Oral Answers to Questions

Bridget Phillipson Excerpts

Monday 2nd March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak (Richmond and Northallerton) (Con)]

1. What steps she is taking to support the education of service children.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Bridget Phillipson)]

I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge events in the middle east over the weekend following recent developments involving Iran. The safety of British nationals and our armed forces personnel right across the region is our priority, and we pay tribute to our brave servicemen and women.

Service families make extraordinary sacrifices for our country, as the right hon. Gentleman knows well. The Department for Education proudly supports service children, including those in his constituency around Catterick and elsewhere, through targeted funding and clear guidance to schools. Service pupil premium provided £26 million this financial year. These measures address challenges arising from service life so that all service children can achieve and thrive in education.

[Rishi Sunak]

Can I associate myself with the Secretary of State’s remarks and thank her for her thoughtful answer? I know that we both share a desire to honour the service of those in our armed forces by recognising and addressing the impact on their families. As the MP for Catterick garrison and nearby RAF Leeming, I see in particular the impact on service pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, which I know is something that she cares about. My local school leaders have recently implemented the Garrison Assist project, which seeks to address some of those challenges, and in light of the recent White Paper I met with those school leaders. Will she arrange a meeting for them with officials so that they might share their learnings and so that service pupils across our country can get the support that they need and deserve?

[Bridget Phillipson]

Yes, of course; I will be more than happy to make sure that that meeting takes place. I commend the Garrison Assist project for its excellent work. We have looked at the work it has done, and that has given us a strong foundation for many of the changes that we are bringing forward in the SEND system. For example, education, health and care plans and individual support plans will be digital, and that will ensure smoother transitions when children move between local authority areas. It will make a big difference to many children, but particularly children from service families.

[Alistair Strathern (Hitchin) (Lab)]

I am really proud to represent so many service families, but many of those I have been working with are at the sharp end of failures in the SEND system. Regular moves between postings can exacerbate long waits for assessments and leave them particularly exposed to the postcode lottery in SEND provision. As we drive forward long-overdue reforms in this space, how can we make sure that we are centring the experiences of service families so that we can finally do right by those who do so much for all of us?

[Bridget Phillipson]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is why, as I set out, we are making changes to ensure that there are smoother transitions for service children—for example, by making both education, health and care plans and individual support plans digital—but there is still more that we need to do. All of us across this House have a responsibility to ensure that those who serve our country receive the best possible education and care for their children. I would be very happy to discuss this further with my hon. Friend or any other Members who have a local constituency concern in this area.

[Yuan Yang (Earley and Woodley) (Lab)]

2. What recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the system for supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities.

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[Jo Platt (Leigh and Atherton) (Lab/Co-op)]

22. What steps she is taking to improve SEND provision in schools.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Bridget Phillipson)]

Our new SEND system will deliver a fully inclusive mainstream education, supported by £4 billion of investment. This Labour Government are tackling one of the thorniest problems that the previous Government left behind, with compassion, investment and reform. Children with special educational needs will access targeted and specialist support through a clear national framework, with individual support plans and stronger education, health and care plans for children with complex needs. We will work with education and health staff to prioritise early intervention and cross-service collaboration to ensure better outcomes for children nationwide.

[Josh Newbury]

I have spoken with teachers and special educational needs and disabilities co-ordinators across Cannock Chase, so I know that many schools, such as Longford primary in Cannock and St Joseph’s primary in Rugeley, already have SEND hubs, but with no additional funding, they cannot offer the holistic, teacher-led support they would like to. Can the Secretary of State confirm that local authorities will be given funding to commission specialist bases to finally give many children with SEND needs the support that will allow them to thrive in their local school?

[Bridget Phillipson]

Yes, I am happy to give my hon. Friend that commitment. We will ensure that every secondary school, and a similar number of primary schools, have that kind of support, and we will work with local authorities to set up specialist bases. As part of our £3.7 billion high-need capital investment, we will create 60,000 new specialist places nationwide to make sure that more children get the specialist support they deserve. I encourage parents and staff in his constituency and across Cannock Chase to share their views during the consultation period.

[Ben Coleman]

This plan is to be welcomed. It rightly recognises that families of children with SEND are absolutely exhausted from having to fight and battle for the support they need. I therefore strongly welcome the commitment to end that and to give over 1 million children, for the first time, legally enforceable rights through the individual support plans. But concerns have been expressed to me that, without clear enforcement, ISPs risk repeating the same problem, so can the Secretary of State tell me what happens if a school does not follow a child’s plan? Will parents have a legal right to enforce what an ISP says? In short, how will the Government ensure that these are genuine entitlements and not just more promises that families have to battle to see honoured?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend; I know he brings real expertise in this area. I completely understand the point that he makes and that parents have made, given the lack of confidence they have in the system after years of failure, but we are determined to put this right and turn the situation around to make sure that there is more flexible, earlier support available for children. Settings will have a duty to create individual support plans and deliver high-quality provision, drawing on national standards. If schools are not following the plan, it will be clear and obvious. Parents should seek to resolve that directly with the school. Where that does not work, we are strengthening the school complaints process, with independent SEND expertise on the panel. I encourage parents and staff across my hon. Friend’s community to share their views to ensure that we get this right.

