Asked by: Lord Bishop of Oxford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of therapeutic sessions available to a child who has undergone a specialist assessment funded by the adoption and special guardianship support fund.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The number of therapeutic sessions available to a child after a specialist assessment funded by the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) is dependent on a variety of factors. This includes the cost of the specialist assessment, the cost of the therapy and in which financial year the specialist assessment was completed. It is also important to note that additional funding may be made available by the local authority or Regional Adoption Agency beyond that provided by the ASGSF, therefore increasing the amount of therapy available, should the specialist assessment recommend this.
The department estimates that £3,000 of funding will fund an average of 19 to 20 hours of therapy. This is a significant package of support, which may be tailored to meet a child’s individual needs.
Outcomes measurement tool data enables the efficacy of ASGSF-funded support to be monitored at local and national level. The department started to collect data from outcomes measurement tools for ASGSF-funded therapies in December 2023. As therapy treatment comes to an end, this data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of individual ASGSF-funded therapies. We are currently developing tools and methods for assessing this emerging information.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to develop a national outcomes framework for family hubs.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
On 11 June 2025, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, set out plans for spending and public sector reforms through the Spending Review 2025. This announcement confirmed departmental budgets for 2026/27 onwards and committed that the government will continue to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme, working with parents to help give children the best start in life.
On 7 July 2025, the government published the policy paper ‘Giving every child the best start in life’, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/giving-every-child-the-best-start-in-life.
This outlines the government’s commitment to delivering a new Best Start Family Service to bring together parenting, healthcare and education support services, as well as creating and funding Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority to give children the best start in life by strengthening and joining up family services.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will require local authorities to provide family hubs in communities.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
On 11 June 2025, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, set out plans for spending and public sector reforms through the Spending Review 2025. This announcement confirmed departmental budgets for 2026/27 onwards and committed that the government will continue to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme, working with parents to help give children the best start in life.
On 7 July 2025, the government published the policy paper ‘Giving every child the best start in life’, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/giving-every-child-the-best-start-in-life.
This outlines the government’s commitment to delivering a new Best Start Family Service to bring together parenting, healthcare and education support services, as well as creating and funding Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority to give children the best start in life by strengthening and joining up family services.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to review how attendance at schools is recorded for students who have been transferred to another school.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Once a pupil has been transferred to another school, their name is deleted from both the admission and attendance registers.
The ’Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance sets out the process clearly for schools in paragraphs 222-224. The guidance was drawn up following full public consultation and can be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf.
This guidance explains the legal process set out in Regulation 9(1)(a) of The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024, which can be accessed here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/208/regulation/9/made.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to improve access to (a) training and (b) education for careers in (i) horticulture and (ii) the wider environmental sector in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is for providers and local areas, such as Surrey Heath, to determine what skills provision to deliver based on learner and employer demand.
A range of provision is available to support people to pursue careers in horticulture and environmental sectors, including:
High quality apprenticeship standards between levels 2 and 7 in roles such as Horticulture or Landscape Operative, Professional Arboriculturist and Charted Landscape Professional.
A range of Skills Bootcamps such as Grounds & Estates Horticulture, Horticulture and Forestry & Arboriculture.
T Levels in Agriculture, Land Management and Production pathways, which include environmental horticulture and landscaping and tree and woodland management and maintenance.
A number of qualifications related to horticulture or the wider environmental sector as part of Free Courses for Jobs, such as a diploma in Work-based Horticulture, advanced technical diploma in Horticulture, diploma in Forestry and Arboriculture, and advanced technical extended diploma in Forestry and Arboriculture.
There are also a number of land-based colleges in the country that specialise in horticulture and environmental provision, including Merrist Wood College in Surrey which delivers 160 courses including T Levels and apprenticeships.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress her Department has made on the Mainstream Schools Review; and when she expects to announce the outcome.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The review has focused on ensuring that government funding is targeted where it is most needed. In the past, a significant proportion of spending on free schools has created surplus capacity, resulting in subsequent closure of new schools. Some of that funding could have been put to better use by improving the deteriorating condition of our existing schools and colleges.
