Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that early-years providers have an opportunity to demonstrate rapid improvement following an Ofsted inspection.
Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ofsted report cards provide much greater transparency and insight, offering education professionals the information needed to drive improvement across the education system. Ofsted’s renewed Education Inspection Framework will clearly identify areas of strength and where a setting needs to improve.
Where Ofsted identifies that a setting or childminder has areas to improve, Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs provide targeted, diagnostic-led support through Early Years Stronger Practice Advisers. These Advisers offer bespoke, one-to-one coaching and professional guidance, including observing practice, supporting self-evaluation, developing clear and actionable improvement plans and advising on evidence-informed approaches to strengthen quality and sustain long-term improvement.
Early years providers receiving a below-expected-standard judgement will be reinspected on an accelerated timetable to ensure providers are given the opportunity to demonstrate rapid improvement to Ofsted, typically within 12 months for ‘needs attention’ and 6 months for ‘urgent improvement’.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Ofsted’s inspection framework on the wellbeing of early-years staff.
Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department sets the standards and statutory requirements that all early years providers in England must meet. Ofsted is an independent non-ministerial government department, and as the regulator for early years provision, holds responsibility for inspection and operational impact. We recognise concerns raised by the sector regarding wellbeing and know there is still more to be done. We know that children thrive when they are cared for by confident, well-trained educators who feel valued. This means attracting, training and keeping great staff, and making sure they are valued and supported throughout their careers, with more support from day one.
We have developed the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter which sets out commitments from the department, Ofsted, schools and colleges to protect and promote staff wellbeing. The charter can be used to inform a whole school or college approach to wellbeing. Over 4,300 schools and colleges have signed up.
The department also signposts to mental health and wellbeing resources for education staff, this includes Education Support’s free, confidential 24-hour helpline for staff working in education
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of Ofsted’s early years inspection framework in distinguishing between isolated management failures and serious failings when determining inspection outcomes.
Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department sets the standards and statutory requirements that all early years providers in England must meet. It is committed to ensuring that all children receive high-quality early education in safe and nurturing settings. As an independent, non-ministerial government department led by His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Ofsted is responsible for developing, maintaining and evaluating its inspection frameworks and approaches.
The government is supporting a strengthened improvement and accountability system, including through more frequent inspections, strengthened quality assurance, enhanced inspector training and additional safeguarding activity. We are providing over £4.5 million in funding this financial year, and at least £8 million across future years, including for an additional 3,000 unannounced visits a year, more inspectors for larger or more complex settings and a strengthened registration process.
These measures are intended to support consistent, evidence-based inspection outcomes and provide parents with up-to-date information about the quality and safety of early years provision.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on early intervention for neurodivergent children with emerging mental health needs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department regularly engages with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to ensure children and young people, including those who are neurodivergent, can access the support they need.
We are working with the NHS to expand access to specialist support and are providing £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and integrated care boards, to develop an Experts at Hand offer in every area. This will give settings access to advice, training and expertise from professionals such as speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, educational psychologists and specialist teachers, helping staff identify needs earlier and respond effectively so children receive support without unnecessary delays.
Alongside this, Mental Health Support Teams will be expanded to every school and college in England by 2029 supported by £13 million pilot to enhance staff training for neurodivergent and social/emotional needs.
We continue to work closely with DHSC on the forthcoming mental health strategy, due later this year.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of access to swimming and water safety education for primary school pupils.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Swimming and water safety are vital life skills, and every child should have the opportunity to learn to swim and know how to keep themselves safe around water before they leave primary school.
The PE national curriculum makes specific reference to swimming and water safety, stating that all primary pupils must learn to swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres, use a range of strokes effectively and perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.
Our reforms to the PE curriculum will ensure there is a clear emphasis on swimming and water safety, and our new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network will bring the expertise of national governing bodies, including Swim England, directly into schools.
In addition, we have made changes to statutory requirements for relationships, sex and health education in both primary and secondary to ensure all pupils are taught about the water safety code, supporting them to be safe in different types of water.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions her Department has had with Ofqual on ensuring that grade boundaries fairly reflect variations in the difficulty of A Level examination papers.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Each year, exam boards review a range of evidence when setting ground boundaries, including how students performed and the level of difficulty of the paper. If a paper is found to be more difficult than in previous years, grade boundaries will be set to reflect that. This established process is designed to ensure that students receive results that fairly reflect their knowledge and skills and that standards remain comparable across different exam series.
Ofqual, as the independent regulator, oversees exam boards to ensure that, over time, it is no more difficult to achieve a given grade in a subject from one year to the next, or between exam boards.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to provide local authorities with funding for the training and capacity required by SEND Information, Advice and Support Service.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Under the Children and Families Act 2014, all local authorities are legally required to provide a special educational needs and disabilities information, advice and support service (SENDIASS). SENDIASS services provide impartial, confidential, and legally based information, advice and support across education, health and social care. The department currently funds the training and network support and wellbeing programme for SENDIASS across England through our participation contract. We also fund a free national helpline offering independent advice and guidance to parents and carers, working closely with local SENDIASS.
We are increasing investment in the national helpline and, recognising the importance of local provision, we are also increasing investment in local information and advice services to improve service quality through enhanced training and better support families over the next three years.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what processes her Department has put in place to monitor the use of funding intended to improve SEND inclusion in mainstream school settings.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
In February, we announced the £1.6 billion Inclusive Mainstream Fund which will provide mainstream education settings over £500 million funding per year over the next three years to support them to become inclusive by design.
We will place conditions on this funding to make sure schools spend it on improving inclusion for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This will include publishing an Inclusion Strategy that reports on how they are deploying their resources for SEND.
We will publish guidance for school leaders on how to develop an Inclusion Strategy in due course.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that Specialist Provision Packages are co-produced with (a) children and young people and (b) families.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Specialist Provision Packages will be nationally defined, evidence-based packages of support for children and young people whose requirements cannot be met in mainstream settings, even with enhanced special educational needs (SEN) support. Packages will support local authorities to commission provision and placements more strategically and will provide the basis for the legal guarantee of provision set out in an education, health and care plan.
An independent expert panel will oversee development, drawing on evidence from academics, practitioners, and health and care professionals.
The panel will also engage with stakeholders to make sure their recommendations are informed by a wide range of views and lived experience, including a parental engagement group.
Packages will be developed by sector experts, including specialist and mainstream headteachers, multi-academy trust leaders, local authority commissioners, and specialist practitioners such as educational psychologists, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists.
The department will actively involve parents and families in testing and refining the packages.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that Education Otherwise Than At School (EOTAS) is available as part of the continuation of SEND support where a child cannot be educated in school.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s consultation, “SEND reform: putting children and young people first”, proposes the introduction of Specialist Provision Packages for all children and young people with complex needs, including those children and young people whose needs are currently met through Education Other Than At School (EOTAS) packages of support.
After a 12-week consultation period, including over 200 engagement events, meetings and roundtables, the department’s consultation has now closed. We are carefully reviewing and taking into account all responses submitted to the consultation and continuing to engage widely on our proposals.
As part of that continued engagement, we intend to publish a consultation on the use of EOTAS provision in the coming weeks. It is crucial that we get support for EOTAS children and young people right, particularly given their often complex needs. This consultation will seek views to ensure we meet those specific needs, and that these children and young people benefit from the inclusive education we want for all.