[Jo Platt]

Families in Leigh and Atherton are exhausted from constantly fighting for the SEND support their children need, so I welcome the White Paper’s proposals, including individual support plans and more inclusion bases in schools, because inclusive education benefits everyone. These reforms must come with real oversight and resources. Can the Secretary of State reassure families that the battles for SEND support will end, and explain how local authorities and schools will be properly supported and held accountable?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I agree with my hon. Friend. This is about how we can deliver more support earlier to a much larger number of children than is the case at the moment: EHCP-like support without the fight to get that EHCP. There is already brilliant practice out there, showing the best of what can be achieved when schools work together with parents. We saw that last year when I visited Golborne All Saints Catholic primary in her community—a real beacon of what can be achieved. We want to see more of that, and the extra investment will make that possible in more schools and in more parts of the country.

[Claire Young (Thornbury and Yate) (LD)]

The Government have made some welcome commitments on education, but schools are then left to fulfil them. We have seen with free school meals, breakfast clubs and teacher pay awards that each time the funding falls short, and headteachers are left to make up the difference from budgets that are already on their knees. With the “experts at hand” service, can the Secretary of State guarantee that not a single school will have to raid its core budget to deliver this support?

[Bridget Phillipson]

This is significant extra investment of £4 billion, above and beyond what schools have already been told will be coming their way. In so many of the areas that the hon. Lady mentions, such as breakfast clubs and the expansion of free school meals, we are putting significant extra investment into ensuring that all children can achieve and thrive. We know that so many of the barriers that children face to thrive in education go well beyond the school gate, and our Government are tackling them.

[Monica Harding (Esher and Walton) (LD)]

Children with SEND do not conform to neat packages and definitions, and those with complex needs require fluctuating levels of support. There is real fear among my constituents that the Government’s proposals will downgrade the level of support available to those with high needs, and may not be flexible enough to respond to changes in children’s needs. Will the Secretary of State define “complexity”, and reassure parents that education, health and care plans will remain open to any child whose needs are not met by individual support plans?

[Bridget Phillipson]

Yes, and I encourage the hon. Lady to share with her constituents not just our SEND consultation but the draft profiles that we have established for specialist provision packages, which will be developed by an independent national panel with health and education expertise. I encourage her constituents to look at that and share their views, so that we can deliver a better support system, including for children with the most complex needs, who are being badly let down by a system that is just not working.

[Vikki Slade (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)]

Unlike maintained schools, independent special educational needs settings are not required to respond to consultation requests from local authorities, leading to long delays, children being out of school for extended periods, and conflict when parents believe that their children are not in the right setting. What assurance can the Secretary of State give parents in Mid Dorset and North Poole and elsewhere that any school receiving public money will be required to work with local authorities?

[Bridget Phillipson]

We will set much clearer overall expectations of local authorities, not least given the huge grant funding investment to bring down their deficits. With that money must come better outcomes for children. That is also true of the independent specialist sector. Although it offers much fantastic provision and caters well for children with complex needs, I am afraid that we cannot continue along this path of allowing money meant for education to be sucked into fuelling the profits of private equity.

[David Chadwick (Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe) (LD)]

8. What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the student loan system.

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[Anneliese Midgley (Knowsley) (Lab)]

11. What steps she is taking through the National Year of Reading 2026 to improve phonics attainment at key stage 1.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Bridget Phillipson)]

As my hon. Friend knows well, ensuring that all our children, in every corner of the country, learn to read quickly and to enjoy reading is one of this Labour Government’s key priorities. We are building strong foundations for every child in this National Year of Reading. Our best start in life strategy will expand support to improve phonics teaching, and through our regional improvement for standards and excellence English hubs, we are doubling the reach of our “reading ambition for all” programme, so that every child achieves and thrives.

[Anneliese Midgley]

As the Secretary of State said, 2026 is the National Year of Reading. This week, I am reading “Ghost Town” by Jeff Young. Reading changed my life, and in fact I read a book a week. In Knowsley, one in four children fail their key stage 1 phonics standards, so will the Minister tell me how the National Year of Reading will help kids in my constituency improve their reading and discover the same love of a good book that I have?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her enthusiasm, although she has put us all to shame with her revelation about her amazing reading habits. The National Year of Reading is all about encouraging children to discover the magic of a good book, which can ignite a lifelong love of reading. There will be exciting online and in-person events, with lots of resources, happening in schools and libraries in communities up and down the country, including in Knowsley. I am sure she will be encouraging her constituents, schools and local children to get involved.

