Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to decarbonise schools in South Suffolk constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the hon. Member for South Suffolk to the answer of 22 April 2025 to Question 45368.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has plans to establish a new framework for independent institutions.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department expects independent educational institutions to be regulated under the same framework which exists for independent schools under Part 4 of Chapter 1 of the Education and Skills Act 2008.
The department keeps policy regarding independent educational institutions under review to ensure that appropriate action can be taken to provide the best education and opportunities for all children and young people.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support the well-being of children returning to school following a period of home education in South Suffolk constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Supporting the wellbeing of children in schools is central to their ability to achieve and thrive. That is why the department encourages schools to ensure a calm, orderly, safe and supportive environment where all pupils want to be are ready to learn. The department also provides a range of guidance and practical resources on promoting and supporting pupils’ wellbeing, including a resources hub for mental health leads and a toolkit to help choose evidence-based early support for pupils.
The information that local authorities will collect through the Children Not in School statutory registers, which the department are introducing under the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, will help to build a clearer picture of the child’s individual needs and circumstances and enable the local authority or school to provide the tailored support required to best meet those needs.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill also introduces a duty on local authorities to provide advice and information to parents of children on their registers, should the parents request it.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to tackle persistent absences in secondary schools in South Suffolk.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is determined to tackle the generational challenge of school absence. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, which limits their opportunity to succeed. There is evidence that more students are attending school this year compared to last, thanks to the sector’s efforts, although 1.6 million children remain persistently absent, missing 10% or more of lessons.
The department has a national approach to supporting all schools to tackle absence, including those in the South Suffolk constituency. Central to this approach is stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance which was made statutory on 19 August 2024 and can be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf. The guidance promotes a 'support first' approach, encouraging schools, trusts and local authorities to work with families in addressing attendance barriers.
Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard which is maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.
The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities within the sector to share existing best practice on how to improve attendance. This is why the government set up a network of 31 attendance hubs, who have offered support to 2,000 schools and shared their strategies and resources for improving attendance.
In addition to this work, the department is improving the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.
The department recently announced that new regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams will support all state schools by facilitating networking, sharing best practice across areas, and empowering schools to better access support and learn from one another. Improving school attendance is one of four national priorities for RISE teams.
School attendance is also supported by broader investments, such as funded breakfast clubs across all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn.
The department will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.
Schools can also allocate pupil premium funding, which has now increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs to attend school regularly.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of SEND funding in South Suffolk.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) 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. Together with additional funding for schools’ increased National Insurance contributions costs announced recently, this brings total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to over £12 billion. Of that total, Suffolk County Council is being allocated over £124 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £10.3 million on the 2024/25 DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF). This NFF allocation is an 9% 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) in the 2025/26 financial year. This CSBG continues the separate grants payable in 2024/25, which are to help special schools and alternative provision with the costs of teachers’ pay and pension increases and other staff pay increases, as well as the additional funding in respect of the increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions. The department plans to publish individual local authorities’ allocations of this funding for 2025/26 in May 2025.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to extend the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund beyond 31 March 2025.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the hon. Member for South Suffolk to the answer of 29 January 2025 to Question 26025.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to continue the previous Government’s (a) plans and (b) timetable for delivering a new school building at Ormiston Sudbury Academy.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The building project for Ormiston Sudbury Academy is in the procurement stage of the process. The project team is working with the school and contractor and the planning submission is on track to be submitted by the end of the year. Works are estimated to start in summer 2025 with a planned handover around 2028.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) teachers, (b) pupils and (c) other members of school staff who have been attending or working at school in England since 1 June 2020 have tested positive for covid-19 since that date.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Please note that the Department does not hold the information in the format required. The latest national data on pupil attendance in educational establishments since 23 March was published on Tuesday 16 June at the following link and covers data up to Thursday 11 June:
The data is collected from individual education establishments and the published figures include estimates for non-response.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to improve SEND provision in Suffolk; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
Our ambition is for every local authority and Clinical Commissioning Group to deliver a high-quality service for every child or young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission conduct inspections of SEND services in local areas. Their inspection of Suffolk published in 2017 and subsequent revisit published in 2019 found strengths and improvements over time, but there remained a number of areas of significant weakness where sufficient progress had not been made.
Where we have concerns with performance, as there are with Suffolk, the Department for Education works with partners, including NHS England, to support and challenge local areas to improve. This includes regular advice and monitoring from the Department for Education and NHS England advisers as well as access to funded training opportunities and resources. Whilst there is more to be done, we welcome the progress being made and will continue to monitor the position closely.
In addition, in 2020-21, Suffolk will be receiving £74.9 million for its high needs budget, an increase of 17% per head of population aged 2-18 years old.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the degree to which standards are adequately and continuously assessed by OFSTED at schools where the most recent inspection was outstanding; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
I wrote to Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, on 3 December setting out the Department’s position regarding the inspection of outstanding schools. A copy of this letter is attached.
Outstanding schools are exempt from routine Ofsted inspection but continue to be risk assessed annually. Ofsted has the power to inspect any school at any time if there are concerns about the quality of provision or safety of pupils.