Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve (a) universal, (b) targeted and (c) specialist speech, language and communication support for children in schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. This includes extending the Early Language Support for Every Child programme, trialling new ways of working to better identify and support children with speech, language and communication needs in early years settings and primary schools.
We are also continuing to grow the pipeline. In addition to the undergraduate degree route, speech and language therapists can also train via a degree apprenticeship. This route is now in its fourth year of delivery and offers an alternative pathway to the traditional degree route into a successful career as a speech and language therapist.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support adoptive families from being subject to legal action when attempting to return a child to care.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department knows that some adoptive families do not get the support they need when in crisis. Rather than being supported, they experience blame and criticism of their parenting approach.
Adoption England are working with their local authority partner safeguarding teams to improve the support families receive when they are in crisis. The aim of this work is to develop a national protocol which can be used for all adoption support service teams and local authority front door safeguarding services. This will help ensure that parents are supported when they need it most.
We are also investing £50 million into the adoption and special guardianship support fund this year to provide therapeutic services to support children with complex needs to help prevent families reaching crisis, and £8.8 million into Adoption England so that families can access high quality support provision at all stages of their adoption journey.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support she is providing to adoptive families when attempting to return a child to care.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Returning a child to care should only ever be a last resort. We recognise the significant emotional and practical strain adoptive parents can face, particularly when managing complex needs and trauma. Our priority is to keep families together wherever possible by providing timely tailored support for parents in crisis.
We are investing £50 million into the adoption and special guardianship support fund this year to provide therapeutic services to support children with complex needs to help prevent families reaching crisis. In addition, we have provided Adoption England with £8.8 million so that families can access high quality support provision at all stages of their adoption journey.
When a child must return to care, adoption agencies should maintain a non-judgemental approach and remain actively involved to ensure the process is handled with sensitivity and support. This includes working closely with the adoptive parents to understand the circumstances, providing emotional and practical assistance, and facilitating access to therapeutic services when appropriate.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will establish a cross-government protocol with the Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care setting out roles, referral routes and timescales between schools, police forces and health services when responding to allegations of child-on-child sexual abuse.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is taking the strongest action to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation. This includes setting up a new national inquiry, with which government departments will cooperate fully, to ensure we are tackling this vile crime and supporting victims and survivors.
Working Together is the national multi-agency statutory guidance for all practitioners working with children and their families. Local safeguarding partners (local authorities, police and health) already have a statutory duty to set out in their threshold document and local protocols the process for referrals, assessments, support and services for children who need help or protection. This guidance underpins Ofsted’s Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services framework.
We are also delivering the biggest reform to children’s social care in a generation, investing £2.4 billion in the Families First Partnership programme, introducing multi-agency child protection teams through our landmark Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill and establishing a national Child Protection Authority.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department monitors local authority compliance with their duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to provide suitable education without delay for children who are out of school following incidents of child-on-child sexual abuse; and whether she plans to introduce statutory timescales for such provision.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996, local authorities must arrange suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of exclusion, illness or other reasons, would not otherwise receive it. This education should be full-time, or as close to full-time as is appropriate for the child’s needs.
Ofsted monitors local authorities’ arrangements for the sufficiency and commissioning of alternative provision through Area special educational needs and disabilities inspections.
The department also issues statutory guidance on planning and commissioning alternative provision, which sets out principles for timely, safe, and high quality education. The guidance was last updated in January 2025 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alternative-provision.
The government is committed to an inclusive education system that identifies additional needs early and delivers the right support at the right time, helping children remain in and succeed within mainstream education wherever possible.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of reintroducing a milk strategy for schools.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only
Milk is an excellent food for children’s growth and development. As part of the School Food Standards, lower fat milk or lactose reduced milk must be available to children who want it for drinking at least once a day during school hours. It is a legislative requirement that milk is provided free of charge to pupils who meet the free school milk criteria, and schools may charge all other pupils.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs leads the School Milk Scheme Strategy, which supports the provision of milk in schools. The strategy aims to support the consumption of dairy products by children from an early age to promote healthy eating habits and good nutritional health, and support efforts to tackle child obesity by part subsidising, or reimburse in full where relevant, the cost of a daily portion of dairy in line with national guidance. The Strategy also sets out who the support is targeted at and the eligible products that can be supported.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support small and specialist universities who receive a high proportion of their total income from charitable sources and operate at a deficit due to low levels of cost recovery on that income.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Higher education (HE) providers are independent from government and are responsible for ensuring their business models provide long-term sustainability.
The Office for Students (OfS) has statutory duties regarding the sector's financial sustainability, but the department has a clear interest in understanding the sector's level of risk. We work closely with the OfS to understand the sector’s changing financial landscape.
This government is committed to creating a secure future for our world leading HE sector, demonstrated by our decision to increase tuition fee caps in line with forecast inflation and our refocusing of the OfS on monitoring the sector’s financial health.
Moreover, the government provides annual funding through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG), supporting the teaching of high-cost subjects such as science and promotes access and participation for students from under-represented groups. For 2025-26, the recurrent SPG allocation for world-leading small and specialist providers will be maintained at £57.4 million.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to introduce (a) free and (b) subsidised meal provision in (i) private, (ii) voluntary and (iii) independent early years settings for children from low-income households.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We have introduced the Best Start in Life strategy, and the Child Poverty strategy was published on 5 December 2025.
The department is extending free school meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026.
This significant extension of support will also apply to children attending school-based nurseries and maintained nursery schools.
Whilst children attending a private nursery do not currently receive free school meals, the department has tightened statutory guidance to make clear that while providers can charge parents who are accessing entitlement hours for certain optional extras, including food, these charges must not be mandatory or a condition of accessing their entitlements. If parents do not wish to purchase these from their provider, they should discuss with their provider what alternative options are available, including potentially supplying their own food and consumables.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the need for a dedicated senior official to lead on (a) coordination of policy to support state boarding schools, (b) securing sustainable funding for state boarding provision, and (c) cross-departmental engagement with the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Health and Social Care; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure state boarding schools remain a viable option for Armed Forces and mobile families.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Ministry of Defence oversees the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) for eligible service personnel, which provides clearly defined financial support to ensure that the need for frequent mobility does not interfere with a child’s education. This includes supporting parents with the option of using a state boarding school. Further information can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/61684e30e90e07197867eb2b/20211007-DCS_CEAS_INFO_02-CEA_AND_BOARDING_SCHOOL_CONSIDERATIONS_INFORMATION_V4.pdf.
Senior officials maintain oversight of state boarding school policy and coordinate, as appropriate, with relevant teams across the department and other government departments on matters such as the national minimum standards for boarding and day pupil fees.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of state boarding schools in supporting the education of children from Armed Forces families and other mobile families as an affordable alternative to independent boarding provision.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Ministry of Defence oversees the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) for eligible service personnel, which provides clearly defined financial support to ensure that the need for frequent mobility does not interfere with a child’s education. This includes supporting parents with the option of using a state boarding school. Further information can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/61684e30e90e07197867eb2b/20211007-DCS_CEAS_INFO_02-CEA_AND_BOARDING_SCHOOL_CONSIDERATIONS_INFORMATION_V4.pdf.
Senior officials maintain oversight of state boarding school policy and coordinate, as appropriate, with relevant teams across the department and other government departments on matters such as the national minimum standards for boarding and day pupil fees.