[Caroline Voaden (South Devon) (LD)]

Reading daily to young children is shown to have a direct correlation with better outcomes, qualifications and social mobility later in life. Just one book a day means a child will hear approximately 300,000 more words by the age of five than those who are not regularly read to. However, many parents are not aware of this, so as part of the National Year of Reading, have the Government given any consideration to repeating the success of “Clunk Click Every Trip” and running a national advertising campaign to promote directly to new parents the need and the value of reading to their children every day?

[Bridget Phillipson]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right about the evidence of reading with children, and how even reading for a short time at the end of the day can really set children up to succeed. Through the National Year of Reading, we will be supporting exactly those kinds of initiatives, and through our Best Start family hubs we will ensure that parents get high-quality advice about the best ways to support their children’s learning at home.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Jack Rankin (Windsor) (Con)]

When I visit primary and first schools, teachers tell me that when given a book, more and more children starting school are swiping it, rather than knowing how to turn the page. If the Secretary of State is serious about raising phonics standards at key stage 1, will she act now to empower parents and get screens out of classrooms, and back a ban on social media for under-16s to create the right habits early? Or will she continue to drag her feet, given that it has already taken six weeks to even launch a consultation that we all know the answer to?

[Bridget Phillipson]

We have launched that consultation. I am clear that phones have no place in our schools, and schools should enforce that policy and ensure that it is being followed.

The hon. Gentleman asked a serious and reasonable question about some of the challenges that we see when children arrive at primary school. That is why through our Best Start family hubs and the National Year of Reading, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure that more parents and children are more supported. All of us as parents have to lead by example in that regard.

[Noah Law (St Austell and Newquay) (Lab)]

12. What steps she has taken to roll out Best Start free breakfast clubs.

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[James MacCleary (Lewes) (LD)]

T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Bridget Phillipson)]

I thank everyone for their support on the publication of the “Every Child Achieving and Thriving” White Paper and the special educational needs and disabilities reform consultation. From the reception that it has received, it is clear that we are on the right track to reform the system. I look forward to working with Members across the House, education and health staff, parents and children to build a future in which every child can achieve and thrive.

Last week, I was shocked by posts on TikTok encouraging violence by schoolchildren. TikTok must take urgent steps to address that and support firm action being taken by schools, local authorities and police to respond. From September, children will learn about staying safe from violence in the new curriculum.

[James MacCleary]

Plumpton college in my constituency is celebrating 100 years of land-based education. It has gone from 17 students in 1926 to a nationally recognised centre for agriculture, viticulture and environmental studies, with more than 1,200 full and part-time students today. Farming and land-based producers are vital to our food security, rural economy and environmental stewardship. Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating Plumpton college on its centenary and set out how the Government will ensure that specialist agricultural colleges have the funding, certainty and support that they need for the next century?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I join the hon. Gentleman in celebrating the amazing success of his local college. We want to ensure that we provide the kinds of support that he talks about, and we are investing more in further education and post-16 education. If he would like to raise further areas, I will ensure that they are picked up by a Minister.

[Mary Kelly Foy (City of Durham) (Lab)]

T2. I truly welcome the reform to SEND provision, but, with some schools already making redundancies because of funding, I echo the concerns of teaching unions that the recently announced inclusion grant is too small; it equates to one part-time teaching assistant for the average primary school and two TAs for the average secondary school. Can the Minister reassure me and educators in Durham that adequate funding will be available to make our schools more inclusive for children with SEND while allowing schools to protect the support that children with SEND in mainstream classrooms already have?

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[Laura Trott (Sevenoaks) (Con)]

Under what circumstances does the Secretary of State think it is appropriate for a five-year-old to socially transition?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I genuinely expected better from the right hon. Lady. I encourage her to go away and look at the guidance we have published, which will be statutory in nature and makes the involvement of parents very clear. My view—which is also the view of Dr Hilary Cass—is that we should let children be children.

[Laura Trott]

The answer should have been “never”. That is what our guidance said, and that is what the Government’s guidance should have said.

In our universities, gender-critical feminists have been kicked off campus, while today the ayatollah is being celebrated as a martyr at University College London. This is completely unacceptable, so what is the Secretary of State doing to crack down on this two-tier system, or is she going to sit on her hands while an enemy of Britain is celebrated?

[Bridget Phillipson]

No, absolutely not. While I am clear that universities should be places of open discussion and dialogue, where views should be challenged and questioned—that is an important principle that this party has long supported—there can of course be no place for hate speech or intimidation on campus. Anyone involved in that kind of activity should face consequences, but that is entirely different from the wider question that the right hon. Lady started with, which is about the wellbeing of children. We all have a responsibility to approach this issue sensibly and do what is right by children. She obviously has not read the guidance properly.

