Asked by: Zöe Franklin (Liberal Democrat - Guildford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of uniform changes proposed in the Children and Wellbeing Bill on parents who wish to buy branded uniform items for convenience.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Whilst uniforms play a valuable role in creating a sense of common identity among pupils and reducing visible inequalities, too many schools still require high numbers of branded items. This is why we have introduced legislation to limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kit that schools can require, giving parents more choice in where to purchase uniform and allowing them the flexibility to make the spending decisions that suit their circumstances.
Schools may continue to offer optional branded items, provided these are kept to a minimum and a generic alternative is available.
Parents should have choice over where they shop, so they can control the cost of uniforms. Our data suggest that where parents can buy items from a range of suppliers the average cost of uniform is significantly lower.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in the past twelve months, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) her Department and (b) its agencies broken down by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The requested information is available in the table below:
Disciplinary Cases Concluded | ||
Totals | Department of Education | Agencies |
32 | <5 | |
Outcomes | ||
Alternative role | <5 | <5 |
Dismissal | <5 | <5 |
Final Written | <5 | <5 |
Final Written - 24 months | <5 | <5 |
First Written | <5 | <5 |
Informal | 8 | <5 |
No Action | 5 | <5 |
No Outcome Provided | 5 | <5 |
Allegations | ||
Performance | * | * |
Conduct | 29 | <5 |
Other | <5 | <5 |
*Footnote – cases relating to performance are managed separately through the department’s performance management policy and are excluded from the above table
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2025 to Question 95259 on Home Education, whether home education experts were consulted on any training that may be needed for frontline workers collecting data for the Children Not in School Register.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is engaging with the Information Commissioner’s Office on the Data Protection Impact Assessment for the Children Not in School registers to ensure that all data protection risks have been identified and mitigated before any processing of data begins.
The department has also held discussions with both Women’s Aid and the NSPCC, and other domestic abuse organisations, such as SafeLives, on the Children Not in School registers. We recognise the importance of protecting survivors of abuse and have worked with these partners to understand the implications of the Children Not in School measures and how concerns about access to data and identification can be resolved. We will continue this engagement ahead of implementation, including to inform our statutory guidance.
We will also commission and deliver training for all local authorities on the Children Not in School requirements and how they interact effectively with home education and alternative education approaches. This will be co-developed and co-delivered by home education representatives, and we will engage with relevant stakeholders, including safeguarding and domestic abuse organisations, as appropriate.
Funding will be provided to support local authorities to fulfil their new duties under the Children Not in School measures.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2025 to Question 95260 on Home Education, if her Department will publish a forecast of the funding to be provided to support local authorities to fulfil their new duties under the Children Not in School measures.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is engaging with the Information Commissioner’s Office on the Data Protection Impact Assessment for the Children Not in School registers to ensure that all data protection risks have been identified and mitigated before any processing of data begins.
The department has also held discussions with both Women’s Aid and the NSPCC, and other domestic abuse organisations, such as SafeLives, on the Children Not in School registers. We recognise the importance of protecting survivors of abuse and have worked with these partners to understand the implications of the Children Not in School measures and how concerns about access to data and identification can be resolved. We will continue this engagement ahead of implementation, including to inform our statutory guidance.
We will also commission and deliver training for all local authorities on the Children Not in School requirements and how they interact effectively with home education and alternative education approaches. This will be co-developed and co-delivered by home education representatives, and we will engage with relevant stakeholders, including safeguarding and domestic abuse organisations, as appropriate.
Funding will be provided to support local authorities to fulfil their new duties under the Children Not in School measures.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2025 to Question 95260 on Home Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure any training delivered to local authorities is holistic and trauma informed.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is engaging with the Information Commissioner’s Office on the Data Protection Impact Assessment for the Children Not in School registers to ensure that all data protection risks have been identified and mitigated before any processing of data begins.
