Jess Brown-Fuller

The department provides funding for the Music and Dance Scheme (MDS) for means-tested bursaries for 11 to 19 year-olds and the Dance and Drama Awards (DaDA) means-tested grants for 16 to 19 year-olds to improve access to specialist dance education. These routes give students training at professional level in contemporary dance and classical ballet, and the funding is targeted towards those from lower income households.

Dance is an important part of our creative industries. The creative industries have been announced as one of eight growth-driving sectors within the Industrial Strategy published in the summer, alongside the Creative Industries’ Sector Plan.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review is considering dance as part of the physical education (PE) national curriculum, and the Review’s final report and government response will be published in the autumn.

The department will launch a new National Centre for Arts and Music Education next year, to promote high quality arts education in schools, including in dance. We will also support dance teaching as part of PE through the new PE and School Sport Partnerships.

The department provides funding for the Music and Dance Scheme (MDS) for means-tested bursaries for 11 to 19 year-olds and the Dance and Drama Awards (DaDA) means-tested grants for 16 to 19 year-olds to improve access to specialist dance education. These routes give students training at professional level in contemporary dance and classical ballet, and the funding is targeted towards those from lower income households.

Dance is an important part of our creative industries. The creative industries have been announced as one of eight growth-driving sectors within the Industrial Strategy published in the summer, alongside the Creative Industries’ Sector Plan.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review is considering dance as part of the physical education (PE) national curriculum, and the Review’s final report and government response will be published in the autumn.

The department will launch a new National Centre for Arts and Music Education next year, to promote high quality arts education in schools, including in dance. We will also support dance teaching as part of PE through the new PE and School Sport Partnerships.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has responsibility for children and young people at Cabinet.

Mobile phones have no place in our schools.

Schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones and other smart technology with similar functionality to mobile phones throughout the school day, including during lessons, the time between lessons, breaktimes and lunchtime, as set out in the ‘Mobile phones in schools’ guidance, published in 2024.

The department expects all schools to take steps in line with this guidance to ensure mobile phones do not disrupt pupils’ learning.

Research from the Children’s Commissioner, with responses from nearly all schools and colleges in England, shows that the overwhelming majority of schools, 99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools, already have policies in place that limit or restrict the use of mobile phones during the school day.

As at 4 September 2025, the number of unresolved cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) cases has been reduced to 433 from 3,062 at the end of October 2024. This includes recent CETV applications and as such there will always be a number of outstanding CETV cases at any given time.

The scheme administrator is now working through the most complex cases for members who have retired. These cases can currently only be processed clerically and the estimated calculation times are between 20 and 65 hours per case. Therefore, the department is funding IT changes for the scheme administrator that are expected to significantly reduce calculation times.

This issue remains a top priority for the department and the scheme administrator, and the above actions are currently expected to result in the delayed CETVs being fully cleared by spring 2026.

​​I refer the hon. Member for Chichester to the answer of 1 August 2025 to Question 61402.

High and rising standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best life chances.

A high-quality curriculum and assessment system is key to ensuring that every child receives an excellent education, which includes providing a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative mathematics curriculum.

The Review is specifically considering how to remove existing blocks to progress and ensure good outcomes for children and young people, including those who are from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, and those who have a special educational need or disability.

During its ongoing work, the Review Group are seeking to address the challenges in particular subjects, including the mathematics curriculum, enabling all students to master high-quality content.

The Review’s final report and recommendations will be published in the autumn.

On 7 July, the government published ‘Giving every child the Best Start in Life’, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/giving-every-child-the-best-start-in-life. This outlines the government’s commitment to deliver a new Best Start Family Service to bring together parenting, healthcare and education support services, as well as creating and funding Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority to give children the best start in life by strengthening and joining up family services. The department will provide over half a billion pounds of investment in the Best Start Family Service over the 2026/29 spending review period.

Best Start Family Hubs will provide both universal and targeted support, with open-access activities and referral routes for families with complex needs. They will bring together professionals from health, education, early years, and community services, prioritising delivery in areas of disadvantage, where families face the greatest barriers to support. Each Best Start Family Hub will have a children and family services professional specifically trained in working to support inclusion for children with additional needs.

On 7 July, the government published ‘Giving every child the Best Start in Life’, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/giving-every-child-the-best-start-in-life. This outlines the government’s commitment to deliver a new Best Start Family Service to bring together parenting, healthcare and education support services, as well as creating and funding Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority to give children the best start in life by strengthening and joining up family services. The department will provide over half a billion pounds of investment in the Best Start Family Service over the 2026/29 spending review period.

