Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 77869 on Teachers: Disclosure of Information, whether her Department plans to consider the experiences of teachers subject to non‑disclosure agreements in settlement contracts when developing the conditions to be set out in forthcoming regulations.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
School leaders are best placed to make staffing decisions to ensure the workforce reflects the needs of their pupils. That is why schools are provided the freedom to manage employment of all their staff. The department is not the employer of any school staff.
Where school employers use settlement agreements, they are required to comply with employment law. Settlement agreements are entirely voluntary, and employees do not have to enter into them if they do not agree with the proposed content. Academy trusts must comply with the Academies Financial Handbook if they are considering making a settlement agreement. The handbook can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-handbook.
Settlement agreements often include a confidentiality clause, however, the law is clear that confidentiality clauses cannot be used to prevent someone from making a protected disclosure, such as whistleblowing. Further information about whistle blowing for employees can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/whistleblowing.
In addition, the government has introduced a new measure, through the Employment Rights Act 2025, that will address the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) by employers. The government will consult on the conditions under which NDAs can still be validly made, known in the legislation as an ‘excepted agreement’.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support schools with provisions for wraparound care.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
This government is committed to providing a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged children. So far, we have delivered 2.6 million breakfasts and offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country. Following the success of the early adopters, and as the first phase of national rollout, we are investing a further £80 million into the programme to fund an additional 2,000 schools between April 2026 and March 2027. Since September 2024, over 50,000 additional full childcare places have also been made available to families through the National Wraparound Programme.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that schools do not use non-disclosure agreements to require teachers to take settlement agreements.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
No staff member should ever be pressured into leaving their job. Headteachers have the freedom to manage employment at their schools in accordance with the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document guidance for maintained schools and relevant employment law for all schools.
In addition, the government is taking action to ensure that non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) cannot be used to take unfair advantage of workers. For example, the Employment Rights Bill now includes a measure that will void any provision in an agreement, such as a contract of employment or settlement agreement, between a worker and their employer that prevents a worker from speaking out about relevant harassment or discrimination. The government intends to outline strict conditions in regulations under which NDAs can still be validly entered into.
We are also taking significant steps to reduce pressure on teachers and therefore increase teacher retention. Our ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service contains a range of supportive resources for schools to review and reduce workload, as well as improve staff wellbeing. This year saw one of the lowest leaver rates since 2010, with 1,300 fewer teachers leaving the state-funded sector.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that teachers are not pressured into leaving the profession.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
No staff member should ever be pressured into leaving their job. Headteachers have the freedom to manage employment at their schools in accordance with the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document guidance for maintained schools and relevant employment law for all schools.
In addition, the government is taking action to ensure that non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) cannot be used to take unfair advantage of workers. For example, the Employment Rights Bill now includes a measure that will void any provision in an agreement, such as a contract of employment or settlement agreement, between a worker and their employer that prevents a worker from speaking out about relevant harassment or discrimination. The government intends to outline strict conditions in regulations under which NDAs can still be validly entered into.
We are also taking significant steps to reduce pressure on teachers and therefore increase teacher retention. Our ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service contains a range of supportive resources for schools to review and reduce workload, as well as improve staff wellbeing. This year saw one of the lowest leaver rates since 2010, with 1,300 fewer teachers leaving the state-funded sector.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the children of parents who have relocated to the UK are able to obtain funding to enrol at UK universities.
Answered by Janet Daby
Generally, to be eligible for student support a student must be ordinarily resident in England and have ‘settled’ status or a recognised connection with the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course. They must also have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) for the three years prior to that date.
It is important that the limited public funds available for student support are targeted on those categories of persons with a lawful and substantial residential connection to the UK and who are likely to remain indefinitely.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether there is an external right of appeal for people who believe they have been discriminated against when applying for doctorates at universities in the UK.
Answered by Janet Daby
Higher education providers (HEPs) are autonomous from government and are responsible for their own admissions decisions. The department has no legal remit to become involved in disputes between prospective students and their university.
Responsibility for handling applicant complaints and/or appeals, in the first instance, is a matter for the relevant HEP and each university has formal complaints and appeal processes.
If a complainant has exhausted the official process and the matter has not been resolved to their satisfaction, they are free to consider bringing a claim for judicial review or for discrimination under the Equality Act.
Another route available to dissatisfied applicants is through the higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS). While the OfS cannot become involved in individual complaints, applicants can notify the OfS if they think that a university has broken its conditions of registration.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to review the age cap on funding for (a) Level 6 and (b) Level 7 apprenticeships.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government has a driving mission to break down barriers to opportunity.
From January 2026 the government will no longer fund level 7 apprenticeships except for young apprentices under the age of 22. This will enable apprenticeships opportunities to be rebalanced towards young people and create more opportunities for those entering the labour market, who need skills and training to get on in their careers.
Level 6 apprenticeships will continue to be funded for all ages (16+) by the government.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria her Department is using to allocate funding for school solar panel installation; and what steps she is taking to ensure that the most energy-inefficient school buildings are prioritised.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This £80 million partnership programme between the department and Great British Energy is targeting 200 schools and colleges in the 2025/26 academic year.
There will be a cluster of around 45 schools in each of the North West, North East and West Midlands, selected based on deprivation levels and other factors such as roof capacity. Each cluster will also include a further education college which will work with the contractors appointed to promote careers in renewables to support growth in the construction and renewables workforce. There will also be a minimum of ten schools in each of the government office regions to ensure some regional spread.
This is just one element of the department’s strategy to ensure that the school estate is sustainable. We are providing support for all schools and colleges to get started on their journey towards net zero via our new online ‘Sustainability Support for Education’ platform and our climate ambassador programme.