Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Spending Review 2025, CP 1336, published on 11 June 2025, what assumptions have been made about spending on (a) special educational needs and disabilities and (b) high needs.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
At the Spending Review 2025, the government announced that funding for schools will increase by £4.7 billion per year by 2028/29, compared to the 2025/26 core schools budget, which was published at the Spring Statement 2025.
This additional funding will enable us to transform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system to make mainstream schools more inclusive, improve outcomes and stop parents having to fight for support.
Details of the government's intended approach to SEND reform will be set out in a Schools White Paper in the autumn. The department will also provide further details on the national funding formulae for schools and high needs for 2026/27.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether (a) history, (b) physical education, (c) Classics, (d) drama and (e) religious education are included in the set of subjects defined as key subjects for the purposes of the commitment to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers in key subjects.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
High quality teaching is the in-school factor that has the biggest positive impact on a child or young person’s outcomes in schools and colleges. This is why the government’s Plan for Change is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools, and in our colleges, over the course of this Parliament.
We recognise that workforce shortages are more acute in some subjects and we have put in place a range of measures to boost recruitment and retention in these areas. We announced a £233 million initial teacher training (ITT) financial incentives package for 2025/26, which includes bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing, where there is a particular need to boost recruitment. The complete list can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt-academic-year-2025-to-2026#postgraduate-bursaries-and-scholarships.
To support retention in key subjects, in 2025/26, the department is offering a targeted retention incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools or teach technical subjects in further education colleges.
The department undertakes regular reviews to ensure we are prioritising the subjects where teachers are needed most, for example through our ITT bursaries, which are reviewed annually to reflect teacher supply need in each subject.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Spending Review 2025, published on 11 June 2025, at what price level the cost of school uniforms will be capped.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The reference to school uniform in my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Spending Review announcement on 11 June, relates to the government’s existing proposals in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to cut the cost of school uniforms by capping the number of compulsory branded uniform items.
School uniforms play an important role in establishing a common sense of identity and school belonging which can be supported by a small number of branded items. However, too many schools require high numbers of branded uniform items. This is why the department has introduced legislation to bring down costs for parents by limiting the amount of branded uniform items schools can require. This will give parents more choice in where to purchase uniform and allow them greater flexibility to make the spending decisions that suit their circumstances.
There are no plans to introduce a financial cap on the cost of school uniform.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the contribution from the apprenticeship levy to level 7 apprenticeships provided by (a) schools, (b) other bodies in the education sector and (c) bodies in the children’s social care sector to apprentices (i) under 21 (ii) over 21 in (A) 2023/24 (B) 2024/25 (C) 2025/26 and (D) 2026/27.
Answered by Janet Daby
The apprenticeship levy is collected by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) from all UK employers with a pay bill above £3 million. HMRC publish overall levy receipts at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.
The department is responsible for apprenticeships in England only. The funding for apprenticeship training comes from the annual protected apprenticeship budget agreed at Spending Reviews. Although closely linked, this is distinct from the total levy income collected and the funds in employer accounts.
The department is therefore not able to provide information about how individual levy contributions link to the amount of the budget that is spent supporting level 7 apprenticeships in specific bodies.
The department publishes official statistics on apprenticeships that include information on apprenticeship starts by sector, level, standard and age at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships/2024-25.
Details of apprenticeship standards by route at level 7 can be found at: https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeships/?levels=7&includeApprovedForDelivery=true.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the contribution from the apprenticeship levy to level 7 apprenticeships provided by (a) the NHS and (b) other bodies in the health and social care sector to apprentices (i) under 21 (ii) over 21 in (A) 2023/24 (B) 2024/25 (C) 2025/26 and (D) 2026/27.
Answered by Janet Daby
The apprenticeship levy is collected by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) from all UK employers with a pay bill above £3 million. HMRC publish overall levy receipts at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.
The department is responsible for apprenticeships in England only. The funding for apprenticeship training comes from the annual protected apprenticeship budget agreed at Spending Reviews. Although closely linked, this is distinct from the total levy income collected and the funds in employer accounts.
The department is therefore not able to provide information about how individual levy contributions link to the amount of the budget that is spent supporting level 7 apprenticeships in specific bodies.
The department publishes official statistics on apprenticeships that include information on apprenticeship starts by sector, level, standard and age at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships/2024-25.
Details of apprenticeship standards by route at level 7 can be found at: https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeships/?levels=7&includeApprovedForDelivery=true.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much (a) set up, (b) other one-off, (c) food, (d) staffing and (e) other operating cost funding has been allocated to schools for school breakfast pilots in total; and what estimate she has made of the (i) number of eligible children and (ii) average number of breakfasts to be taken per eligible child over the period.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government tripled its investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million in the 2025/26 financial year to help ensure children are ready to learn at the start of the school day.