Best Start Family Hubs will provide both universal and targeted support, with open-access activities and referral routes for families with complex needs. They will bring together professionals from health, education, early years, and community services, prioritising delivery in areas of disadvantage, where families face the greatest barriers to support. Each Best Start Family Hub will have a children and family services professional specifically trained in working to support inclusion for children with additional needs.

All education settings have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people. Part 6 of the Equality Act outlines that schools must make reasonable adjustments, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services for disabled children, to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage.

The government announced £740 million of high needs capital for the 2025/26 financial year to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and/or who are in alternative provision. This funding can be used to adapt classrooms to better meet the needs of all children, including the provision of sensory equipment within mainstream schools, alongside continuing to provide and adapt spaces to support pupils with the most complex needs in special schools. Local authorities may additionally wish to consider using this funding to invest in assistive technology interventions as a means of supporting pupils in mainstream schools.

The last local area SEND inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission for West Sussex was in November 2023, which found inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The department’s regional team has put in place systems to track outcomes against the five areas for improvement highlighted by the report, including one area specific to the sufficiency of high quality provision, and the progress made by children and young people with SEND.

The department wants to ensure that, where required, education, health and care (EHC) plan assessments are progressed promptly and, if needed, plans are issued as quickly as possible so that children and young people can access the support they need.

Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to assess whether children and young people have special educational needs that require an EHC plan. Plans must be issued within twenty weeks of the needs assessment commencing so that children and young people can access the support they need.

The department continues to monitor and work closely with local authorities that have issues with EHC plan timeliness. Where there are concerns about a local authority’s capacity to make the required improvements, we help them to identify the barriers to this and put in place an effective recovery plan. This includes, where needed, securing a specialist special educational needs adviser.

In the 2023 calendar year, 50.3% of new EHC plans were issued within twenty weeks. This is a slight increase compared to 2022, when the figure was 49.2%.

I refer the hon. Member for Chichester to the answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43275.

The new criteria for the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) will enable as many children and families as possible to access the available funding. The department always assesses the impact of changes on vulnerable children. The changes were finalised during Parliamentary recess and the announcement was made during recess to allow the fund to open and minimise further delays to children waiting for therapy. A written statement was laid on Parliament’s first day back after recess.

By 31 March 2025, the ASGSF had spent all its allocated budget.

The new criteria for the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) will enable as many children and families as possible to access the available funding. The department always assesses the impact of changes on vulnerable children. The changes were finalised during Parliamentary recess and the announcement was made during recess to allow the fund to open and minimise further delays to children waiting for therapy. A written statement was laid on Parliament’s first day back after recess.

By 31 March 2025, the ASGSF had spent all its allocated budget.

The department will shortly confirm final budgets for the 2025/26 academic year and is in touch with providers concerning this.

For the 2024/25 academic year, the department adjusted the Music and Dance Scheme bursary contribution for families with a relevant income below £45,000 to account for the VAT introduction from January 2025. This methodology will be reviewed for future years and details will be set out in due course.

For the 2024/25 academic year, the department adjusted the Music and Dance Scheme bursary contribution for families with a relevant income below £45,000 to account for the VAT introduction from January 2025. This methodology will be reviewed for future years and details will be set out in due course.

The government is fully committed to delivering the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) as set out in the Autumn Budget 2024. From the LLE’s launch in January 2027, the Office for Students (OfS) will regulate all providers offering LLE-funded provision.

The OfS has made clear that they expect to restart work on registrations, degree awarding powers and university titles in August 2025, although the changes will remain under review until then. The department understands the OfS will keep providers updated throughout this period about their plans, including confirming application arrangements from August onwards. As the independent regulator, it is for the OfS to process registrations in the manner they deem most appropriate.

The government will continue to engage closely with the OfS and providers to support timely transition arrangements for the launch of the LLE. The government, together with the OfS, will provide further information on the regulation of providers under the LLE in spring 2025.

I refer the hon. Member for Chichester to the answer of 28 March 2025 to Question 36314.

Additional supplementary funding is provided to local authorities for maintained nursery schools (MNS) in their areas. In the 2025/26 financial year, the initial budget for MNS supplementary funding is £92.6 million, subject to final budget update. The national average hourly rate for MNS supplementary funding in financial year 2025/26 is £5.90, the minimum supplementary funding rate is £5.27 and the cap on the hourly rate is £10.

