Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many employers in Eastbourne accessed apprenticeship levy funds in the last financial year.
Answered by Janet Daby
120 employers in Eastbourne accessed funding for apprenticeships in the 2024/25 financial year to support new apprenticeship starts or those continuing their apprenticeships from previous years. This figure includes levy-paying employers as well as non-levy paying employers, who are likely to be small and medium-sized employers.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help reduce the number of young people not in employment, education or training in Eastbourne constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby
The government is determined to break down barriers to opportunity for all our young people and transform their life chances, including those in Eastbourne.
Young people are entitled to participate in education and training up to age 18. Local authorities have statutory duties to support young people into education and training, including identifying and helping those who are currently not in education, employment or training (NEET). The department has published guidance to help local authorities identify young people at an increased risk of becoming NEET, based on characteristics such as a learning difficulty or disability, or poor school attendance, so they can be given extra support.
The government will establish a Youth Guarantee of support to access training, an apprenticeship or help to find work for all 18 to 21-year-olds to prevent them becoming excluded from the world of work at a young age. £45 million has been allocated to eight Mayoral Strategic Authority Trailblazers to develop the Youth Guarantee. The department will work with local areas on future expansion.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support the uptake of apprenticeships in (a) Eastbourne and (b) East Sussex.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will provide greater flexibility to employers and learners across the country, including in Eastbourne and East Sussex, and support the industrial strategy.
From August, the department will be introducing seven new foundation apprenticeships for young people in targeted sectors, including construction and the built environment, digital, and health and social care. We are also reducing the apprenticeship minimum duration to eight months so that shorter apprenticeships are possible from August. These flexibilities will help more people learn new high-quality skills at work and fuel innovation in businesses across the country.
To support employers to access apprenticeships, the government pays £1,000 to employers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18 years old, and for apprentices aged 19 to 24 years old who have an education, health and care plan or have been in local authority care. We will also provide £2,000 payments to employers for every foundation apprentice they take on and retain. Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to 25 when they earn less than £50,270 a year.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure pupils are able to access high quality meals in schools in (a) Eastbourne and (b) the South East.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for the future, the department is acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the school food standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance.
School governors and trustees have a statutory duty to ensure compliance with these school food standards. To improve understanding of the school food standards and give governing boards confidence to hold their school leaders to account, the department, along with National Governance Association, developed an online training course on school food for governors and trustees.
Additionally, the department has announced that we are extending free school meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. Giving half a million more children access to a nutritious meal during the school day will lift 100,000 out of poverty and lead to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning they get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support the provision and availability of vocational educational programmes for pupils across Eastbourne.
Answered by Janet Daby
As announced in the Spending Review, the government is making over £1 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028/29.
This will support and grow the wide range of technical routes and work-based training available for people of all ages across the country including in Eastbourne. This includes:
We have also strengthened legislation to ensure all secondary pupils have multiple opportunities for meaningful encounters with providers of technical education and apprenticeships.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help support people with childcare costs in Eastbourne constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The government’s Plan for Change sets out a commitment to give children the best start in life, breaking the link between background and opportunity.
From the start of September 2024, eligible working parents have been entitled to 15 hours a week of early education and care from the term after their child turns nine months. From September 2025 this will extend to 30 hours, matching the three and four-year-old offer to support children right up until starting school.
In 2025/26 alone, we plan to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements. This represents a more than 30% increase compared to 2024/25 as we roll out the expansion of the entitlements, so eligible working parents of children aged from nine months can access 30 hours of funded childcare.
As announced at Spending Review 2025, the government will provide an additional £1.6 billion per year by 2028/29, compared to 2025/26, to continue the expansion of government-funded childcare for working parents.
Additionally, the Universal Credit childcare offer supports claimants with the costs of childcare, no matter how many hours they work.
Tax-Free Childcare remains available for working parents of children aged 0-11, or up to 17 for eligible disabled children.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the increased schools funding announced in the Spending Review 2025 has been allocated to schools in Eastbourne constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The government has announced an additional £4.2 billion for schools across the Spending Review period, which will take core schools budgets to £69.5 billion by 2028/29.
The majority of school funding is allocated through the national funding formula, which will be published in the autumn to provide schools with greater certainty over their funding in the financial year 2026/27. The core schools budget is used to support several different funding streams, and how it will be distributed across the Spending Review period will depend on future business planning processes.
Allocations to individual local authorities and schools will be determined using up-to-date data. 2026/27 allocations will be calculated by reference to the October 2025 school census.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to (a) protect and (b) support SEND services in schools in Eastbourne constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
East Sussex’s most recent Area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspection was undertaken by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in November 2024, which found that the local area partnership’s arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
The inspection identified four areas for improvement, including that the local area partnership should develop and embed its work with education settings on improving inclusion, so that the proportion of children and young people achieving strong outcomes increases.
Following the inspection, the East Sussex local area partnership has published a strategic plan with specific actions to address all four areas for improvement, and the department, alongside NHS England, will be tracking the progress that the local area makes against this plan, including through regular engagement, and will offer support and challenge as the local area’s improvement journey continues.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support arts education in schools in Eastbourne constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
As part of our Opportunity Mission, this government wants to widen access to the arts.
Music Hubs continue to play a vital role across England with grant funding of £76 million for the 2025/26 academic year. This includes nearly £2 million for the Sussex Music Hub partnership led by Create Music, to support schools in East Sussex, including Eastbourne.
On 18 March 2025, the department announced a National Centre for Arts and Music Education to support schools across England to teach all arts subjects. Our intention is to launch in September 2026, with further details in the autumn.
The government also established the Curriculum and Assessment Review. This seeks to deliver a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum, including music, art and drama. The final report and government response will be published this autumn.
We are legislating so that, following the Review and implementation, academies will be required to teach the reformed national curriculum, alongside maintained schools. This will ensure arts education is an entitlement for pupils in every state-funded school.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support schools in response to recent changes to the Ofsted Inspection Framework.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The consultation on Ofsted’s new framework closed on 28 April, and the responses are currently being analysed. Ofsted’s new school report cards, which will be introduced from November, will provide more detailed and granular information about each school’s strengths and areas for improvement. They will provide a more complete picture of performance, which is needed to help support school improvement.
The department is also strengthening our tools for faster and more effective school improvement by launching new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams to break down the barriers to opportunity and end the link between background and success. Supported by over £20 million in the 2025/26 financial year, RISE teams will provide both mandatory targeted intervention for schools identified by Ofsted as needing to improve, and a universal service which will act as a catalyst for collaboration and improvement across all schools.