Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the SEND system on (a) family wellbeing, (b) employment and (c) mental health.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The current system for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is failing too many children and too many families. Improving the life chances of children and young people with SEND is the first priority for these reforms, in turn also improving their employment prospects and mental health. Every child deserves a high-quality, inclusive education, and families should not have to battle the system for this.
The SEND consultation ran for 12 weeks and closed in May. We are carefully considering all responses, and we will continue to engage on our proposals. We will publish a response to the consultation in due course and bring forward legislation at the earliest opportunity as set out in the King’s Speech.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what comparative assessment he has made of levels of funding allocated to (a) mayoral combined authority areas and (b) non-mayoral local authority areas.
Answered by Nesil Caliskan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We have not made a direct comparative assessment of all levels of funding allocated to Mayoral Strategic Authorities and non-mayoral local authorities. All funding information is published online through the “Local authority capital expenditure and receipts” and “Local authority revenue expenditure and financing” collection.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that public procurement processes are (a) accessible and (b) proportionate for organisations in the VCSE sector.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is determined to ensure the £400 billion of public money spent on public procurement annually, delivers economic growth and supports small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs).
Government departments are now required to set 2 year targets and action plans for direct spend with VCSEs and publish annual progress updates. Those falling behind will be expected to set out robust actions for improvement.
On the 26th March I announced wider reforms to improve procurements for VCSEs, including that we intend to introduce a new definition of social value, which will re-focus social value on local communities and businesses, such as SMEs and VCSEs.
Alongside this, we will introduce a new list of national and regional community schemes which will help these smaller suppliers contribute to identified social value priority areas without needing to establish their own programmes of work, and a social value Key Performance Indicator (KPI) which will improve transparency and mean suppliers and contracting authorities can be held accountable for achieving their social value goals.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what oversight Ofwat exercises to ensure that unmetered fixed charges set by water companies are proportionate and do not disadvantage low‑occupancy and low‑usage households.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working to make the charging system for water fairer in England. Unmetered charges for households are based on rateable values, which the Valuation Office has not updated since 1990. To provide greater billing fairness to household customers the Government is supporting the water industry to move unmetered customers over to metered charging, which will provide more accurate billing based on a customer’s usage. To maximise the benefits customers will get from metering, the Government is supporting regulators and the water companies to deliver approximately 10.4 million smart meters over 2025-30. This rollout involves all water companies in England, including Severn Trent.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy and transparency of unmetered fixed charges set by water companies, including Severn Trent Water.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working to make the charging system for water fairer in England. Unmetered charges for households are based on rateable values, which the Valuation Office has not updated since 1990. To provide greater billing fairness to household customers the Government is supporting the water industry to move unmetered customers over to metered charging, which will provide more accurate billing based on a customer’s usage. To maximise the benefits customers will get from metering, the Government is supporting regulators and the water companies to deliver approximately 10.4 million smart meters over 2025-30. This rollout involves all water companies in England, including Severn Trent.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department is supporting schools to meet SEND needs where specialist placements are unavailable or inappropriate.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
From September, the government is providing upfront investment for schools, colleges and early years providers to intervene early in meeting the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), through our inclusive mainstream fund worth £1.6 billion over three years. Over time this will be supported through the development of National Inclusion Standards, enabling teachers to draw on evidence-based strategies to identify and support children and young people with additional needs.
In addition, every local area is being funded to create a new Experts at Hand service, providing mainstream education settings with access to healthcare professionals like speech and language therapists and education experts such as educational psychologists to work directly with children and support staff to put in place appropriate support and interventions.
We will roll out a new national training programme supporting educators to identify and respond to children’s needs backed by £200 million investment, to train staff across nurseries, schools and colleges with the first wave of training materials coming online from September.
This is supported by investment to create an additional 60,000 school places for children with SEND through inclusion bases, new special or alternative provision school places and adaptations to mainstream, ensuring appropriate education facilities for all our children.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding is available for ongoing professional development in SEND for teachers and support staff, and whether this provision meets demand.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s core professional development offer, including Initial Teacher Training, the Early Career Framework, and national professional qualifications for leaders and Special Educational Needs Coordinators, is grounded in the latest evidence, reviewed by the Education Endowment Foundation and developed with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) experts to support effective practice.
We are investing over £200 million across this parliament to ensure that all teachers, educators, teaching assistants, support staff and leaders in every school, college and nursery are trained to support pupils with SEND. A further £1.6 billion of additional funding will be provided to mainstream settings over three years through the inclusive mainstream fund, to take meaningful steps to improve everyday support for pupils with SEND. This significant investment forms a central part of our SEND reform plans to ensure effective support for children and young people from early years to age 25.
Many practitioners already engage in SEND training, and this investment will extend access to high-quality professional development to more staff. We recognise the importance of ensuring provision keeps pace with workforce needs and are focused on both expanding access and maintaining quality.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will take steps to bring back into use the vacant Duke of Bridgewater pub on the Crown Estate in Stoke-on-Trent North constituency.
Answered by James Murray - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This property is subject to escheat, meaning it is effectively ownerless. The only action that the Crown Estate may take in relation to such property is to dispose of it to an appropriate person or body.
The Crown Estate is currently in touch with Stoke-on-Trent City Council regarding proposed future disposals of the property.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of the condition of local roads in Staffordshire.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department published a new traffic light rating system for all local highway authorities in England on 11 January which rates authorities red, amber or green based on the condition of their roads, how effectively they spend their record Government funding, and whether they do so using best practice. This system allows the Government to identify where authorities need to improve and to provide them with support to ensure road conditions improve nationwide.
Staffordshire County Council received an overall amber rating. Its three scorecards show amber for condition, green for spend, and amber for wider best practice.
The Government recognises that the condition of local roads has been affected by historic underinvestment. To address this, it has committed a record £7.3 billion for local highways maintenance over the next four years, in addition to £1.6 billion provided in the last financial year. This longer-term funding provides authorities with greater certainty to plan ahead and move from short-term repairs to more proactive and preventative maintenance.
Asked by: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the health and care needs of young people with SEND in Stoke-on-Trent North and Kidsgrove are identified and met in a timely and effective manner.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
The Government has published ambitious special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms, supporting the treatment to prevention shift in the 10-Year Health Plan and its focus on early intervention, to prevent needs escalating. Close partnership working at all levels is crucial to delivering these reforms and transforming outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board works closely with the Staffordshire County Council, which Kidsgrove is in, and the Stoke-on-Trent City Council, alongside the National Health Service, and education and voluntary sector partners, to meet the wide range of assessed health and care needs of children and young people with SEND.
The system partnership continues to prioritise SEND and is working collaboratively to improve access, capacity, and the timeliness of support across the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB. This includes working closely with providers to understand pressures within existing services and current waiting times, targeted work to instigate improvements in specific services, and developing more effective joint commissioning across health, education, and local authorities, particularly in relation to speech and language therapy services.