The department understands that trusts and local authorities want to have certainty about their projects as soon as possible. We will provide an update on next steps to trusts and local authorities in due course.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department has issued to (a) schools and (b) teaching bodies on using vapes in school settings.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In the UK, it is against the law to sell nicotine vaping products to under 18s or for adults to buy them on their behalf. Young people should not have these products in schools.
Schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy that sets out what is expected of all pupils, including which items are banned from school premises. School staff can search pupils for banned items as outlined in the department’s Searching, Screening and Confiscation guidance.
Schools have an important role in educating pupils about the dangers of harmful substances. Primary pupils should be taught about legal and illegal harmful substances while secondary pupils are also taught about the associated legal and psychological risks. The relationships, sex and health education curriculum is currently being reviewed and will consider vaping as part of the review of the statutory guidance.
FRANK, the government-funded national drug and alcohol advisory service, has also been updated with relevant information on vapes, including the risks, physical effects and addictiveness of nicotine vapes.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that early years providers are not disadvantaged by restrictions on charging flexibility for funded childcare hours.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is this government’s 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.
Government funding for the entitlements does not cover consumables like meals, nappies or sun cream or additional activities, such as trips, so providers are able to ask parents to pay for these things.
However, in line with a recent high court judgment, these charges must not be mandatory or a condition of accessing a funded place. The high court judgement is accessible here: https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/admin/2025/224. The government’s guidance sets out requirements for the delivery of the early education and childcare entitlements in line with the law.
The statutory guidance emphasises transparency at the heart of how the entitlement should be passed on to parents, including that any costs should be clearer on invoices and websites. Providers have until January 2026 to update their information in line with transparency requirements.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase workforce numbers in the early years sector.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The early years workforce is at the heart of the government’s mission to give every child the best start in life and deliver the Plan for Change.
The department is supporting the sector to attract talented staff and childminders to join the workforce by creating conditions for improved recruitment. Our national recruitment campaign is urging the public to ‘Do Something BIG’ and start a career working with small children. A dedicated website is helping people to find out more about gaining qualifications and to search for existing job vacancies. To further boost recruitment in early years, we are continuing to offer £1,000 financial incentives.
We are creating new routes into the workforce through skills bootcamps for the early years which lead to an accelerated apprenticeship, and also funding early years initial teacher training as a route for new and existing staff to gain early years teacher status. Our commitment to grow the early years skills pipeline can also be seen through the expansion of the Levelling Up Premium payments. To support childminders to join and stay in the profession we have implemented new flexibilities to work with more people and spend more time working from non-domestic premises.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
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 drop-outs from vocational courses; and what steps she is taking to increase course completion rates.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department's Qualification Achievement Rates (QARs) include official statistics on levels of achievement for a range of qualifications, including vocational learning. Latest published statistics show overall achievement rates within the 19+ education and training cohort have increased from 86.8% in 2022/23 to 87.4% in 2023/24, an increase of 0.6 percentage points. Compared with 2021/22, they are up by 1.2 percentage points. Links to QAR data from current and previous years is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/introduction-to-qualification-achievement-rates-qars.
Retention rates are also improving at ages 16 to 18. The retained and assessed rate for students who finished their T Level across 16 subjects in summer 2024 was up five percentage points from the previous year in over 10 subjects. The rate for large Vocational Technical Qualifications was up three percentage points. Further details on provisional T Level results for the 2023/24 academic year are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/provisional-t-level-results/2023-24.
Alongside T Levels, the department continues to develop and improve qualifications to ensure that they meet the needs of learners. Newly reformed qualifications will become available for delivery at levels 2 and 3 at the start of the next academic year, and we are in the process of approving new level 3 qualifications for delivery from August 2026. These are high-quality, aligned to occupational standards in technical routes, and offer learners clear routes to higher education or skilled employment.