Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with local authorities on expanding post-16 provision in areas experiencing population growth.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department knows that the 16 to 19 population has been increasing in some parts of England and that extra capacity has been needed in post-16 places in some areas.
The post-16 Capacity Fund has already invested £282 million between 2021 and 2025 for additional capacity and we will be investing a further £375 million between 2026/27 and 2029/30 to provide additional places.
In due course, we will make announcements and provide further information about the delivery of the £375 million capital funding secured for the post-16 sector.
For institutions with a significant growth in students, we recognise that there are additional costs and we provide in year 16 to 19 funding to help with these costs. The department announced its plans to support providers in offering places to young people across the country on 27 August 2025.
In support of local authorities’ statutory duty to secure suitable provision in an area, we will consider their requests to fill a gap in provision. Information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-education-market-entry.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with hospitality employers on shaping T-Level qualifications.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has engaged with employers throughout the development of T Levels. Employers from the hospitality sector were particularly involved in discussions with the Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education around potentially developing T Levels in Catering and Hospitality, with a decision taken not to pursue this T Level announced in March 2025.
Hospitality employers have been involved in other T Levels, including as members of the T Level panel developing and approving the Management and Administration T Level, and through providing industry placements to learners.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with local authorities on increasing the level of capital funding for school building (a) repairs and (b) maintenance.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring schools and colleges have the resources and buildings they need is a key part of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every young person the best start in life.
The government has given a long-term commitment for capital investment through to 2034/35 to improve the condition of schools and colleges across England, including those overseen by local authorities. 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.
This is in addition to investment of almost £20 billion in the School Rebuilding Programme through to 2034/35, delivering rebuilding projects at over 500 schools across England within the existing programme, with a further 250 schools to be selected within the next two years.
The department engages regularly with representatives from local authorities about capital policy and programmes.
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 support partnerships between further education providers and hospitality businesses.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is for employers and further education providers to work together to ensure that provision meets learner, labour market and employer needs. The department welcomes and encourages such partnerships.
Across all areas of England, Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) give businesses a direct route to work collaboratively with local providers and leaders to shape curricula and deliver skills provision. Over 25% of LSIPs identified Hospitality and Tourism as a priority sector with key skills needs. In these areas, key stakeholders are working in partnership to develop a skilled workforce that can support these areas' growth and sustainability.
A new round of LSIP development started on 1 October 2025 and this is an opportunity for businesses to engage with their local Employer Representative Body to discuss their skills needs and set out the challenges specific to their local economies, including in the hospitality sector.
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 adequacy of school funding allocations to meet increased costs associated with (a) energy, (b) staffing and (c) materials in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
School funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in financial year 2025/26, meaning that core school budgets will total £65.3 billion, compared with £61.6 billion in 2024/25.
In May, the government announced a further £615 million of additional funding for schools in 2025/26 to support them with their overall costs, including staff pay awards. Schools will, on average, be expected to find the first 1% of pay awards through plans to realise and sustain better value from existing spend. Schools will not be alone in making these decisions. The department will support schools to tackle the systemic issues that drive costs and prevent schools getting the best value for money, such as with energy, through our Energy for Schools Service.
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 steps she has taken to ensure fair funding across local authorities under the National Funding Formula.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Every year, the department uses the schools national funding formula (NFF) to distribute core funding for 5 to 16-year-old pupils in mainstream state-funded schools in England. This ensures that funding is distributed based on a fair and consistent assessment of need.
The vast majority of funding is distributed on the basis of pupil numbers and characteristics. In 2025/26, 74.2% of the schools NFF has been allocated through basic entitlement funding, which every pupil attracts. A further 17.8% (£8.6 billion) of all funding has been allocated through additional needs factors based on deprivation, low prior attainment, English as an additional language and mobility. It is right that schools with more pupils with additional needs receive extra funding to help them meet the needs of all their pupils.
The government will continue to keep all the unit values and the wider operation of the schools NFF under review for 2026/27 and in future years.
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 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.