained employment outcome rates for learners achieving at Below Level 2 and in Essential Skills between 2018/19 and 2022/23 in England, as shown in the following table: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/aa7ce8db-5a14-4898-4a4c-08de398c3998.
These statistics are available in the ‘Further education outcomes’ publication. This answer is based on the latest statistics that were released on 18 December 2025 and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/further-education-outcomes/2022-23. The next update to this series will be published in November 2026.