Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the effectiveness of their guidance for tackling low school attendance and lost learning.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
In the last academic year, around 1.5 million children are persistently absent, missing a day a fortnight, and 171,000 are severely absent, missing 50% of time in school or more (compared to 150,000 the previous year). These levels are unacceptably high, and the government is strongly committed to reversing the trend, but it will take time to unwind the legacy.
The department’s ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’ guidance became statutory in August 2024 and is based on our engagement with the strongest schools, trusts and local authorities across the country. We review all guidance on an ongoing basis and make changes as necessary.
Schools also have access to an attendance toolkit, developed in collaboration with the sector. The toolkit provides practical resources to support schools to identify the drivers of absence and adopt effective practice to improve attendance.
The department regularly publishes attendance data which shows how pupil attendance is changing over time. The data can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/pupil-attendance-in-schools. Thanks to the efforts of the sector, overall absence is moving in the right direction, with children attending over 3.1 million more days this year compared to last, and over 100,000 fewer children persistently absent. However, this still leaves around one in five pupils currently missing 10% or more of school.
That is why we are working with the sector to bring breakfast clubs to all primary schools so that every child is in on time and ready to learn, rolling out Attendance and Behaviour hubs providing support to schools to help them improve, and tackling mental ill-health among young people by providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support all schools in England to appoint a designated pupil mental health lead.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
This government is committed to improving mental health support for all children and young people. This is critical to breaking down barriers to opportunity and helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education.
Over 90% of schools report having a designated mental health lead. The department provides guidance and practical resources on promoting and supporting pupils’ mental health and wellbeing in schools. For example, a resources hub and a toolkit to help choose evidence-based early support for pupils. These can be found here: https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/, and here: https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/.
The government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.
As at March 2025, 10,100 schools and colleges were supported by an MHST. By April 2026, we estimate an additional 900,000 pupils in schools and learners in further education in England will be covered by an MHST, around 6 million in total, or 60% of all pupils and learners, up from around 5 million in April 2025.
The government will also recruit an additional 8,500 mental health staff to treat children and adults and open new Young Futures hubs with access to mental health support workers.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many schools in England have mental health support teams.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
This government is committed to improving mental health support for all children and young people. This is critical to breaking down barriers to opportunity and helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education.
Over 90% of schools report having a designated mental health lead. The department provides guidance and practical resources on promoting and supporting pupils’ mental health and wellbeing in schools. For example, a resources hub and a toolkit to help choose evidence-based early support for pupils. These can be found here: https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/, and here: https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/.
The government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.
As at March 2025, 10,100 schools and colleges were supported by an MHST. By April 2026, we estimate an additional 900,000 pupils in schools and learners in further education in England will be covered by an MHST, around 6 million in total, or 60% of all pupils and learners, up from around 5 million in April 2025.
The government will also recruit an additional 8,500 mental health staff to treat children and adults and open new Young Futures hubs with access to mental health support workers.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of (1) academy schools which have converted but are not sponsor led, (2) local authority maintained community schools, and (3) local authority maintained foundation, voluntary-aided or voluntary-controlled schools are "stuck"; and what assessment they have made of these figures.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The government has defined a stuck school in its consultation on school accountability reform, which was published on 3 February 2025, as a school which was graded ‘requires improvement’ or equivalent at its most recent graded Ofsted inspection and was also graded below ‘good’ at its previous inspection. The consultation also proposes how to define stuck schools in future, subject to the outcome of Ofsted’s separate consultation on improving the way it inspects education.
As at 1 March 2025, there are a total of 566 academy schools, including free schools, which meet the definition of ‘stuck’ schools (5% of all academies) of which 207 are converter academies (2.7% of all convertor academies). Additionally, there are 91 local authority maintained schools meeting the ‘stuck’ schools definition (0.9% of all local authority maintained schools), of which 48 are community schools (0.8% of all community schools) and 43 are voluntary or foundation schools (1.0% of all voluntary or foundation schools). It should be noted that some stuck schools that are now academies were local authority maintained schools at the time of their most recent inspection and subsequently converted as a result of intervention.
The government is committed to high and rising standards for all children, regardless of the type of school they attend. We are already deploying regional improvement for standards and excellence teams to both maintained schools and academies which meet the current definition of stuck and have not had a change of responsible body since their most recent inspection.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many "stuck" schools there were on 28 February; and how many there were under the former definition of such schools at the latest date for which data are available.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The government has defined a stuck school in its consultation on school accountability reform, which was published on 3 February 2025, as a school which was graded ‘requires improvement’ or equivalent at its most recent graded Ofsted inspection and was also graded below ‘good’ at its previous inspection. The consultation also proposes how to define stuck schools in future, subject to the outcome of Ofsted’s separate consultation on improving the way it inspects education.
