Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will undertake a further consultation on the material for the financial education curriculum in advance of the publishing of the revised curriculum in 2027.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
On 5 November, the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review published its final report which includes recommendations for a refreshed curriculum and assessment system in England.
As part of the response to the Review’s report the government has made a commitment to strengthen pupils’ foundational understanding of financial education in mathematics and citizenship, with digital resources to support teaching. From budgeting to understanding credit, through our revised curriculum all children will learn about the fundamentals of money, ensuring every pupil develops the skills needed to succeed in the modern world.
The department will engage with sector experts and young people in working out how best to reflect this in the updated curriculum. There will be public consultation on the updated curriculum programmes of study, to seek views on the content before they are finalised.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 3 October 2024 to Question 73744 on Private Education, whether the matter of the financial impact of VAT on private school fees was discussed at the meeting on 22 July 2025.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The impact of VAT changes on private schools with Independent Schools Council membership was discussed at the meeting on 22 July.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the introduction of VAT on independent school fees on the ability on non-affluent families to afford private school education.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
HM Treasury published a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) on applying VAT to independent school fees. This is a comprehensive assessment of the VAT policy, including impacts on individuals and families and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees/applying-vat-to-private-school-fees#who-is-likely-to-be-affected.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when Ministers in her Department last met representatives of the independent school sector to discuss issues facing that sector.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The last meeting was held on 22 July 2025.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with local authorities on the Kinship Allowance Pilot Scheme; and when that scheme will begin.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department is ensuring that a fair and transparent process is used to identify which local authorities are best placed to deliver the Kinship Allowance Pilot, through a published expression of interest process. The application window for the expression of interest has now closed.
The department has communicated clear guidance on this process to local authorities through webinars, published expression of interest guidance and a two-week clarification window, following the launch of the expression of interest application window.
The Pilot will launch this autumn, following the announcement of successful pilot local authorities in September.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of school career services in (a) highlighting and (b) encouraging apprenticeships.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department has introduced a ladder of support and intervention, as set out in our careers statutory guidance, to support compliance with the provider access legislation which requires schools to offer pupils encounters with providers of technical education and apprenticeships. We will continue to monitor compliance, the support in place and the impact on young people.
We will also continue to monitor progress against the Gatsby Benchmarks, especially benchmarks 5, 6 and 7 which are relevant for highlighting and encouraging apprenticeships take-up.
Alongside this, the Careers and Enterprise Company’s (CEC) future skills questionnaire shows a move from 38% understanding of apprenticeships in year 7 to 88% by year 13.
There are multiple resources available to schools and young people to highlight and encourage apprenticeships participation:
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of teacher's awareness of young people's caring responsibilities.
Answered by Janet Daby
Young carers have been a hidden cohort for too long. They provide essential care and support to their loved ones, often stepping up in challenging situations at the expense of their own development and wellbeing.
The department is using school census data to shine a light on young carers’ attendance, suspensions and exclusions, and is aiming to publish data on their educational progress and attainment this autumn. This will ensure they receive tailored support and do not miss out on vital educational opportunities.
The statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ requires designated safeguarding leads to undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills to carry out their role. This includes having a good understanding of, and alertness to, the needs of young carers to identify their needs.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the challenges faced by young carers in balancing their caring responsibilities with (a) education and (b) training.
Answered by Janet Daby
Young carers have been a hidden cohort for too long. They provide essential care and support to their loved ones, often stepping up in challenging situations at the expense of their own development and wellbeing.
The department is using school census data to shine a light on young carers’ attendance, suspensions and exclusions, and is aiming to publish data on their educational progress and attainment this autumn. This will ensure they receive tailored support and do not miss out on vital educational opportunities.
The statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ requires designated safeguarding leads to undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills to carry out their role. This includes having a good understanding of, and alertness to, the needs of young carers to identify their needs.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of AI companion software on (a) children's mental health, (b) children's social skills and (c) trends in the level of children's loneliness.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The department is working to build evidence of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for education, both on the opportunities and the risks. We are supporting the sector to use AI safely.
We are funding the development of global guidelines for the safe and effective use of generative AI in education, in partnership with the OECD and, in January 2025, we announced that leading global tech firms had committed to making AI tools for education safer by design. Google, Microsoft, Adobe and Amazon Web Services have helped develop a set of expectations AI tools should meet to be considered safe for classroom use. These are accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/generative-ai-product-safety-expectations/generative-ai-product-safety-expectations.
The Generative AI product Safety Expectations framework was announced on 22 January 2025 and we have published online materials to help all educators. These materials can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/using-ai-in-education-settings-support-materials.
Screens are prevalent in children's lives at home and in education. It is crucial to have protections like the Online Safety Act, while using technology to benefit children. Schools play a key role in promoting balanced technology use, minimising harmful content, and teaching online safety.
The department is working across government to implement the Online Safety Act and address technology-related risks, including AI in education, while maximising opportunities for these technologies to support education.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that guidance and resources for School Attendance Support Teams includes young carers.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The department wants to ensure that young carers have the best life chances by supporting them in their education. We recognise that absence from school is almost always a symptom of wider needs and barriers that a family are facing and is often also the best early indication of need in a family that may not be in contact with other services.
The department’s expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, were made statutory on 19 August 2024 and include specific reference to young carers. The ‘support first’ ethos of the attendance guidance is that pupils and families, including young carers, should receive holistic, whole-family support to help them overcome the barriers to attendance they are facing. This includes holding regular meetings with the families of pupils who the school, and/or local authority, consider to be vulnerable to discuss attendance and engagement at school. Schools are expected to recognise that absence is a symptom and that improving pupil’s attendance is part of supporting the pupil’s overall welfare. This ethos is reflected in resources provided to schools on school attendance, and our Attendance Toolkit for Schools includes reference to supporting young carers in its self-assessment tool.
The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.
The toolkit can be accessed via: https://attendancetoolkit.blob.core.windows.net/toolkit-doc/Attendance%20toolkit%20for%20schools.pdf.
The department also publishes daily attendance data fortnightly and will continue to monitor the quality of data on young carers that is collected via the school register for consideration to include in the daily data collection in the future.