[Dave Robertson (Lichfield) (Lab)]

T5. The ministerial team will be aware that schools in the Arthur Terry learning partnership across my constituency and six others in the west midlands saw nine days of strike action in January and February. The trust was consulting on staff cuts because it had a multimillion-pound hole in its budget, a hole that senior leaders put down to a mistake in the finances. I am glad that there is now new leadership in place at the Arthur Terry learning partnership, but what steps can our Government take to ensure that trusts are held to account much more strongly than they currently are?

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[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

The Secretary of State has quite rightly said that someone’s background should be no barrier to success, so if she does not propose to increase the pupil premium budget, will she confirm how many children will lose out when she seeks to rebalance it, and will she guarantee that the money will always follow the individual child, not where they live?

[Bridget Phillipson]

As the hon. Lady knows, we intend to consult on getting the best outcomes for children through the use of the money we are targeting at disadvantage. Free school meals are a rather blunt way of doing that, and we are keen to explore ways of ensuring that all children from less well-off backgrounds, including pupil premium children, get the very best from their education. However, it is a consultation, and I would be more than willing to discuss it further with the hon. Lady.

[Claire Hazelgrove (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Lab)]

T6. I thank the Schools Minister for meeting my constituent Christine Lote to discuss her campaign to see the school admissions code broadened, following her own stage 4 cancer not being factored into her daughter’s primary school allocation, which has seen her placed further from home. Christine cannot walk her daughter to school any more, and her daughter cannot access the specialist bereavement support at the more local school. Will the Minister please confirm whether this change can be considered as part of the admissions code consultation, and whether information about this issue can be shared with other local authorities to inform their policies and help prevent this for other families?

[Sir Ashley Fox (Bridgwater) (Con)]

T3. In 2023, Parliament legislated to protect freedom of speech on our university campuses, but we are still waiting for the Government to bring section 8 of the Act into force, so will the Minister set out a clear timetable for commencing the complaints scheme to ensure that our academics are protected from censorship and silencing?

[Bridget Phillipson]

Yes, we intend to do that shortly. To be clear, universities should be places of open discussion, where academics can operate freely and everyone is exposed to views that they may sometimes find challenging and with which they may disagree. We have commenced many of the provisions within the Act that are upholding and safeguarding free speech and academic freedom in our universities.

[Oliver Ryan (Burnley) (Lab/Co-op)]

T7. The brilliant Burnley college has bid to become one of the UK’s four new advanced manufacturing technical excellence colleges. Its bid is the only one from Lancashire. It is backed by the North West Aerospace Alliance and the Northern Automotive Alliance, our big local world-class manufacturing employers, neighbouring colleges across the north-west and Yorkshire and—of course—me. Will the Secretary of State do her best to look fondly on the bid, and will she back Burnley’s technical excellence?

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

T4. Instead of the Secretary of State’s cap on the number of branded items of school uniform, will she substitute that for a monetary cap, which would afford much greater flexibility to schools?

[Bridget Phillipson]

We were elected on a manifesto to deliver a limit on the number of branded items to cut the cost of school uniform. Unfortunately, some of what the right hon. Gentleman proposes could have unintended consequences that would not tackle the problem we are facing, which is that children should be smart when they go to school, but it should not cost their parents the earth.

[Darren Paffey (Southampton Itchen) (Lab)]

Literacy levels among Southampton’s children remain a challenge, and I commend the work of so many teachers in attempting to close that gap. Can the Minister say how schools in my constituency can best engage with the National Year of Reading? Will she join me in welcoming plans for a Southampton literary festival to inspire a lifelong love of reading in every child in Southampton?

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[Suella Braverman (Fareham and Waterlooville) (Reform)]

Disgracefully, a pro-ayatollah students’ society plans to host a commemorative event on the campus of University College London in the name of “the fallen”—in other words, in support of those who backed the brutal regime of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Does the Secretary of State agree that it is utterly wrong that taxpayer-funded university resources are being used to propagate the murderous ideology of the Tehran regime, which has attacked UK bases, and with which we are effectively at war?

[Bridget Phillipson]

We expect to see the strongest possible action where hate speech or illegal activity takes place, whether on a campus or anywhere else, and I would expect any suggestions of that kind of activity to be fully investigated by those responsible for enforcing the law.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

As this is Colleges Week, will the Secretary of State join me in paying tribute to the incredible college staff in Hartlepool and across the country for the work that they do? Does she agree that we must end the misguided prejudice that the academic route is always best, and champion vocational qualifications, which will give us the workforce we need to rebuild our country?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I do indeed pay tribute to the amazing people who work in our colleges and in further education, including in Hartlepool college of further education, and I look forward to being in Hartlepool very soon with my hon. Friend to observe that work at first hand.