As at 1 March 2025, there are a total of 566 academy schools, including free schools, which meet the definition of ‘stuck’ schools (5% of all academies) of which 207 are converter academies (2.7% of all convertor academies). Additionally, there are 91 local authority maintained schools meeting the ‘stuck’ schools definition (0.9% of all local authority maintained schools), of which 48 are community schools (0.8% of all community schools) and 43 are voluntary or foundation schools (1.0% of all voluntary or foundation schools). It should be noted that some stuck schools that are now academies were local authority maintained schools at the time of their most recent inspection and subsequently converted as a result of intervention.
The government is committed to high and rising standards for all children, regardless of the type of school they attend. We are already deploying regional improvement for standards and excellence teams to both maintained schools and academies which meet the current definition of stuck and have not had a change of responsible body since their most recent inspection.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their definition of a "stuck" school; when this definition was adopted; and how it differs from previous definitions.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The government has defined a stuck school in its consultation on school accountability reform, which was published on 3 February 2025, as a school which was graded ‘requires improvement’ or equivalent at its most recent graded Ofsted inspection and was also graded below ‘good’ at its previous inspection. The consultation also proposes how to define stuck schools in future, subject to the outcome of Ofsted’s separate consultation on improving the way it inspects education.
As at 1 March 2025, there are a total of 566 academy schools, including free schools, which meet the definition of ‘stuck’ schools (5% of all academies) of which 207 are converter academies (2.7% of all convertor academies). Additionally, there are 91 local authority maintained schools meeting the ‘stuck’ schools definition (0.9% of all local authority maintained schools), of which 48 are community schools (0.8% of all community schools) and 43 are voluntary or foundation schools (1.0% of all voluntary or foundation schools). It should be noted that some stuck schools that are now academies were local authority maintained schools at the time of their most recent inspection and subsequently converted as a result of intervention.
The government is committed to high and rising standards for all children, regardless of the type of school they attend. We are already deploying regional improvement for standards and excellence teams to both maintained schools and academies which meet the current definition of stuck and have not had a change of responsible body since their most recent inspection.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many "stuck" schools as of 28 February were (1) academy schools, or (2) local authority maintained schools.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The government has defined a stuck school in its consultation on school accountability reform, which was published on 3 February 2025, as a school which was graded ‘requires improvement’ or equivalent at its most recent graded Ofsted inspection and was also graded below ‘good’ at its previous inspection. The consultation also proposes how to define stuck schools in future, subject to the outcome of Ofsted’s separate consultation on improving the way it inspects education.
As at 1 March 2025, there are a total of 566 academy schools, including free schools, which meet the definition of ‘stuck’ schools (5% of all academies) of which 207 are converter academies (2.7% of all convertor academies). Additionally, there are 91 local authority maintained schools meeting the ‘stuck’ schools definition (0.9% of all local authority maintained schools), of which 48 are community schools (0.8% of all community schools) and 43 are voluntary or foundation schools (1.0% of all voluntary or foundation schools). It should be noted that some stuck schools that are now academies were local authority maintained schools at the time of their most recent inspection and subsequently converted as a result of intervention.
The government is committed to high and rising standards for all children, regardless of the type of school they attend. We are already deploying regional improvement for standards and excellence teams to both maintained schools and academies which meet the current definition of stuck and have not had a change of responsible body since their most recent inspection.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many schools which are currently Ofsted graded “Requires Improvement” or equivalent but were graded “Good” or “Outstanding” at their last inspection; and what plans they have at national level to provide school improvement support to these schools.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
As part of this government’s plan to deliver a better accountability system that sets clear expectations, encourages improvement and spreads excellence, the use of single headline grades was stopped in September 2024, and it is our intention to introduce school report cards from the next academic year. As of 28 February 2025, there are 924 schools graded ‘requires improvement’, which were graded ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ in their previous inspection.
The department is strengthening its tools for faster and more effective school improvement. These schools will be eligible for our new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) universal service to drive high and rising standards. RISE teams will signpost schools to effective practice, encourage peer-to-peer support, and bring schools together to share their knowledge and innovation. This includes organising regional events, conferences and networking opportunities, aligned to our four national priorities of attainment, attendance, mainstream inclusion and reception year quality.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on English students from under-represented backgrounds of the planned closure by Cardiff University of its School of Music.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
This government believes that access to higher education should be based on ability and attainment, not background.
As education is a devolved matter, impacts following the closure of provision at a Welsh university are a matter for the Welsh government.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to announce funding for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund beyond March.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The department will shortly be finalising business planning decisions on how its budget will be allocated for the next financial year. All decisions regarding the adoption and special guardianship support fund are being considered as part of these discussions. An announcement will be made as soon as possible.