Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for its policies of the National Literacy Trust’s report entitled Children and young people's writing in 2025, published on 12 June 2025.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child, in every region of the country, the best start in life.
In the 2025/26 financial year, the government has committed £27.7 million to support and drive high and rising standards in reading and writing. This summer, the department will publish a Writing Framework which will be a first step to support schools in delivering high-quality writing provision across England.
The department recognises the important work of organisations such as the National Literacy Trust in promoting reading and writing and will continue to engage with them on this important issue.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of holiday clubs for parents of children with disabilities.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme to ensure children who are eligible for free school meals can access enriching activities and healthy meals. More than £200 million has been allocated to the programme for 2025/26.
Local authorities and their providers have flexibility about how they deliver HAF provision to best serve the needs of children and families in their area. The department encourages all local authorities to have a rich mix of provision catering for children with different interests and of different ages. There is flexibility in how the programme can be delivered to children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or additional needs.
When assessing the requirements of children with SEND or additional needs, local authorities should ensure that the provision they fund through the HAF programme is fully compliant with the Equality Act 2010. This will include making sure that they, and the providers they work with, put in place any reasonable adjustments which are required to ensure that children with a disability are not subject to discrimination.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that disabled students entering higher education receive (a) timely and (b) appropriate support from Student Finance England.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department and the Student Loans Company (SLC) are committed to ensuring that disabled students domiciled in England and entering higher education receive timely and appropriate support through the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA).
Eligible students undergo a Study Needs Assessment (SNA), which identifies their individual needs. These are then compiled into a Needs Assessment Report and are submitted to SLC for approval, helping to ensure that students receive the right support efficiently, and enabling them to access higher education with confidence and the resources they need to succeed.
In previous years, approximately 40% of DSA applications are submitted at the start of the academic year. However, this year, SLC has worked with UCAS to encourage earlier applications. This has resulted in a higher volume of submissions ahead of the 2025/26 academic year. To manage this, SLC has increased resourcing to improve processing times and ensure students receive funding promptly.
Additionally, SLC’s suppliers, Capita and Study Tech, have recruited more Needs Assessors to offer flexible assessment scheduling. SLC continues to monitor demand and capacity throughout the academic cycle to maintain effective support for students.
Current processing times for DSA and other applications can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sfe-current-application-timescales.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of not awarding marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar for exams in subjects other than English.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Eastleigh to the answer of 12 June 2025 to Question 57812.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a national dyslexia strategy.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Eastleigh to the answer of 12 June 2025 to Question 57810.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase funding certainty for schools over a multi-year period.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The overall core schools budget is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning that it will total £65.3 billion, compared to £61.6 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. This is a 6% overall increase.
The government is considering how it can support schools to plan their budgets from the perspective of both their funding and their costs. The teacher pay award this year has been announced two months earlier than last year as part of the government’s ambition to improve the pay round process. This is alongside £615 million of additional funding to support schools with their overall costs, including staff pay awards.
Budgets for the 2026/27 financial year and beyond are still to be agreed and this includes the 2026/27 Core Schools Budget. This will be subject to the multi-year spending review, which the department expects to be concluded later this month.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of students taking heritage language GCSEs in the academic year 2024-25.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Provisional data on GCSE entries for the 2024/25 academic year will be published by Ofqual on 12 June 2025.
The department will publish provisional key stage 4 performance statistics for the 2024/25 academic year in October 2025.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to introduce a Ukrainian language GCSE.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Decisions about which languages to offer at GCSE in England are taken by four independent awarding organisations – AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel and WJEC – rather than by central government. These organisations have the freedom to create a Ukrainian GCSE based on the subject content for modern foreign language set by the department. We have recently written to these organisations to ask them to consider introducing a Ukrainian GCSE.
The British government stands steadfast behind the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian government. The department is proud to support children and families from Ukraine during their transition to a new life in the UK. To do our part to support the Ukrainian people, we are supporting the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science in policy development and this year have launched a UK-Ukraine Schools Partnership Programme, twinning 100 schools in the UK and Ukraine.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many dedicated mental health professionals are employed in secondary schools in (a) Hampshire and (b) Eastleigh constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to improving mental health support for all children and young people. This is critical to breaking down barriers to opportunity and helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education.
Information on the numbers of staff employed in schools is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2023. The department does not collect information on how many dedicated mental health professionals are employed in secondary schools in (a) Hampshire and (b) Eastleigh constituency.
The government has committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding mental health support teams (MHSTs), so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. The teams act as a link with local children and young people’s mental health services and are trained and supervised by NHS staff.
At the end of 2024/25, around 600 NHS-funded MHSTs were operational in 10,100 (41%) schools and colleges in England. At the end of 2024/25, 5 million pupils and learners were covered by MHSTs which equates to 52% coverage of pupils in schools and further education learners in England. In Hampshire local authority, 43% of pupils/learners and 43% of schools/colleges were covered by MHSTs, as at end 2024/25, compared to 52% and 41% nationally, respectively.
Around six in ten pupils will have access to a mental health support team by March 2026, with the rollout prioritised based on NHS identification of local need and reaching the most vulnerable children first.
The government will also recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults, and open new Young Futures Hubs with access to mental health support workers.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many specialist SEND nurseries have (a) closed and (b) been replaced by a mobile SEND service since 2015.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the ’Early education and childcare’ statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-education-and-childcare--2.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing.
Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and where needed support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.