Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what mechanisms are in place to ensure the alignment of Best Start Family Hubs with the rollout of Neighbourhood Health Services in (a) Buckinghamshire and (b) Milton Keynes.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department will launch a new Best Start in Life campaign in autumn which will guide parents, from pregnancy through their child's journey to starting school and beyond. It will be followed by a new Best Start digital parenting hub. Discussions around design and timelines for launch are ongoing. We are committed to ensuring it meets parents' needs and will share further updates as the work progresses.
We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations. Through local commissioning, we will ensure that Neighbourhood Health Services work in partnership with family hubs, schools, nurseries, childminders and colleges, ensuring support for young children’s health and development is available and accessible in communities.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support the development of solar skills training programmes delivered through further education institutions based in Buckinghamshire.
Answered by Janet Daby
The government is committed to the UK becoming a clean energy superpower, achieving clean power by 2030 and net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Skills have a crucial role to play in achieving this mission. The department is working to ensure the English skills system supports learners, workers, and employers to prepare for jobs in renewable energy.
The department has provided over £500,000 to support the development of a brand-new Green Skills Energy Hub at the Aylesbury campus of the Buckinghamshire College Group. This facility will increase the number of people entering the construction sector and develop the skills of the workforce, closing the green skills gap within Buckinghamshire. The project includes capital funding for specialist, industry standard equipment, supporting training in renewables including solar power, electric vehicle chargers and heat pump engineering.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is planning to take to monitor training uptake among early years staff for delivery of the revised phonics-based framework.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The writing framework builds on the success of the government’s reading framework and its focus on phonics teaching, which has seen 100,000 more children every year build strong foundations in reading.
The writing framework is the department’s first step in a longer-term strategy to support schools to improve writing teaching and attainment. Given the department’s commitment to a record 75% of children reaching a good level of development at the end of reception by 2028, we encourage schools to prioritise reception year, particularly early literacy skills such as writing.
The writing framework emphasises the important role that reception year plays in building the foundations for writing which supports children throughout primary school and underpins their success at the end of key stage 2. The department has advised that during the 2025/26 academic year, schools should read the writing framework and use the audits to evaluate their current provision and plan improvements.
English Hubs will conduct webinars throughout the 2025/26 academic year, aimed at teachers and subject leads, focusing on the key messages and section summaries of the framework.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions her Department has had with early years providers on the implementation of the new phonics-inspired framework.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The writing framework builds on the success of the government’s reading framework and its focus on phonics teaching, which has seen 100,000 more children every year build strong foundations in reading.
The writing framework is the department’s first step in a longer-term strategy to support schools to improve writing teaching and attainment. Given the department’s commitment to a record 75% of children reaching a good level of development at the end of reception by 2028, we encourage schools to prioritise reception year, particularly early literacy skills such as writing.
The writing framework emphasises the important role that reception year plays in building the foundations for writing which supports children throughout primary school and underpins their success at the end of key stage 2. The department has advised that during the 2025/26 academic year, schools should read the writing framework and use the audits to evaluate their current provision and plan improvements.
English Hubs will conduct webinars throughout the 2025/26 academic year, aimed at teachers and subject leads, focusing on the key messages and section summaries of the framework.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department is providing to help ensure early years providers are included in the Stronger Practice Hubs expansion programme in (a) Buckinghamshire and (b) Milton Keynes.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
As part of the ‘Giving every child the best start in life’ strategy, the department is doubling the number of Stronger Practice Hubs from 18 to 36, securing their future for a further three years, and funding partnerships between nurseries and schools to share evidence-based practice and strengthen links across settings, helping more children have a smooth transition into reception. Nearly 10,000 settings are part of Hub networks as of March 2025, including 72 settings in Buckinghamshire and 13 in Milton Keynes. Support for this region is provided by the Thames Valley and South Central Early Years Stronger Practice Hub based at Blagdon Nursery School, Reading. Contextual information based on geography, provider type and deprivation ranking were considered to ensure an even spread of Stronger Practice Hubs across the country of different provider types and location. We anticipate similar factors to be considered in the expansion of the Stronger Practice Hub programme across all regions, including the South East region, which Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes sit within.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of early years settings in (i) Buckinghamshire and (ii) Milton Keynes currently employing at least one early years teacher.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The early years census workforce data provides responses from private, voluntary and independent early years providers delivering funded entitlements to children aged 2 to 4 years of age. Staff holding Early Years Teacher Status, Early Years Professional Status and Qualified Teacher Status are amalgamated as accredited graduate staff members in this dataset. The department does not hold data on the proportion of early years teachers in these areas in other types of early years settings such as school-based nurseries and childminders.
