Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to prevent Further Education colleges from losing the whole funding allocation for students who do not meet the maths and English condition of funding.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Further education (FE) providers who do not support eligible students in maths and/or English under the maths and English condition of funding will have their future funding allocations reduced by half the national funding rate for each student and would not have their whole funding allocation removed. A provider is permitted to have non-compliance up to 2.5% of their total 16 to 19 cohort by opting them out of the requirements without incurring a financial penalty. This recognises that it may not be appropriate for all students to meet the requirements. Students with education health and care plans are eligible for an exemption.
The department is delivering a package to ensure every student is supported to make progress towards and attain level 2. This includes significant additional investment, including increases to the English and maths funding rate of 11% and the disadvantage payments of 7%, in 2025/26, and £800 million additional investment in FE in 2026/27.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help students to change their further education course.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Students in further education (FE) do have the option to change courses. The process can vary between institutions and may have implications for funding, which should be carefully considered.
For funding purposes, a student aged 16 to 19 is considered as having started a study programme once they have remained on that programme within the current funding year for a defined period of time, as per the funding guidance accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-rates-and-formula/16-to-19-funding-2025-to-2026-rates-and-formula.
To support a change, colleges are responsible for providing independent careers guidance up to the age of 18, in accordance with the Gatsby Benchmarks. This includes ensuring that personal guidance meetings are available to all learners at key decision points, particularly when significant choices regarding study or career pathways are being made.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department uses data on people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) to develop policy in the context of changes in the number of people who are NEET.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department collects and uses a range of data and evidence relating to young people who are not in education, employment, or training (NEET) to inform policy, including ‘Participation in education, training and employment’, which can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/participation-in-education-and-training-and-employment/2024.
The department also uses NEET age 16 to 24 statistics, which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief/2024.
In developing policy, the department engages with a range of externally produced research and evidence, including through the Youth Futures Foundation – the What Works Centre for youth employment.
The post-16 education and skills white paper set out our objectives for a skills and employment system with a clear focus on re-engaging those who are NEET. The white paper recognises evidence shows there are certain characteristics that can increase the risks of young people becoming NEET. These include young people with low prior attainment, from low socio-economic backgrounds or who have special educational needs or mental health problems. The white paper includes a range of measures which apply the use of data to respond to these challenges, such as improving early identification and tracking through better data sharing and artificial intelligence-driven risk indicators.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing supported internship funding arrangements for young people aged between 16 and 19 who require additional support to enter the workplace but do not have an education, health and care plan.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is continuing to invest in supported internships by providing up to £12 million to March 2026 to support local areas to sustain their progress and develop their supported internship offers.
This includes funding to expand the department’s pilot that is testing supported internships with young people who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) but don’t have an education, health and care plan and are furthest from the labour market, to support hundreds more young people with SEND to transition into paid employment.
This will help to build the department’s evidence base and inform our evaluation of the pilot, which will inform future policy planning on supported internships. An evaluation of our wider investment is expected to be published next summer, including some learning from the pilot, and a follow-up report with more detailed learning from the pilot is expected in summer 2027.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
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 providing additional intervention funding for the provision of education re-engagement programmes for 16 to 18 year olds who have defaulted their initial course but who could be re-engaged.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Under Section 68 of the Education and Skills Act 2008, local authorities are required to make available the support it considers appropriate to encourage, enable or assist all young people aged 16 to 19 to effectively participate in education or training.
Local authorities must also collect information about young people to identify and give reengagement support to those who are not participating or are not in employment, education, or training. They are expected to meet any costs incurred in the delivery of the above from their overall budgets, including central government grants.
Funding for education and training provision for 16 to 19-year-olds and those up to the age of 25 with an education, health and care plan is provided to schools, colleges and training providers.
The funding formula for 16 to 19-year-olds includes extra funding for disadvantaged students to recognise that there are additional costs incurred in engaging, retaining and supporting young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and to account for the additional costs incurred for teaching and supporting students who have low prior attainment to achieve their learning goals.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to help re-engage young people with education, health and care plans who are not in employment, education or training.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There are 165,000 16 to 25 year-olds with an education, health and care (EHC) plan. Of these, it is estimated that approximately 22,000 are not in education, employment or training (NEET).
