Oral Answers to Questions
Paul Waugh Excerpts(4 days, 8 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Paul Waugh)
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Apprenticeships are the responsibility of the Department for Work and Pensions, but the Department for Education is supporting apprenticeships by introducing new technical and vocational pathways from 14 to 19 years, including new V-levels from 2027, new level 2 pathways and even more T-levels, from which young people can progress through apprenticeships and higher education. These new 14 to 19 qualifications will enable students to progress more easily and on to apprenticeships.
Bradley Thomas
I welcome the Minister to his place and congratulate him on his appointment. The Government are right to focus on the importance of parity between vocational education and academic education. However, when comparing the academic year 2025-26 with 2023-24, the number of people who have started apprenticeships has dropped by 9% and the number who have completed has gone down by 17%. With reference to the Minister’s point about vocational pathways, will he update the House on what steps the Government are taking to ensure that they are linked with the needs of industry, so that this in itself does not become an academic exercise?
Paul Waugh
May I return those congratulations by congratulating the hon. Member on his elevation to the shadow Front Bench, and may I congratulate him, too, on the work he has done on vocational skills, including in his jobs fare in Bromsgrove? It is worth saying that V-levels are precisely designed to tally with what employers want. That is exactly why we are reforming the system to ensure every child will have the right technical education. More broadly, the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State have said that the parity of esteem between vocational and academic education is exactly what everyone in this country wants.
Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
May I put on record my condolences to the Prime Minister on the sad loss of his father?
The Education Committee strongly agrees with the Government’s focus on expanding opportunities for apprenticeships and high-quality technical and vocational education across the country, but too often young people who want to pursue apprenticeships are left to do their own research across multiple different platforms with varying application timescales. Last year, the Education Committee recommended that to help young people understand the full range of opportunities available to them and provide parity of esteem, there should be a single point of access for information about apprenticeships alongside vocational, technical and academic courses. Will the new Minister look again at that recommendation and seek to ensure young people wishing to do apprenticeships and vocational and technical courses are just as well supported as their peers who are applying for university?
Paul Waugh
I thank my hon. Friend for all the hard work the Education Committee has done on this topic. She is right that there should be parity of esteem, and the equivalent of a UCAS system for children who are going into technical education. Baroness Smith is looking at precisely that subject, and we aim to come up with some answers soon.
Sir John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings) (Con)
You will recall, Mr Speaker—as will the Minister, from his earlier life—that when I was the Skills Minister, we had the biggest number of apprenticeships in modern history. I did that because I believe in elevating the practical, but, too often, careers advice and guidance delivered in schools drives people down an academic route to study degrees that have neither academic rigour nor economic value. Will the Minister look again at the advice and guidance given to people, so that aptitudes, talents and taste can be met by good-quality vocational and technical education?
Paul Waugh
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his hard work on this subject as the former Skills Minister. The House is in agreement on the issue. The Prime Minister rightly says that we should be focusing on problem solving rather than point scoring. Given that the right hon. Gentleman mentioned apprenticeship starts, it would be remiss of me not to point out that they have gone up by 8.7% under this Government, whereas apprenticeship starts collapsed under the last Government since 2020.
Derek Twigg (Widnes and Halewood) (Lab)
Further education colleges play a crucial role in apprenticeships and in supporting education. Will the Minister tell me what extra measures the Government are bringing in to ensure that further education colleges naturally provide a wide range of education and technical skills to apprentices?
Paul Waugh
My hon. Friend is a doughty champion for FE in his constituency, as are many Members across the House. He is right about FE, and many specialists who are engaged in teaching further education and vocational skills are addressing the point he raises. That is why many of them support a move to V-Levels, because they are aligned with what employers want. Employers are telling us that they want those job skills to be more in tune with academic skills, and that is what we are delivering.
