Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to issue guidance on improving (a) inclusivity and (b) expertise in mainstream schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department is committed to improving expertise and enabling high-quality and inclusive practice in mainstream schools. This work forms part of the government’s Opportunity Mission, which will break the unfair link between background and opportunity, starting with giving every child, including those with SEND, the best start in life.
This includes building a robust and credible evidence base on what works to drive inclusive education. To support this, an expert advisory group for inclusion has been established, led by Tom Rees, that consist of experts across the SEND sector. This group will advise Ministers on how to drive inclusive practice across the whole system and improve mainstream education outcomes and experiences for children and young people with SEND. Members of the group will use their collective expertise to ensure children and young people are effectively supported to achieve and thrive.
To support the department's ambition to strengthen the evidence base on inclusive practice, we have commissioned evidence reviews to identify the most effective tools, strategies and approaches for teachers and other relevant staff in mainstream settings to identify and support children and young people with different types of needs.
The department will also work with Ofsted to strengthen accountability on mainstream settings to be inclusive, support the mainstream workforce to increase their SEND expertise and encourage local authorities and schools to set up resourced provision or special educational needs units to increase capacity in mainstream schools.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timetable is for introducing measures to improve inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs, restoring parents’ trust that their child will get the support they need. The department will also strengthen accountability on mainstream settings to be inclusive, including through Ofsted, and encourage schools to set up resourced provision or special educational needs units to increase capacity in mainstream schools.
We are already making progress by investing £1 billion into SEND and £740 million for councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools.
Additionally, the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers over the course of this Parliament. To support all teachers, we are also implementing a range of teacher training reforms to ensure teachers have the skills to support all pupils to succeed, including those with SEND.
This support includes a new mandatory leadership level qualification for special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs) which the government introduced in September 2024. The qualification will play a key role in improving outcomes for pupils with SEND, by ensuring SENCOs consistently receive high-quality, evidence-based training on how best to support children with SEND.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to implement inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs, restoring parents’ trust that their child will get the support they need. The department will also strengthen accountability on mainstream settings to be inclusive, including through Ofsted, and encourage schools to set up resourced provision or special educational needs units to increase capacity in mainstream schools.
We are already making progress by investing £1 billion into SEND and £740 million for councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools.
Additionally, the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers over the course of this Parliament. To support all teachers, we are also implementing a range of teacher training reforms to ensure teachers have the skills to support all pupils to succeed, including those with SEND.
This support includes a new mandatory leadership level qualification for special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs) which the government introduced in September 2024. The qualification will play a key role in improving outcomes for pupils with SEND, by ensuring SENCOs consistently receive high-quality, evidence-based training on how best to support children with SEND.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to increase the number of white working-class boys taking up apprenticeships.
Answered by Janet Daby
Meeting the skills needs of the next decade is central to delivering all of the government's five missions – economic growth, opportunity for all, a stronger NHS, safer streets, and clean energy. Through delivering the Opportunity and Growth Missions, we will ensure that we have the skilled workforce needed to deliver the national, regional and local skills needs, aligned with the Industrial Strategy and break down the barriers to opportunity for learners.
The department is developing new foundation apprenticeships to give more young people a foot in the door at the start of their working lives, whilst supporting the pipeline of new talent that employers will need to drive economic growth.
Foundation apprenticeships will be a work-based training offer that will provide young people with clear progression pathways into further work-based training and employment.
The department is engaging with relevant stakeholders to inform our thinking to maximise the positive impact of foundation apprenticeships on young people, including those in disadvantaged areas. More detail on foundation apprenticeships will be set out in due course.
The department continues to pay additional funding to employers and training providers to support them to take on young apprentices, apprentices with learning difficulties and disabilities, and care leavers.
The department also continues to promote apprenticeships through the Skills for Life campaign and in schools and colleges through the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) Programme. Through the ASK Programme, the department increases awareness of apprenticeships amongst students in years 10 to 13, as well as parents, carers, teachers and careers advisers. During the 2023/24 academic year, ASK engaged with 2,366 schools and colleges and reached over 575,000 students.
There were 82,080 apprenticeship starts by white male apprentices that were aged under 25 in the 2023/24 academic year.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to increase the number of white working-class boys attending university.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government will act to address the persistent gaps for different groups and break down the barriers to opportunity. Opportunity should be available to all but too many people across our country do not get the chance to succeed.
Whilst many higher education (HE) providers have demonstrated positive examples of supporting all working-class students, including targeted outreach, on course bursaries and mentoring, we are keen to see the sector to go further. By summer, we will set out our plan for HE reform and we expect providers to play an even stronger role in improving access and outcomes for all disadvantaged students.