Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of proposed reductions in funding for level seven apprenticeships on barriers of access to the legal profession.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam to the answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43275.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support the uptake of apprenticeships in the hair and beauty sector.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeships are a great way for individuals to begin or progress a successful career in the hair and beauty industry. Employers in the sector have developed several apprenticeships, including the level 2 hairdressing professional standard, to help them develop their workforce.
The department continues to promote apprenticeships to young people, adults and employers through the Skills for Life campaign.
Employers can benefit from £1,000 payments when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18, or apprentices aged 19 to 24 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan or have been in local authority care. To support smaller employers access apprenticeships, the government pays full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 who have an EHC plan, or have been in local authority care.
Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25 where they earn less than £967 a week, or £50,270 a year.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the number of British National Overseas Hong Kongers aged 14 to 21 who are unable to afford the cost of paying international tuition fees at UK universities without access to student loans.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To qualify for home fee status in the UK, a person must have settled status or ’a recognised connection’ to the UK, and in the case of persons with settled status, be ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and Isle of Man) for three years prior to the first day of the first academic year of the course.
Subject to meeting the other relevant eligibility requirements, persons with the status of British Nationals Overseas (BN(O)) will be able to qualify for home fee status and student finance once they have acquired settled status in the UK (usually after five years). Most persons who acquire settled status will automatically meet the three-year ordinary residence requirement. There are no plans to exempt Hong Kong BN(O)s from the requirement that applies to other British Nationals that they must be settled in the UK before becoming eligible for student funding.
The department has not made an assessment of the number of persons with BN(O) status, or persons of any other nationality, who are unable to afford the cost of paying international tuition fees at UK universities.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider reducing the British National Overseas visa holders' requirement for home fee status to three years of continuous residence.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To qualify for home fee status in the UK, a person must have settled status or ’a recognised connection’ to the UK, and in the case of persons with settled status, be ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and Isle of Man) for three years prior to the first day of the first academic year of the course.
Subject to meeting the other relevant eligibility requirements, persons with the status of British Nationals Overseas (BN(O)) will be able to qualify for home fee status and student finance once they have acquired settled status in the UK (usually after five years). Most persons who acquire settled status will automatically meet the three-year ordinary residence requirement. There are no plans to exempt Hong Kong BN(O)s from the requirement that applies to other British Nationals that they must be settled in the UK before becoming eligible for student funding.
The department has not made an assessment of the number of persons with BN(O) status, or persons of any other nationality, who are unable to afford the cost of paying international tuition fees at UK universities.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's policy is on the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The adoption and special guardianship fund (ASGSF) offers valuable support to adoptive and kinship families, helping families to thrive and enabling children and young people to make the best start in life.
Announcements on funding for the ASGSF will be made shortly.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure fair and competitive pay for people working in further education.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to ensuring there is a thriving further education (FE) sector, which is vital to our missions to break down the barriers to opportunity and boost economic growth.
FE colleges, rather than government, are responsible for setting and negotiating pay for their staff. Colleges are not bound by the national pay and conditions framework for schoolteachers. FE colleges were incorporated under the terms of the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act, which gave them autonomy over the pay and contractual terms and conditions of their staff.
At the Autumn Budget 2024, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out an additional £300 million revenue funding for FE in the 2025/26 financial year to ensure young people are developing the skills this country needs and a further £300 million to support colleges to maintain, improve and ensure suitability of their estate. We have recently announced that we are making approximately £50 million of the additional revenue funding available to statutory FE providers for April to July 2025. This one-off grant will enable colleges to respond to current priorities and challenges, including workforce recruitment and retention.
The remaining funding will be made available in 16-19 funding rates for the 2025/26 academic year.
This builds on the department’s investment to extend targeted retention incentive payments of up to £6,000 after tax to eligible early career FE teachers in key subject areas. We are also delivering funding to support those young people who do not pass mathematics and English GCSE at 16, who are predominantly studying in FE.