Changes to the MNS supplementary funding formula were made in the 2023/24 financial year including an additional £10 million investment and an introduction of a minimum hourly funding rate to distribute funding evenly across all local authorities with MNS. At present, there are no plans to review the formula beyond this.

Implementing a unique ID for every child has been regularly cited as a potential solution to bring together data on children’s interactions with different services. The government’s manifesto for the 2024 election included a commitment to this end (on page 81) and the government is committed to improving data sharing across services, with a single unique identifier, to better support children and families.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, currently before Parliament, introduces a legal provision for a consistent identifier to be specified and the organisations required to use it, to be determined later through regulations. Alongside this, the department will initiate a pilot to establish how a consistent identifier can be effectively implemented.

The Bill also includes provisions for compulsory ‘Children Not in School’ registers in each local authority area in England. While the introduction of these registers does not depend on a consistent identifier, it may enhance data linking, which the department will explore through future piloting.

The government remains committed to giving all Ukrainians in the UK the same access to education as enjoyed by UK citizens.

Persons granted leave under one of the Ukraine Schemes, including the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme, have access to higher education (HE) student support and home fee status on the same basis as those within other protection-based categories, such as refugees.

Support on applying to HE courses can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/higher-education-courses-find-and-apply, where students can explore a range of resources to help them apply to UK HE providers.

Organisations such as the UK Council for International Student Affairs also provide extensive information and support for Ukrainian students wishing to study in the UK, including a student advice line.

The government remains committed to giving all Ukrainians in the UK the same access to education as enjoyed by UK citizens.

Persons granted leave under one of the Ukraine Schemes, including the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme, have access to higher education (HE) student support and home fee status on the same basis as those within other protection-based categories, such as refugees.

Support on applying to HE courses can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/higher-education-courses-find-and-apply, where students can explore a range of resources to help them apply to UK HE providers.

Organisations such as the UK Council for International Student Affairs also provide extensive information and support for Ukrainian students wishing to study in the UK, including a student advice line.

Violence towards children and abuse of children are never acceptable. There are laws in place to protect children against this.

Wales is in the process of reviewing the impact of removing the defence of reasonable chastisement and the UK Government expects that the Welsh Government will publish their findings by the end of this year. Ministers in the department will want to consider this evidence, with other government ministers, ahead of deciding whether a change to the law is required.

​The involvement of education and childcare agencies is fundamental at all levels of safeguarding arrangements. The department knows that teachers and educators are often the first to spot warning signs of abuse and neglect and are the largest referrer of cases into children’s social care, after the police.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which the government introduced into the House of Commons in December of last year, will place a duty on safeguarding partners to automatically include education and childcare settings in their safeguarding arrangements. The duty on safeguarding partners will ensure education is consistently involved in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements across England. It will include include all education and childcare agencies, at both operational and strategic levels of their safeguarding arrangements, so they have a clear role in safeguarding locally.

​These measures include all education settings, covering early years and childcare settings through to schools, colleges and alternative provision, so that opportunities to keep children safe are not missed.

This legislation enables the voice of education to influence the decisions of safeguarding partners and recognises the key role that education plays in keeping children safe.

Children’s wellbeing and safety, including reducing violence against women and girls, is a key priority for this government. A robust safeguarding framework is in place that schools and colleges must have regard to in the form of keeping children safe in education (KCSIE).

This guidance is clear that every school must have a designated safeguarding lead (DSL) who should take lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection. Annex C of the guidance sets out the role and expectations placed on DSLs.

The department does not prescribe the training and accreditation that DSLs should receive. However, DSLs are required to undergo the training needed to provide them with the knowledge and skills required to carry out their role effectively within their school and community context. This includes how to identify, understand and respond to the specific needs that increase the vulnerability of children, as well as the many specific harms that put children at risk, which includes violence against women and girls.

Education can be a significant protective factor for children who are vulnerable, either as victims and/or perpetrators of violence against women and girls. KCSIE requires schools to implement whole-school behaviour policies to reduce incidents of violence, put pastoral support in place to support both victims and perpetrators of violence, and to ensure that all school staff understand their role within their local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements in escalating concerns about children to local authority services.

In July 2024, my Right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced a short pause to the defunding of qualifications to enable a review of post-16 qualification reforms at level 3 and below. This was followed by a Written Ministerial Statement by my noble Friend, the Minister for Skills, on 25 July. This statement is available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-07-25/hlws20.

The department is now working to review the defunding due to take place in 2025 and it will set out the position before Christmas.

The department has not announced any defunding for 2026.