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 support is available for families bereaved following incidents in nursery or early years settings, and whether additional resources are being considered.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department recognises the profound impact of the death of a child and the importance of ensuring that families are appropriately supported following serious incidents in nursery and early years settings.
As set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework and the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance, early years providers and local authorities must follow established safeguarding and serious incident processes where a child has died. This includes notifying relevant authorities of serious incidents and working with local safeguarding partners, including health services and the police. Local safeguarding partners may undertake rapid reviews and where appropriate, local child safeguarding practice reviews to identify learning and improve future practice.
Support for bereaved families is coordinated locally and may include access to emotional and psychological support through health services, liaison with agencies involved in investigations or reviews and signposting to specialist bereavement support services and voluntary sector organisations.
The department continues to work with local authorities and safeguarding partners and to consider how guidance and processes can support effective responses following serious incidents.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many independent single-sex schools have (a) closed and (b) changed their admissions policy to become dual-sex since 1 January 2025.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Five girls’ single sex schools and two boys’ single sex schools have closed since 1 January 2025.
The department does not collect data on how many schools have changed their admissions policy to become dual-sex.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department will take to set accountability measures to guarantee equitable access to the enrichment entitlement across all regions.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Almost all schools offer some form of enrichment activity to pupils. Ofsted inspects provision as part of its personal development judgement.
To support all schools to develop, improve and widen access to their offers, the department is developing an Enrichment Framework which will include benchmarks for how schools and colleges can build a strategic and intentional offer of enrichment that can benefit all children and young people. The Framework will be published in early 2026.
Our ambition is that all schools should provide an enrichment offer to all pupils that meets the new benchmarks. This includes access to civic engagement, arts and culture, nature, outdoor and adventure, sport and physical activities, and developing wider life skills. We will consult on how enrichment is embedded in School Profiles, ensuring they are co-designed with the input of schools and frontline expertise. To provide more targeted support, we are working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the design of the enrichment expansion programme, and more details will be provided shortly. This will go alongside wider support such as £132.5 million of Dormant Assets funding to support the provision of services, facilities, and opportunities to young people, particularly those from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to publish a timetable and delivery framework to ensure that the enrichment entitlement becomes a universal offer for all pupils.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Almost all schools offer some form of enrichment activity to pupils. Ofsted inspects provision as part of its personal development judgement.
To support all schools to develop, improve and widen access to their offers, the department is developing an Enrichment Framework which will include benchmarks for how schools and colleges can build a strategic and intentional offer of enrichment that can benefit all children and young people. The Framework will be published in early 2026.
Our ambition is that all schools should provide an enrichment offer to all pupils that meets the new benchmarks. This includes access to civic engagement, arts and culture, nature, outdoor and adventure, sport and physical activities, and developing wider life skills. We will consult on how enrichment is embedded in School Profiles, ensuring they are co-designed with the input of schools and frontline expertise. To provide more targeted support, we are working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the design of the enrichment expansion programme, and more details will be provided shortly. This will go alongside wider support such as £132.5 million of Dormant Assets funding to support the provision of services, facilities, and opportunities to young people, particularly those from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department will take to scale provision of the enrichment entitlement beyond the 400 schools covered by the £22.5 million enrichment expansion programme.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Almost all schools offer some form of enrichment activity to pupils. Ofsted inspects provision as part of its personal development judgement.
To support all schools to develop, improve and widen access to their offers, the department is developing an Enrichment Framework which will include benchmarks for how schools and colleges can build a strategic and intentional offer of enrichment that can benefit all children and young people. The Framework will be published in early 2026.
Our ambition is that all schools should provide an enrichment offer to all pupils that meets the new benchmarks. This includes access to civic engagement, arts and culture, nature, outdoor and adventure, sport and physical activities, and developing wider life skills. We will consult on how enrichment is embedded in School Profiles, ensuring they are co-designed with the input of schools and frontline expertise. To provide more targeted support, we are working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the design of the enrichment expansion programme, and more details will be provided shortly. This will go alongside wider support such as £132.5 million of Dormant Assets funding to support the provision of services, facilities, and opportunities to young people, particularly those from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many days of school closure were there in 2025 due to adverse weather conditions.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Decisions about school closures are made by individual settings and responsible bodies based on local risk assessments. Closure should be a last resort, with schools expected to remain open where it is safe. If a school must close unexpectedly, such as due to adverse weather, no attendance register is taken and the session is recorded as ‘not possible’ for statistical purposes.
During temporary closures, schools should consider providing remote education in line with departmental guidance. Pupils receiving remote education are still recorded as absent using the appropriate absence code. Schools should monitor engagement with remote education, although this is not formally recorded in attendance data.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what accountability measures her Department has put in place for the nutritional content of breakfasts provided by schools participating in the Free Breakfast Club scheme.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department is committed to delivering on the pledge to provide free breakfast clubs in every state-funded school with primary-aged children. Since April 2025, we have delivered 2.6 million breakfasts and offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country. We are investing a further £80 million to fund approximately 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027.
Compliance with the School Food Standards is mandatory for maintained schools, academies and free schools. School governors have a responsibility to ensure compliance and should appropriately challenge the senior leadership team to ensure obligations are met.
Alongside the School Food Standards statutory guidance, we published updated breakfast club guidance in November, which provides guidance on which foods should be served at breakfast clubs to ensure that the School Food Standards are met.
We are working to revise the School Food Standards to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that food provided by schools participating in the Free Breakfast Club scheme meets nutritional and quality standards.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department is committed to delivering on the pledge to provide free breakfast clubs in every state-funded school with primary-aged children. Since April 2025, we have delivered 2.6 million breakfasts and offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country. We are investing a further £80 million to fund approximately 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027.
Compliance with the School Food Standards is mandatory for maintained schools, academies and free schools. School governors have a responsibility to ensure compliance and should appropriately challenge the senior leadership team to ensure obligations are met.
Alongside the School Food Standards statutory guidance, we published updated breakfast club guidance in November, which provides guidance on which foods should be served at breakfast clubs to ensure that the School Food Standards are met.
We are working to revise the School Food Standards to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of requiring schools to fund extended periods of education following exclusion on safeguarding.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is for local authorities, under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996, to arrange and fund suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of exclusion, illness or other reasons, may otherwise not receive suitable education. Local authorities are required to arrange alternative provision for a permanently excluded child as soon as possible, and at the latest by the sixth school day of the child’s absence.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the independent report entitled Independent review of children's social care: final report, published on 23 May 2022, how much of the recommended new spending of £2.6 billion has been allocated to date.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is driving the biggest transformation of children’s social care in a generation. Long-term investment is essential to shift the system away from high-cost crisis responses towards earlier support.
In 2025/26, the department more than doubled direct investment in children’s social care prevention services through the Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant. Now we are going even further to reform children’s social care. We are continuing the £523 million available for the Families First Partnership programme in 2025/26 for each year of the Local Government Finance Settlement to 2028/29. We have invested a further £300 million over two years (2026/27 and 2027/28) from the Transformation Fund announced at the Spending Review, and £547 million of new funding announced in the Local Government Funding Policy Statement, meaning £2.4 billion over three years, all ringfenced for prevention and de-escalation. Together this will help to reduce reliance on costly acute services, strengthen earlier intervention and drive forward reforms to children’s social care.
We are also investing £560 million capital funding to refurbish and expand children’s homes and provide more high-quality foster care placements.
Additional funding beyond 2027/28 is subject to the next Spending Review.