Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what specialist support is available to adoptive parents of children with experience of trauma.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This financial year, the department has invested £50 million in the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund, giving adopted and kinship children access to therapeutic services that stabilise placements and offer specialist support to both adoptive children and parents.
The department has approved applications for nearly 14,000 children since April, for both therapy and specialist assessments.
In addition, the department is providing £3 million this year to Adoption England to develop more multidisciplinary teams in Regional Adoption Agencies. These joint teams, working with local health partners, enable families to receive holistic and high quality support.
Adoption England is also working with Adoption Support and Local Authority Children’s ‘front door services’ to develop a much more joined-up approach to how services engage with families. The aim is to agree a protocol on collaboration so that families receive a far stronger range of support.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the decision to reduce the therapy limit for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund on children using that fund.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government made the difficult decision to cut the fair access limit in April to ensure that the fund remained financially sustainable and available to help as many children and their families as possible. As a result, this year the department has helped 14,000 children. This financial year we have invested £50 million into the adoption and special guardianship support fund. We have approved applications for nearly 14,000 children since April, for both therapy and specialist assessments. We continue to review the impact of the changes to funding made in April 2025.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2025 to Question 66249 on Pupil Exclusions, whether parents will retain their ability to hold local authorities and schools to account through the EHCP procedure and its safeguards.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
There will always be a legal right to additional support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to ensure they are supported throughout their education and into adult life.
As we have set out, the department intends to retain the SEND tribunal. Any changes we make will improve support for children and parents, stop parents from having to fight for support, and protect provision currently in place.
As part of our Plan for Change, we will restore the confidence of families up and down the country and deliver the improvement they are crying out for so every child can achieve and thrive.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2025 to Question 66249 on Pupil Exclusions, what her planned timetable is for her Department's changes to data collection to be made.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The proposed changes to the data collection, aimed at strengthening the oversight and monitoring of all exclusion through the school census, will require legislative amendments. As such they are subject to parliamentary procedure and are expected to come into effect for the 2026/27 academic year.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of disabled children not reinstated in school when an independent review panel has quashed a permanent exclusion.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The department does not collect the pupil characteristics data for reinstated when an Independent Review Panel (IRP) has quashed a permanent exclusion.
The department is taking action to strengthen the oversight and monitoring of all exclusion data collected through the school census, particularly for pupils who may be disproportionately affected by exclusion. This includes strengthening the monitoring of IRP decisions, with a stronger focus on the reinstatement of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to make changes to the collection of data in relation to (a) suspensions and (b) permanent exclusions in England.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The department does not collect the pupil characteristics data for reinstated when an Independent Review Panel (IRP) has quashed a permanent exclusion.
The department is taking action to strengthen the oversight and monitoring of all exclusion data collected through the school census, particularly for pupils who may be disproportionately affected by exclusion. This includes strengthening the monitoring of IRP decisions, with a stronger focus on the reinstatement of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to renew the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
Answered by Janet Daby
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Liverpool Walton to the answer of 29 January 2025 to Question 26025.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to increase the number of children and young people reading for pleasure.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Liverpool Walton to the answer of 14 February 2025 to Question 29850.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of funding for SEND provision in (a) Liverpool and (b) England.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion in England. Of that total, Liverpool City Council is being allocated over £103 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), which is an increase of £10 million on this year’s DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF). This NFF allocation is an 10% increase per head of their 2 to 18-year-old population, on their equivalent 2024/25 NFF allocation.
In addition to the DSG, local authorities will also receive a separate core schools budget grant (CSBG), and funding in respect of the increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions, in 2025/26. This CSBG continues the separate grants payable this year, which are to help special schools and alternative provision with the costs of teachers’ pay and pension increases, and other staff pay increases. Individual local authorities’ allocations for both grants for 2025/26 will be published in due course.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of library provision in primary schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
School libraries complement public libraries by giving pupils access to a range of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school. The national curriculum states that teachers are expected to encourage pupils to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. There are a number of strong links between reading for pleasure and attainment. For example, the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study report found a 34 point difference in reading performance between pupils in England who “very much” liked reading and pupils who “do not” like reading. Additionally, the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment study found that enjoyment of reading links to pupils’ reading engagement, and that reading engagement was strongly positively correlated with reading performance. There is also a strong evidence base linking reading for pleasure to other positive effects, such as improved text comprehension and grammar, increased general knowledge and character development.
It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian. Headteachers have autonomy to decide how best to spend the core schools funding that is allocated to them by the department. The Autumn Budget 2024 announced an additional £2.3 billion for schools for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25, bringing the total core schools budget to almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26.
Given this autonomy, the department does not collect information on the number of school libraries or school librarians. There are currently no plans to make it a statutory requirement for primary schools to have a library, although we will continue to keep this matter under review.
The government’s reading framework offers non-statutory guidance for teachers and school leaders, including helpful guidance for schools on how to organise their school library, book corner or book stock to make reading accessible and attractive to readers.