Aphra Brandreth (Chester South and Eddisbury) (Con)
Marie Goldman (Chelmsford) (LD)
Several of my constituents have contacted me about the broken SEND transport system. Several of them did not know what transport would be put in place for their children before the term started, as decisions were delayed. Some of them still do not know how their SEND children are going to get to school. What can the Minister do to help?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Paul Waugh)
The Government’s SEND reforms will create a more inclusive school system, with fewer children needing to travel to access the quality education that they deserve. I take onboard the hon. Member’s concerns, which we are listening to, but we want to make it absolutely clear that ensuring drivers and passenger assistants have received the training necessary to respond to all children’s needs is central to Government policy.
Jonathan Davies (Mid Derbyshire) (Lab)
Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge) (Lab)
I welcome the announcements on school meals, but given that young campaigners at Bite Back last week identified that some three quarters of secondary schools do not provide meals that meet Government standards, what can the Minister do to boost enforcement?
Paul Waugh
The updated standards that we have announced today will ensure that school food is delicious, nutritious and practical for schools. I was proud to see Bite Back and a range of sector leaders welcome our standards, and I thank them all for the hard work they do to help schools achieve what we want.
Suella Braverman (Fareham and Waterlooville) (Reform)
We all know that child safeguarding is non-negotiable, so does the Secretary of State share my concern that the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children’s most recent schools briefing appears to put the safety of girls at risk, given that it has removed the express requirement that adult supervisors of pupils getting dressed should be of the same gender or sex? Does the Secretary of State agree that the NSPCC should clarify its guidance to comply with the law so that men and boys have no place in girls’ changing rooms?
School Food Standards
Paul Waugh Excerpts(4 days, 8 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Paul Waugh)
The Government today have published their formal response to the consultation on proposals to improve the school food standards in England.
Ensuring children have access to healthy and nutritious food at school is an important part of giving every child the best start in life. School food plays a vital role in supporting children’s health, wellbeing and readiness to learn. Yet too many children are not getting the nutritious food they need: children consume around twice the recommended amount of free sugars, over 90% consume insufficient fibre, and almost one in four children leave primary school living with obesity. Dental decay remains the leading cause of hospital admissions for five to nine-year-olds. Since the school food standards were last updated, nutritional evidence has evolved. The Government therefore launched a consultation on updating the standards for the first time in over a decade, with the aim of improving the nutritional quality of food and drink provided in schools and supporting healthier eating habits for children and young people.
The consultation ran from April to June 2026 and received 5,216 responses from parents, pupils, schools, caterers, local authorities, health professionals and representative organisations, alongside wider engagement across the education, health, catering, faith, farming and food sectors. Respondents were generally supportive of improving the nutritional quality of school food, particularly proposals to increase fibre, fruit and vegetables, strengthen drinks standards, introduce dedicated breakfast standards and improve school food governance and transparency. They also raised important considerations around affordability, implementation, meal uptake and inclusion. These views have helped to shape the Government’s final decisions and implementation approach.
Having carefully considered the consultation responses, the Government will proceed with many of the proposed reforms, while taking into account stakeholder feedback on the practicalities of implementation. The revised school food standards will strengthen the nutritional quality of food and drink provided in schools by placing greater emphasis on fruit, vegetables, fibre and a wider range of healthy protein sources, while reducing sugar and further restricting foods high in saturated fat, sugar and salt. For the first time, dedicated breakfast standards will ensure that food and drink provided before the school day supports a healthier, lower-sugar and higher-fibre offer. The revised standards will also strengthen requirements relating to fruit and vegetables, fibre, protein and healthier drinks, while maintaining access to free drinking water throughout the school day. Some requirements affecting secondary schools, including changes relating to drinks, cheese and pulses, will be introduced on a phased basis to support deliverability and pupil acceptance.
Reflecting the views expressed during the consultation, the Government have refined some of the proposals to support effective delivery. These changes include greater flexibility in how vegetables can be incorporated into meals, adjustments to fibre requirements and wholegrain provision, limited flexibility for processed meat in secondary schools, and the retention of up to two sweetened desserts or baked products each week in secondary settings. The Government have also broadened the range of permitted products in several areas, including plant-based options and drinks, while retaining the overall ambition of improving children’s diets and supporting healthier eating habits.
