Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure schools have equitable access to (a) capital funding and (b) teacher recruitment incentives in the North East.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is committed to ensuring all schools, including those in the North East, have equitable access to funding for capital and teacher recruitment incentives.
This government has given a long-term commitment to improve the condition of our schools and colleges across England. We are investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and renewal to improve the condition of the school and college estate, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26. Funding is allocated on a consistent basis across the country, partly informed by data on the relative condition of schools. Information on capital funding and methodology can be found on GOV.UK. We are also investing almost £20 billion through to 2034/35 to continue and expand the School Rebuilding Programme.
The department is offering trainee bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth up to £31,000 tax-free to encourage more talented people to train to teach key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. We are also offering a Targeted Retention Incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools. In the North East,179 schools are eligible for this incentive.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to reduce waiting times for education, health and care plans.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department wants to ensure that education, health and care (EHC) needs assessments are progressed promptly and, if needed, high quality EHC plans are issued as quickly as possible so that children and young people can access the support they need.
We continue to monitor, challenge and work closely with local authorities that have issues with EHC plan timeliness. Where there are concerns about a local authority’s capacity to make the required improvements, we ensure that the cause of these problems is identified with the local authority and that an effective recovery plan is implemented. Where needed, the department deploys specialist special educational needs and disabilities advisors to help identify the barriers to carrying out the EHC plan process in a timely way and to address these barriers through practical plans for recovery, whilst also addressing any other areas of weakness in provision.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the number of special school places in each local authority area.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure there are sufficient school places for pupils in their area, including those with special educational needs and disabilities. If a local authority identifies a shortage of places, resulting in a significant number of pupils needing to travel a long way to access a placement, they should consider creating, adapting, or expanding provision to meet that need.
The department has published allocations for £740 million in high needs capital funding in 2025/26, supporting local authorities to fulfil that duty. This can be used to create SEN units and resourced provision, or to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of the mainstream school environment, alongside providing places in special schools for pupils with the most complex needs.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve recruitment and retention of teachers in STEM subjects.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is making good progress on our pledge to deliver 6,500 more teachers. The workforce has grown by 2,346 FTE between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools, the schools where they are needed most. Additionally, 12% more trainees have accepted offers to train as secondary teachers, and in STEM, acceptances are up 25% compared to last year.
Workforce shortages are more acute in some subjects, which is why the department is offering bursaries worth up to £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth up to £31,000 tax-free, to encourage more talented people to train in key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.
The department is also offering a targeted retention incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for teachers of these subjects in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools or teach technical subjects in further education colleges.
The department undertakes regular reviews to ensure we are prioritising the subjects where teachers are needed most, for example, through our bursaries, which are evaluated annually.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with teacher training providers on ensuring sufficient placement opportunities for trainees.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department works closely with initial teacher training (ITT) providers to support them in securing high-quality school placements. This includes engagement through dedicated forums and collaboration with sector bodies such as the Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers and the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers.
The department monitors data from our digital recruitment services to identify trends and challenges across the sector. Where providers experience difficulties in sourcing placements, we encourage them to share their concerns with us so that appropriate support can be considered. We also expect providers to work collaboratively with each other and offer mutual support where needed.
To further strengthen the system, the department is piloting a new digital service this year designed to improve the visibility of placement opportunities. This service allows schools to express an interest in hosting ITT placements, making it easier for providers to identify and connect with schools in their area.
The department recognises that a key challenge for schools is the time and cost associated with hosting trainees. That is why we have introduced funding to support schools for the time their mentors spend in training. This funding is available to all schools hosting ITT placements.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of workload reduction measures on teacher retention rates.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The best recruitment strategy is a strong retention strategy, and this government has provided a near 10% pay award for teachers to ensure teaching is once again a respected and attractive profession.
The department is undertaking a range of initiatives to help teachers manage workload and improve retention. Our ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, developed alongside school leaders, contains a range of supportive resources for schools to reduce workload. Our education staff wellbeing charter, now with over 4,200 signatories, sets out commitments from government, schools, and colleges to improve staff wellbeing, including commitments to help reduce teacher workload.
The department is seeing signs of improvement. 2024/25 saw one of the lowest leaver rates since 2010, with 1,300 fewer teachers leaving the state-funded sector, and the workforce has grown by 2,346 FTE from the previous year in secondary and special schools, the schools where teachers are needed most.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 education investment areas on attainment in regions with historically lower performance.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Between 2022 and 2025, key stage 2 outcomes in Education Investment Areas (EIAs) improved slightly faster than in non-EIAs, with the attainment gap narrowing by one percentage point. At key stage 4, the Attainment 8 gap between EIAs and non-EIAs remained stable. Multiple influences are likely to have contributed to these trends and we cannot attribute any changes solely to the EIA programme.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 pupil premium on educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity so that all our children can achieve and thrive in education.
We are providing over £3 billion of pupil premium funding in the 2025/26 financial year to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in state funded schools in England.
In March 2025, the department published a pupil premium and recovery premium evaluation. The findings were positive about schools’ approaches to planning pupil premium spend being driven by high quality data and evidence, and schools felt the funding had a positive impact on pupils’ outcomes. For example, 85% of schools and 91% of trusts agreed that having pupil premium meant they had a better strategy for meeting disadvantaged pupils’ needs.
Schools must spend their pupil premium funding in line with the department’s 'menu of approaches' which is informed by evidence of how best to improve disadvantaged pupils’ attainment.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the number of schools with in-year budget deficits.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The latest available figures show 96% of academy trusts and 85% of local authority-maintained schools are in cumulative surplus or breaking even, with an overall cumulative surplus of almost £6.5 billion, compared to a cumulative deficit of £330 million. These figures relate to 31 August 2024 for academy trusts and 31 March 2024 for maintained schools. In the 2023/24 financial year, there were 1745 local authority-maintained schools in deficit, and 341 academies were in trusts that had an overall deficit.
The department does not hold in-year information on the spending of schools and trusts.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of (a) secondary school and (b) further education college students have Education, Health and Care Plans in (i) Stockton West constituency and (ii) England.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Information on pupils in schools who have education, health and care (EHC) plans is published as part of the statistical release ‘Special educational needs in England’, which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england/2024-25.
An extract showing the requested information for primary and secondary schools in England and Stockton West constituency is shown below:
| Number of pupils with an EHC plan | Percentage of pupils with an EHC plan |
England |
|
|
State funded Primary schools | 157,716 | 3.5% |
State funded secondary schools | 113,452 | 3.1% |
Stockton West Constituency |
|
|
State funded Primary schools | 244 | 2.7% |
State funded secondary schools | 310 | 3.1% |
1. Source: School Census | ||
Information on the number of young people with an EHC plan who attend further education colleges within the Stockton West constituency, and for England, is not currently available.