Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of a reduction in the number of experienced childminders on the availability of early years and out-of-school childcare places in the context of the expansion of funded childcare hours.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
This department is taking a range of measures to support the financial sustainability of childminding businesses and other early years providers. From April 2026, local authorities will be required to pass at least 97% of their funding directly to providers (an increase from 96%). We are also working with local authorities and others to ensure that childminders and other early years providers can be paid monthly for the funded hours they provide, making their income more stable. Furthermore, from 1 November 2024, the government introduced new flexibilities to help childminders join and stay in the profession, supporting the government’s commitment to roll out expanded childcare entitlements and give children the best start in life.
In addition, the expansion of the early years entitlements could benefit childminders in different ways. For example, the national average three and four year-old hourly funding rate of local authorities is increasing by 4.1%, the two year-old hourly funding rate is increasing by 3.3%, and the nine months to two year-old hourly funding rate is increasing by 3.4%. Childminders may also benefit from an expected increase in demand for places.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the gap between her Department's funding rates for early years childcare and the cost of provision.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The government is prioritising and protecting investment in the early years, and in 2026/27 we expect to provide over £9.5 billion for the early years entitlements, more than doubling annual public investment in the early years sector compared to 2023/24.
On average nationally, next year we are increasing the 3- and 4-year-old hourly funding rate by 4.95%, the 2-year-old hourly funding rate by 4.36% and funding rate for the 9 months to 2-year-old entitlement by 4.28%. National average funding rate increases continue to reflect in full forecast cost pressures on the early years sector, including the National Living Wage announced at Autumn Budget 2025, and go further.
The department uses the early years national funding formulae (EYNFF) to distribute the early years entitlements budget to local authorities. The EYNFF determine local authority hourly funding rates by taking into consideration the different costs of delivering early years provision in different parts of the country.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps will be taken to ensure that school leaders, exam officers, teachers, parents and students are fully consulted during the 12-week consultation on regulating on-screen assessments.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department recognises the importance of securing responses from teachers, school leaders, exams officers, parents and students, and Ofqual is committed to achieving diverse representation.
To support this, Ofqual is engaging these groups through targeted briefings with representative bodies, dedicated stakeholder sessions and a clear communications campaign. This includes a teacher focused blog and social media activity, alongside proactive media briefings ahead of launch which generated widespread national, local and sector coverage. The department is also promoting the consultation via its own channels and stakeholder networks, and is planning to support Ofqual with stakeholder engagement activities during its consultation period.
Ofqual has also published a comprehensive evidence base reflecting views from these groups, which informed its proposals. It will monitor responses and adapt outreach to ensure strong participation.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the written answer to question 55157 of 9 June 2025 on Construction and Social Services: Education, how many Careers Hubs there are in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department funds the Careers and Enterprise Company to work with a regional network of 44 careers hubs across England, in partnership with Mayoral Strategic Authorities, to connect with local skills needs.
There is one careers hub working with all eligible secondary schools and colleges in Lancashire, including all eight schools in the Fylde constituency.
Lancashire Careers Hub brings schools together with a wide range of employers in the region to help strengthen the links between education and the world of work. An example in the Fylde constituency is Carr Hill High School’s work with BAE Systems to embed local labour market information throughout education.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how frequently academy trusts will be inspected; and whether inspection frequency will vary according to previous performance.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government has tabled an amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill to bring in multi-academy trust inspections. Multi-academy trust inspections will raise standards and enable sharing of best trust-level practice, as well as incentivising and supporting improvement efforts across the sector.
The government intends to specify the intervals for routine trust inspections in secondary legislation, after working closely with Ofsted and the sector to determine what an appropriate period of time would be.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2025 to Question 85962 on Special Educational Needs: Hearing Impairment, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of making support for families available from birth.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department is committed to ensuring that all children, including deaf and hard of hearing children, have the best possible start in life. The NHS Newborn Hearing Screening Programme aims to identify permanent moderate, severe, and profound deafness and hearing impairment in newborn babies. Screening is offered to all babies in England.
Funding is available to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including deaf and hard of hearing children, to access early education and childcare. This includes special educational needs inclusion funding and disability access funding.
Further, in December 2025, the department announced access to early SEND support across the country through Best Start Family Hubs. In every local authority next year, councils are being tasked with recruiting a dedicated SEND practitioner for every hub to provide direct, family-facing support. The new offer will help parents identify emerging needs sooner, and support vital join-up between early years settings, health visitors and SEND teams, including for young children with hearing impairments.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what action her Department will take where local authorities are found to be retaining more than the permitted 3% of early years funding.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The passthrough requirement ensures that the great majority of government funding for the early years entitlements reaches providers so that they can deliver the entitlement offers. The passthrough rate is a statutory requirement set out in the Schools and Early Years Finance Regulations. The minimum passthrough requirement is 96% for financial year 2025/2026 and will increase to 97% in 2026/2027.
The department monitors local authority compliance to the minimum pass-through requirement via section 251 budget returns each financial year and will query any returns that suggest a lower rate than required.
In circumstances where an authority has failed to meet the minimum pass-through requirement, through retaining too much funding centrally or for any other reason, the department holds the right to claw back funding from local authorities.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what safeguards are now in place to prevent malpractice in English language proficiency tests used for university entrance, following the issues identified by Ofqual with Pearson’s PTE Academic Online test.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Universities are autonomous bodies, independent from government, and responsible for their own admissions decisions.
Where English is not an applicant's first language, it is right that a provider assures themselves that the applicant has a reasonable likelihood of successfully meeting the academic requirements of the course.
Universities are free to decide their entry criteria, including which language proficiency tests they require applicants to sit, with many higher education providers able to self-assess the English ability of their students.
Additionally, the UK’s student visa arrangements specify the level of English required by those coming here to study. This standard is rigorously enforced by the Home Office.
The online version of this test was introduced by Pearson in response to both the significant disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to international students and has since been discontinued.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the expansion of school-based nurseries will contribute to increasing access to funded childcare, particularly in areas with limited provision.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
High quality early years is central to our mission to break down the barriers to opportunity, give every child the best possible start in life and is essential to our Plan for Change. This government is boosting availability and access through the school-based nurseries programme, supporting school led provision and private, voluntary and independent (PVI) providers and childminders operating from school sites.
Phase 1 is already delivering results, with £37 million successfully awarded to 300 primary phase schools creating up to 6,000 new childcare places. Schools reported that over 5,000 of these places were available from September 2025, helping thousands of families across the country.
The programme secured almost £370 million for future phases. Phase 2, which closed on 11 December, has an increased focus on supporting families from disadvantaged areas which have less access to childcare, and will deliver at least 300 new or expanded nurseries through a £45 million fund. Successful schools will be announced in due course.
Phase 3 is due to launch in early 2026, focussing on local authorities’ long-term strategic needs for their local communities.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the inclusion of the book 'Pigeon English' in the English GCSE curriculum in England and Wales.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Schools have the autonomy to choose the specific books and resources they use within the framework of the national curriculum. The department defines the genres of literature that must be covered, but does not prescribe individual authors or texts, other than Shakespeare which must be taught. At GCSE level, exam boards set out a range of set texts in their specifications, and schools are free to select those they wish to teach.