The Government intend to lay regulations in October 2026, alongside the publication of supporting guidance. During autumn 2026, we will work with schools, caterers and sector partners to co-develop practical implementation materials and ensure that stakeholders across the supply chain are supported to understand and prepare for the revised requirements. This collaborative approach will help ensure that the guidance and supporting resources are practical, deliverable and responsive to operational challenges.
Most of the revised school food standards will come into force from September 2027, providing schools, trusts, caterers, suppliers and local authorities with time to prepare for implementation. A limited number of secondary school requirements, including specified changes relating to drinks, cheese and pulses, will be introduced from September 2028 following a transition period. This phased approach reflects consultation feedback on deliverability, pupil acceptance and meal uptake, while supporting practical implementation across secondary settings.
Alongside the revised standards, the Government will introduce a new national compliance framework from September 2027. This will include strengthening governance and transparency around school food, by expecting every school to appoint a lead governor for school food, and to publish their menus and school food policies online. We will also take forward the development of a national monitoring system on school food. This will form part of a wider package of resources, training and guidance accessible to all schools.
This work sits alongside other measures to ensure children have access to healthy, balanced food. We are rolling out free breakfast clubs in every state-funded school with primary aged pupils in England. We have extended free school meals to all children from households in receipt of universal credit, providing over half a million children from disadvantaged backgrounds with access to a free, nutritious meal every school day, and lifting 100,000 children out of poverty. Together, these measures represent the largest expansion of school food provision in a generation, helping to improve attainment, behaviour and outcomes by ensuring more children have access to nutritious food throughout the school day.
We continue to work alongside the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as it develops a new food strategy to ensure the food on children’s plates is good quality, accessible and affordable, as well as sourced locally where possible.
Taken together, these reforms will support healthier food provision across the school day and help ensure that children are well nourished, ready to learn and able to thrive.
A copy of the Government response will be deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.
[HCWS338]
Free School Meals
Paul Waugh Excerpts(1 year, 3 months ago)
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Stephen Morgan
As I set out earlier, this is an intervention that is at once pro-learning and anti-poverty. We want to see high and rising standards in all our schools. Excellence should be for everyone. In complete contrast, the Opposition—their Members are not here now; I do not know where they have gone—want to see tax breaks for some schools for some children. The contrast has never been starker.
Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)
As someone who grew up on free school meals in Rochdale, I know what a massive difference today’s announcement will make to more than 8,000 of my constituents. One of my constituents, Laura Popham, is a single mum who is in work and was previously ineligible for the free school meals benefit. Today she sent me an email saying,
“This is exactly what I was hoping for. I am over the moon. I want to shout from the rooftops how happy I am. Only Labour would have done this.”
Does the Minister agree that this is exactly the kind of change that people voted for last year?
Stephen Morgan
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. This is the difference that a Labour MP and a Labour Government can make. I pay tribute to Laura for raising these issues with us. Through constituents’ lobbying and by hearing their concerns, we are delivering positive change for our country.
Oral Answers to Questions
Paul Waugh Excerpts(1 year, 9 months ago)
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Bridget Phillipson
I do recognise the challenge the hon. Lady sets out and the very real challenge the Government have inherited in the provision of places. Our approach of rolling out nursery space within primary schools is crucial to creating the places that are required. There is more that we need to do. The system and sector overall require reform, and we will set out more in this area before long.
Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)
Catherine McKinnell
I recognise the difficulties my hon. Friend has outlined. Changes to pension entitlement have caused the significant backlog in processing that we have inherited, but good progress is now being made. The Department and the administrator are focused on speeding it up. I appreciate the concerns he has raised and he might want to write to me with more detail, or a meeting could certainly be arranged.