The department will continue to offer financial incentives for those undertaking teacher training for the FE sector in priority subject areas. FE teacher training bursaries will be offered for a further year, worth up to £31,000 each, tax-free, in the 2025/26 academic year. Additionally, we are supporting industry professionals to enter the teaching workforce through our Taking Teaching Further programme.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether teachers in post-16 education will be included in the teacher pay award.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As confirmed in July, schools delivering post-16 education would be included in the teacher pay award for the 2024/25 academic year, in line with the independent School Teachers’ Pay Review Body (STRB) recommendations. The department confirmed that an additional £63 million would be provided for schools delivering post-16 education.
Further education (FE) providers are not included in the school teacher pay award and FE does not fall under the STRB’s remit. FE colleges, rather than government, are responsible for setting and negotiating pay within colleges. Colleges are not bound by the national pay and conditions framework for school teachers and are free to implement their own pay arrangements in line with their own local circumstances.
FE colleges, including sixth form colleges, were incorporated under the terms of the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act, which gave them autonomy over the pay and contractual terms and conditions of their staff.
The Autumn Budget 2024 set out the government’s commitment to skills, by providing an additional £300 million revenue funding for FE to ensure young people are developing the skills this country needs. The department recognises the vital role that FE teachers and providers play in equipping learners with the opportunities and skills they need to succeed in their education. We will set out in due course how this funding will be distributed.
In making their recommendations for 2025/26, the STRB were asked to consider the impact of recommendations on the FE teaching workforce in England. Given FE and school workforce are closely related, it is important for the STRB to consider the totality of the workforce.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle school absences among young carers.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department wants to ensure that young carers have the best life chances by supporting them in their education. The department recognises that absence from school is almost always a symptom of wider needs and barriers that a family are facing. It 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. 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.
Young carers are also now part of the school census, which will improve their visibility in the school system, allowing schools to better identify and support their young carers. This will provide an annual data collection to establish long term trends. Separately, 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.
Schools can also use pupil premium funding to support other pupils with identified needs, including young carers. Pupil premium funding has increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
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 granting Home Fee status to Hong Kongers under the British National (Overseas) Visa Scheme after three years’ residency in the UK before the start of the spring term in 2025.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Generally, to qualify for higher education (HE) student support and home fee status in England, a person must have settled status and have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for the three years preceding the first day of the first academic year of their course. There are exceptions to this for persons who have been granted international protection by the Home Office. This includes persons granted refugee status, humanitarian protection, or leave under one of the Afghan or Ukraine schemes.
The creation of a bespoke immigration route for Hong Kong British National (Overseas)’s (BN(O)) reflects the unique and unprecedented circumstances in Hong Kong and the UK’s historic and moral commitment to BN(O) citizens. The BN(O) route is not a form of international protection and is not, therefore, comparable to the Afghan and Ukraine schemes. However, it remains open to a Hong Kong BN(O) to apply for refugee status or humanitarian protection should they believe they qualify.
There are no plans to extend HE student support and home fee status to Hong Kong BN(O)s before they are settled in the UK.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make a comparative assessment of the (a) tuition fee status and (b) student financing arrangements for students under the (i) Ukraine and (ii) Afghanistan humanitarian visa schemes and (iii) the British National (Overseas) visa scheme.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Generally, to qualify for higher education (HE) student support and home fee status in England, a person must have settled status and have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for the three years preceding the first day of the first academic year of their course. There are exceptions to this for persons who have been granted international protection by the Home Office. This includes persons granted refugee status, humanitarian protection, or leave under one of the Afghan or Ukraine schemes.
The creation of a bespoke immigration route for Hong Kong British National (Overseas)’s (BN(O)) reflects the unique and unprecedented circumstances in Hong Kong and the UK’s historic and moral commitment to BN(O) citizens. The BN(O) route is not a form of international protection and is not, therefore, comparable to the Afghan and Ukraine schemes. However, it remains open to a Hong Kong BN(O) to apply for refugee status or humanitarian protection should they believe they qualify.
There are no plans to extend HE student support and home fee status to Hong Kong BN(O)s before they are settled in the UK.