Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 10 November (HL Deb col 40), whether they plan to pilot media literacy within the curriculum, and if so, how its efficacy will be assessed.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

On 5 November, the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review published its final report which includes recommendations for a refreshed curriculum and assessment system in England.

As part of the response to the Review the government has committed to ensuring our young people have the skills they need to identify and challenge misinformation, by strengthening media literacy in citizenship and English.

To ensure primary-aged children are introduced to key content on media literacy we have made a commitment to make citizenship compulsory in key stages 1 and 2.

We will also reform the computing curriculum and create a broader computing GCSE so that pupils have the vital digital skills needed for the future such as AI literacy and we will explore a new level 3 qualification in data science and AI.

The department will engage with sector experts and young people in working out how best to reflect this content in the updated curriculum. There will be public consultation on the updated curriculum programmes of study, to seek views on the content before they are finalised.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the statement by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 10 November (HL Deb cols 30–38), whether they plan to pilot changes to media literacy in the curriculum, and how its efficacy will be assessed.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

I refer the noble Lady to the answer of 27 November to Question HL11890.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 10 November (HL Deb col 36), what evidence the decision not to follow the Curriculum and Assessment Review's recommendation that the structure of Progress 8 remains unchanged was based on.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

A July 2025 Skills England report noted that "the creative industries are experiencing significant skills shortages", with 33% of all vacancies attributed to this, and the Curriculum and Assessment Review found declines in entries into some key stage 4 arts qualifications, including music and drama. The department believes that the proposed ‘Progress 8’ structure will support development of these key skills and help deliver the government’s commitment to support young people with the opportunity to study a creative or vocational subject through to the end of key stage 4.

The department will therefore consult on an improved Progress 8 and Attainment 8 that recognises the value of these subjects and balances a strong academic core with breadth and student choice.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks of Baroness Smith of Malvern on 22 May (HL Deb col 393) and the publication in July of Families first for children pathfinder: implementation and process evaluation report, when the evaluation of the impact of multi-agency child protection teams will be published.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The department is running an evaluation of the families first for children pathfinder programme until 2028, with the next publication scheduled for 2027. This report will assess the aggregate impact of the full reform package, which includes multi-agency child protection teams, and will highlight progress on indicators such as multi-agency collaboration, information sharing, and decision making.

Alongside formal evaluation, the department continues to monitor progress and extract learning more broadly, including through data returns, local monitoring and working closely with the ten pathfinder areas.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 22 May (HL Deb col 427), whether the planned user testing to identify key safeguarding practitioner information happened; and, if so, what the main themes were that emerged.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Between May and September 2025, the department consulted nearly 500 practitioners from children’s social care, education, health, police, and probation. Key findings included:

• Regardless of role, practitioners experience the same barriers when trying to share and receive information.
• Practitioners spend a disproportionate amount of time finding and gathering information which can result in less time for decision making.
• Regardless of sector, practitioners view social care and education information as highest priority.
• Practitioners have three core needs: a) ensuring they are talking about the same child/family, b) understanding who holds information about that child/family and c) having a secure way to share relevant information quickly.
• Practitioners also raised a desire to be able to view core data in one place.

We are using these insights to inform future work, ensuring that design and development align with practitioner needs. User research will continue to maintain a user-centred approach throughout.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 10 November (HL Deb cols 35-7), what modelling they have done of the impact of the absence of the English Baccalaureate on the uptake of (1) modern foreign languages, (2) history, and (3) geography.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Curriculum and Assessment Review found that English Baccalaureate (EBacc) measures have unnecessarily constrained subject choice, affecting student engagement and achievement, and that uptake of EBacc subjects has not translated into increased study of them at 16 to 19. Although the EBacc was intended to support GCSE entries of modern foreign languages, history and geography, full EBacc entry was just 41% in 2024/25.

The new model protects the important place of humanities and modern foreign languages. Under our proposed model, students will have to take at least one humanity or language whilst currently schools can satisfy expectations of Progress 8 without pupils taking any of these subjects.

The department will consult on the improved Progress 8 and Attainment 8 measures.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 29 October (HL Deb cols 1378-79), how long they estimate it will take to address concerns raised following a referral of a university to the Office for Students under the new E6 condition.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

This is a matter for the Office for Students (OfS), which has dedicated resources to investigate potential breaches of its conditions.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 17 November (HL Deb col 537), on what evidence their decision not to implement the Curriculum and Assessment Review's recommended Year 8 diagnostic maths test is based.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The government has considered the Curriculum and Assessment Review panel’s recommendations carefully and supports their recommendations for a renewed focus on assessment in key stage 3. We will expect schools to undertake formative assessments in maths and writing during the key stage, supporting them to identify high quality materials.

While strong foundations in both literacy and numeracy are important for children to achieve and thrive, reading unlocks the wider curriculum. If a child cannot read, they cannot succeed in other subjects including, for example, maths, science and history. It is critical we focus on ensuring children and young people have strong foundations in reading in the first instance and this is why we will develop and deliver a new statutory assessment in reading in year 8.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 16 September (HL Deb col 2115), when they will announce the outcome of the review of 44 new free schools whose approval have been paused for over a year.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The review of mainstream free schools is necessary to ensure we provide sufficient high quality school places, whilst offering value for money and ensuring projects will not have a detrimental impact on local schools. An update will be provided as soon as possible.