From the start of the 2025 summer term, the first 750 free breakfast clubs with early adopter schools are opening in towns and cities across the country.
Allocated funding covers early adopter food, delivery and staffing costs. It is based on previous breakfast club schemes, and discussions with schools who run breakfast clubs, and standard school staffing rates. All schools have received £500 to cover initial set-up costs and will receive a lump sum of at least £1,000 a term, regardless of how many pupils will be in attendance. Schools will then receive an arrears payment based on the number of pupils who accessed the club, the characteristics of the pupils with and with an additional daily rate for FSM6 pupils at the school. For special schools, there is a daily rate of £3.23 per day per child who attends the club. An average primary school, with 50% take-up, will receive over £23,000 for a full year for an early adopter Breakfast Club more than £21,000 above what was provided to schools under the previous government’s National School Breakfast Programme which failed to cover all food or staffing costs.
One function of the early adopters is to test how schools utilise the funding and how many pupils access the offer. The department has a robust strategy to capture and analyse this data.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the proportion of school costs that is directly related to the number of pupils.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Every year the department publishes the schools’ costs technical note to help the sector to understand school costs and funding. Our analysis considers pupil demographic changes alongside other factors.
The department allocates most mainstream funding through the schools national funding formula (NFF). In the 2025/26 financial year, 92% of total schools NFF funding is being distributed through “pupil led” factors, which are based on pupil numbers and pupil characteristics, such as eligibility for pupil premium and special educational needs and disabilities.
Real terms per pupil comparisons are only one way in which the department communicates funding changes, and schools and local authorities can also see their funding as total cash amounts. The total size of the core schools budget in the 2025/26 financial year is £65.3 billion, a £3.7 billion increase over 2024/25. This represents a 6.0% rise in cash terms, or 3.3% increase in real terms.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations she has received on the effectiveness of the change in the real terms per pupil funding measure as an indicator of growth or otherwise in school budgets when pupil numbers are declining.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Every year the department publishes the schools’ costs technical note to help the sector to understand school costs and funding. Our analysis considers pupil demographic changes alongside other factors.
The department allocates most mainstream funding through the schools national funding formula (NFF). In the 2025/26 financial year, 92% of total schools NFF funding is being distributed through “pupil led” factors, which are based on pupil numbers and pupil characteristics, such as eligibility for pupil premium and special educational needs and disabilities.
Real terms per pupil comparisons are only one way in which the department communicates funding changes, and schools and local authorities can also see their funding as total cash amounts. The total size of the core schools budget in the 2025/26 financial year is £65.3 billion, a £3.7 billion increase over 2024/25. This represents a 6.0% rise in cash terms, or 3.3% increase in real terms.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the proportion of school funding that is directly related to the number of pupils.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Every year the department publishes the schools’ costs technical note to help the sector to understand school costs and funding. Our analysis considers pupil demographic changes alongside other factors.
The department allocates most mainstream funding through the schools national funding formula (NFF). In the 2025/26 financial year, 92% of total schools NFF funding is being distributed through “pupil led” factors, which are based on pupil numbers and pupil characteristics, such as eligibility for pupil premium and special educational needs and disabilities.
Real terms per pupil comparisons are only one way in which the department communicates funding changes, and schools and local authorities can also see their funding as total cash amounts. The total size of the core schools budget in the 2025/26 financial year is £65.3 billion, a £3.7 billion increase over 2024/25. This represents a 6.0% rise in cash terms, or 3.3% increase in real terms.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that internet filtering systems used in education settings are independently accredited.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
All schools and colleges must have regard to ‘Keeping children safe in education’, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2. This guidance already makes clear that schools and colleges should ensure appropriate filtering and monitoring systems are in place and that their effectiveness is regularly reviewed.
The department developed the filtering and monitoring standards to help schools and colleges to understand what they should be doing to keep children safe online. These standards offer support to schools, who can use South-West Grid for Learning’s testing tool to check that, as a minimum, their filtering system is blocking access to illegal child abuse material, unlawful terrorist content, and adult content.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) provide lists of illegal websites that filtering providers can block as part of their service, known as blocklists. Schools and colleges must make sure these blocklists are included with their filtering solutions.
To further support schools, the department has launched ‘Plan technology for your school’ which allows schools to self-assess their filtering and monitoring provision against the standards and make strategic decisions about how to improve their provision. This can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/plan-technology-for-your-school.
The department will continue to work with the providers, including filtering and monitoring providers, and the wider sector, to understand how we can best support them.