Published data for the reporting year 2025 shows that approximately 11% of 16 to 19 year-olds with EHC plans and 21% of 20 to 25 year-olds with EHC plans were NEET. The data is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/da86f4d8-c536-4e7d-5ab8-08ddf5e2701a.
The department is acting to tackle the number of young people who are NEET.
The recently published post-16 education and skills white paper commits us to building a system that leaves no learner behind.
We are tackling NEETs by ensuring that every young person has access to education, training or support to move into work, backed by measures such as automatic college places for 16 year-olds without a post-16 plan, subsidised paid work placements, and a guaranteed job for those on Universal Credit unemployed for over 18 months.
The Youth Guarantee trailblazers are testing focused support for vulnerable groups such as care leavers, young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and those from alternative provision. This focused support includes mentoring, confidence building, coaching and financial management skills. This testing will inform the future roll out of the Youth Guarantee.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of young people with education, health and care plans who are not in employment, education or training.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There are 165,000 16 to 25 year-olds with an education, health and care (EHC) plan. Of these, it is estimated that approximately 22,000 are not in education, employment or training (NEET).
Published data for the reporting year 2025 shows that approximately 11% of 16 to 19 year-olds with EHC plans and 21% of 20 to 25 year-olds with EHC plans were NEET. The data is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/da86f4d8-c536-4e7d-5ab8-08ddf5e2701a.
The department is acting to tackle the number of young people who are NEET.
The recently published post-16 education and skills white paper commits us to building a system that leaves no learner behind.
We are tackling NEETs by ensuring that every young person has access to education, training or support to move into work, backed by measures such as automatic college places for 16 year-olds without a post-16 plan, subsidised paid work placements, and a guaranteed job for those on Universal Credit unemployed for over 18 months.
The Youth Guarantee trailblazers are testing focused support for vulnerable groups such as care leavers, young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and those from alternative provision. This focused support includes mentoring, confidence building, coaching and financial management skills. This testing will inform the future roll out of the Youth Guarantee.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
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 providing in year growth funding to schools affected by additional starts relating to provision intended to (a) prevent and (b) reduce the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department funds any 16, 17 or 18-year-old who wants a place in post-16 education.
Typically, this is through lagged funding, where the main funding is based on student numbers in the year before. However, for those institutions with a significant growth in students, we recognise that there are additional costs and provide in-year funding to help with these.
To support providers to offer places to young people across the country, we announced our plans for In Year Growth in the 2025/26 academic year on 27 August 2025. This should support providers to offer places to all young people who want one, including young people not currently in education, employment or training. Further information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/16-to-19-funding-in-year-growth-for-2025-to-2026.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with (a) tribunal judges and (b) local authorities on the future of the SEND tribunal.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Most education, health and care (EHC) plans and assessments are concluded without a Tribunal hearing, but, increasingly, many families are having to go to Tribunal to get the support they think they need.
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Tribunal is an important legal backstop for cases where families disagree with a local authority about the support needed and where disagreements cannot be resolved early through collaborative early dispute resolution.
The department wants to ensure we have a collaborative redress system where families and local authorities resolve disputes early, enabling children and young people to access the support they need quickly.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education regularly meets cabinet colleagues to discuss SEND system improvements. We will work with government colleagues and the Tribunal, to ensure the best outcomes for children and families.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on the adequacy of the jurisdiction of the SEND Tribunal.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Most education, health and care (EHC) plans and assessments are concluded without a Tribunal hearing, but, increasingly, many families are having to go to Tribunal to get the support they think they need.
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Tribunal is an important legal backstop for cases where families disagree with a local authority about the support needed and where disagreements cannot be resolved early through collaborative early dispute resolution.
The department wants to ensure we have a collaborative redress system where families and local authorities resolve disputes early, enabling children and young people to access the support they need quickly.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education regularly meets cabinet colleagues to discuss SEND system improvements. We will work with government colleagues and the Tribunal, to ensure the best outcomes for children and families.