The department has also held discussions with both Women’s Aid and the NSPCC, and other domestic abuse organisations, such as SafeLives, on the Children Not in School registers. We recognise the importance of protecting survivors of abuse and have worked with these partners to understand the implications of the Children Not in School measures and how concerns about access to data and identification can be resolved. We will continue this engagement ahead of implementation, including to inform our statutory guidance.
We will also commission and deliver training for all local authorities on the Children Not in School requirements and how they interact effectively with home education and alternative education approaches. This will be co-developed and co-delivered by home education representatives, and we will engage with relevant stakeholders, including safeguarding and domestic abuse organisations, as appropriate.
Funding will be provided to support local authorities to fulfil their new duties under the Children Not in School measures.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the factors causing increased numbers of Education, Health and Care Plans to be issued, including in Oldham.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
There are a range of views as to why demand for education, health and care (EHC) plans has increased. This is why the department is continuing an extensive programme of engagement to gather insight and evidence that allows us to shape a proposed reform programme that prioritises early intervention, fairness and effective evidence-based support.
As my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education outlined in her letter to the Chair of the Education Select Committee, we must move towards a system where high quality support is provided as soon as a need is identified, rather than only once an EHC plan is in place. Every school should be resourced and able to meet common and predictable needs, including as they change over time, without parents having to fight for support.
As part of our Plan for Change, we are determined to make changes to the special educational needs and disabilities system, restore the trust of parents by ensuring early years, schools and colleges have the tools to better identify need early, and support children and young people before issues escalate. We will share more information on plans for reform in a full Schools White Paper in the new year.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2025 to Question 91415 on Citizenship: Teachers, what steps she is taking to train and support teachers to teach citizenship as a national curriculum subject at Key Stages 1 and 2; and if she plans to fund additional training routes to help meet this need.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Work is underway to deliver a new curriculum and assessment system, including Programmes of Study for citizenship at key stages 1 and 2. Working closely with the sector, we are working towards a first teaching of the new curriculum from September 2028.
Proposals will be consulted on from 2026 to ensure that we are capturing the important views from those most impacted. This will inform decisions about teacher training to support implementation. We will provide time for familiarisation and high quality digital resources through Oak National Academy (Oak).
Oak draws expertise from the best in the sector and shares it with teachers. Its curriculum partners include high performing school trusts, subject associations, education charities, publishers and universities. All resources are openly licensed and free for anyone to use and adapt.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support the financial sustainability of childminding roles in (a) Surrey and (b) Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is our 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.
The department has implemented new flexibilities for childminders that will help them to join and stay in the profession, giving them the flexibility to work with more people and spend more time working from non-domestic premises if they prefer.
Childminders can contribute to the delivery of the expanded entitlements and may also benefit from an expected increase in demand for places. While we do not retain constituency level data, the hourly funding rates for Surrey are £12.89, £9.01 and £6.25 for children under two years old, aged two, and aged three to four respectively. We will work with local authorities and others to ensure that childminders and other early years providers are paid monthly for the funded hours they provide, making their income more stable. We will also keep working with Jobcentre Plus to encourage more people to become childminders.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what is the total cost to the public purse of the decision to extend the statutory override for the cost of SEND to 2027-28.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory override is an accounting measure, designed to keep Dedicated Schools Grant deficits separate from local authorities’ wider financial position. The extension of the override to the end of the 2027/28 financial year does not affect local authorities’ statutory duties to provide support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), nor does it change how much they spend to fulfil those duties. As these duties remain unchanged and, as with the previous government’s decision to extend the statutory override to the end of 2025/26, the extension itself does not result in any additional cost to the public purse.
The government recognises many local authorities are likely to continue to accrue deficits due to their spending on high needs, as we have seen in recent years, as they ensure that there are sufficient resources to secure provision for children and young people with SEND in mainstream or in specialist education. We will set out our plans to support local authorities with historic and accruing deficits through the upcoming Local Government Finance Settlement.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a financial protection scheme for users of home learning providers which become insolvent.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Where an online home learning provider closes, parents and local authorities should work together to identify other suitable provision which is safe and meets the needs of the child. Home learning providers are often private providers and so are responsible for the financial management of their business.