Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with relevant stakeholders on opening Technical Excellence Colleges in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle, (d) the North East and (e) England.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is introducing technical excellence colleges (TECs) to specialise in training skilled workforces which industry needs in growth-driving priority sectors. Ten construction TECs were appointed in August 2025, with one in each of the nine English regions and the tenth with a cross-regional remit. The department has engaged with North East Mayoral Combined Authority and Tees Valley Combined Authority throughout the process of appointing Sunderland College as the CTEC for the North East. Additionally, officials have engaged more widely with strategic authorities, trade bodies such as the Construction Industry Training Board, and membership organisations such as the Association of Colleges. The department will take a similar approach with the selection of the next wave of TECs in defence, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and digital and technologies.
The selection process for these TECs will start by the end of 2025, with delivery planned to begin from April 2026. Further details will be published in due course.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support young people into education in (a) Hexham constituency, (b) Northumberland, (c) Newcastle, (d) the North East and (e) England.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
On 20 October, we published the Post-16 education and skills white paper, outlining reforms to build a world-class skills system and support young people into education and training. This includes a target for two-thirds of young people to participate in higher-level learning (academic, technical, or apprenticeships) by age 25.
A new Youth Guarantee will support young people to access to education, training, or provide help into work or an apprenticeship. Eight trailblazer areas are testing ways to help those at risk of becoming not in education, employment, or training.
The department will invest nearly £800 million more in 16 to 19 education in 2026/27, helping support high quality teacher recruitment and retention. We will also pilot an automatic guaranteed provider place for all 16-year-olds.
We will introduce targeted, means-tested maintenance grants before the end of this parliament to help students from low-income backgrounds progress onto higher education courses that support our missions and Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking through Young Futures Hubs to help tackle violence against women and girls.
Answered by Janet Daby
The government has set an ambitious target to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. To achieve this, we plan to reduce the current levels of offending and reoffending and prevent abuse from happening altogether.
This focus on prevention also sits at the heart of the Young Futures programme, which will establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures prevention partnerships.
Young Futures Hubs will be set up across the country, bringing together services to improve access to opportunities and support for young people at community level, promoting positive outcomes and enabling young people to thrive.
Young Futures Prevention Partnerships will bring local partners together to intervene earlier to ensure that vulnerable children at-risk of being drawn into a variety of crime types (including anti-social behaviour, knife crime and violence against women and girls) are identified and offered support in a more systematic way.
Officials from across government, including my department, the Home Office, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Justice are working together using their various bodies of evidence of what works to shape Young Futures Hubs.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary school children are eligible for free school meals in (a) the North East and (b) Hexham constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The department publishes the number of pupils in primary schools who are eligible for free school meals (FSM). The most recent figures, including regional level data, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
Parliamentary constituencies are based on their boundaries at the time of the January school census each year, therefore, the 2024 Parliamentary boundaries do not reflect the changes made in the summer of 2024.
Where statistics were published prior to the changes in Parliamentary constituency boundaries, they will be updated to reflect the new boundaries in the next publication of statistics. This is expected to be in June 2025 for the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication.
FSM data is published at school level. This can be combined with information from ‘Get Information About Schools’ (GIAS) to identify parliamentary constituency. GIAS currently reflects the changes made following the general election Parliamentary constituency changes. Updates to geographical data are made on a quarterly basis using data published by the Office for National Statistics.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children requiring SEND support did not attend school in each council ward in Northumberland in each of the last five academic years.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The requested information is not held centrally.
The department collects information on children who are electively home educated (EHE) from local authorities on a voluntary basis. The latest figures can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/elective-home-education.
The department also collects data on children missing education (CME) from local authorities on a voluntary basis. These are children of compulsory school age not registered at school or otherwise receiving suitable education. The latest figures can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education.
Information on the number of children in EHE in Northumberland between 2021/22 and 2022/23 is available in the following table: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d158d673-76e2-4aab-a0f2-08dcfae39e23. Information on the number of CME in Northumberland between 2021/22 and 2022/23 is available in the following table: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d86675e8-9537-4727-a0ed-08dcfae39e23. As data was collected from local authorities for the first time in autumn 2022, information is not held for prior time periods. Additionally, EHE and CME data is not available at council ward level.
In autumn 2023/24, 15% of all EHE children had an additional requirement of special educational needs (SEN) support and 8% of all CME had an additional requirement of SEN support. This compares with 13% for the overall school population in January 2023.
The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will legislate for local authority registers of children not in school. This will include a duty on parents to provide the necessary information for these registers if their child is eligible. These proposals are intended to help local authorities identify all children not in school in their areas, including those that may require SEN support, so they can ensure children are receiving a safe and suitable education.