In 2024, 109 providers in Buckinghamshire (29%) and 7 providers in Milton Keynes (4%), delivering 15-hour entitlement, employed at least one accredited graduate staff member.
In 2024, 97 providers in Buckinghamshire (28%) and 6 providers in Milton Keynes (4%), delivering 30-hour entitlement, employed at least one accredited graduate staff member.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children’s home providers in (a) Milton Keynes and (b) Buckinghamshire meet national staff training requirements on trauma-informed care.
Answered by Janet Daby
The Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and associated statutory guidance ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations including the quality standards’, make it a requirement for children’s homes providers and managers of children’s homes to ensure staff have the necessary knowledge and skills to meet the needs of the children and provide high-quality care. This includes ensuring staff have or are working towards mandatory qualifications and have access to on-going professional development and training, including training on understanding and addressing trauma in children.
Ofsted inspects children’s homes on a regular basis, at least once a year, and reports on the effectiveness of leaders and managers in ensuring staff are qualified, have access to regular training and support, and are competent in their roles.
The government has committed to reviewing qualifications, standards and access to training for the children’s homes workforce, to ensure they are able to meet the needs of children in care.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions her Department has had with (a) Buckinghamshire Council and (b) Milton Keynes City Council on the use of data sharing improvements set out in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department has not held formal bilateral discussions with Buckinghamshire Council or Milton Keynes City Council specifically on the data sharing provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. However, all local authorities as well as multi-agency practitioners, were invited to national webinars held in June and July this year which engaged over 400 practitioners. The department will continue to engage with the sector throughout the implementation of these measures to ensure local perspectives are reflected.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what mechanisms are in place to share safeguarding intelligence between local authorities and law enforcement in cases involving suspected exploitative children’s homes.
Answered by Janet Daby
Although current legislation permits information sharing to safeguard and protect the wellbeing of children, practitioners have told the department that they often only feel confident sharing where there are serious child protection concerns.
As outlined in ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’, the department is taking two important legislative steps to improve how services share information to support children and families more effectively.
Firstly, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill introduces provision in law, paving the way for a consistent identifier to be specified and the organisations required to use it, at a later date, via regulations.
Secondly, the Bill also seeks to put an end to misconceptions about the legal barriers to sharing information, introducing a clear legal basis for sharing information for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.
Ofsted inspect children’s homes once a year and take immediate action where there are safeguarding concerns, working with local authorities to protect children. The department is strengthening Ofsted’s powers via the Bill, introducing provider oversight to complement the existing regulatory regime, enabling Ofsted to act at scale and pace by requiring provider groups to improve quality where Ofsted identify concerns, and take action for non-compliance. The relevant local authorities will be informed.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data the Department holds on the number of children placed in out-of-area care in unregistered settings in (a) Buckinghamshire and (b) Milton Keynes since 2020.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department does not centrally hold information on the number of children looked after in unregistered settings.
The department collects data on children looked after by placement type, such as foster care, children’s home, supported accommodation and those in unregistered accommodation. However, unregistered accommodation placements are reported by local authorities within the category ‘Other’ so cannot be identified separately.
The latest information on children looked after placements, relating to the year ending 31 March 2024 was published on 14 November 2024 in the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions’. This can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions/2024.