Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that Careers Advisors working in schools receive training in mental health support, to help identify and assist students experiencing mental health challenges.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department recognises the vital role that careers advisors play in supporting young people to thrive in their future career. We do not expect careers advisors to provide clinical mental health care, but we are committed to ensuring they are better equipped to support, identify concerns and signpost students with mental health challenges towards appropriate support.
The department has been working closely with the sector to explore the development of a continuous professional development package to upskill careers advisers working with young people, including support for young people with mental health challenges. We expect the offer to be available from the 2026/27 academic year
Alongside this, the government is committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding mental health support teams (MHSTs), so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. By April 2026, we estimate that 60% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England will be covered by an MHST, up from 52% in April 2025.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with Capita on resolutions for people impacted by (a) delayed or incorrect pension payments under the Teachers’ Pension Scheme and (b) delayed or incorrect pension valuations under the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department monitors Capita very closely to ensure that Teachers’ Pension Scheme members that are impacted by delayed or incorrect valuations and payments are resolved as quickly as possible.
This includes payments relating to the McCloud remedy, which affects members who choose final salary or career average benefits for the remedy period (April 2015–March 2022). This also includes focus on the resolution of any unresolved cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) cases. To improve processing times of delayed CETV payments, the department is funding IT upgrades and continually working with Capita to identify other opportunities, including additional staffing resources, to ensure the Teachers’ Pension Scheme is delivered to the highest possible standard.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that children (a) requiring tracheostomy care and (b) with other complex medical needs receive adequate support in mainstream schools following the withdrawal of integrated care board funding for specialist medical provision.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Maintained schools have a legal duty under section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to “make arrangements” for supporting pupils with medical conditions, and must comply with their duties under the Equalities Act 2010. The NHS is responsible for meeting the health needs of people diagnosed with an illness or medical condition.
The regulatory arrangements for healthcare professionals provide for them to delegate the delivery of healthcare tasks where it is safe and reasonable to do so.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council Code and the Health and Care Professions Council Standards both include regulatory standards requiring registrants to delegate only when they are satisfied that the other person is competent to carry out the delegated task safely, and require the healthcare practitioner to supervise and support those who are delegated to. Where a healthcare task needs to be undertaken by a registered nurse, then it should not be delegated.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of requiring schools to (a) fund and (b) manage specialist medical support for pupils with complex health needs without clinical oversight on (i) school budgets and (ii) staff capacity.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Maintained schools have a legal duty under section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to “make arrangements” for supporting pupils with medical conditions, and must comply with their duties under the Equalities Act 2010. The NHS is responsible for meeting the health needs of people diagnosed with an illness or medical condition.
The regulatory arrangements for healthcare professionals provide for them to delegate the delivery of healthcare tasks where it is safe and reasonable to do so.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council Code and the Health and Care Professions Council Standards both include regulatory standards requiring registrants to delegate only when they are satisfied that the other person is competent to carry out the delegated task safely, and require the healthcare practitioner to supervise and support those who are delegated to. Where a healthcare task needs to be undertaken by a registered nurse, then it should not be delegated.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that (a) Leicestershire County Council and (b) other local authorities, apply the statutory guidance on Free Early Education Entitlement funding in a manner that (i) supports flexibility for working families and (ii) does not penalise private nurseries based on parental drop-off and collection times.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department regularly speaks with all local authorities in England, including Leicestershire County Council, to monitor childcare sufficiency.
The statutory guidance makes clear that local authorities should ensure that providers work with parents so that parents understand which hours and sessions can be taken as free provision. Not all providers will be able to offer fully flexible places, however providers should work with parents to ensure that, as far as possible, the pattern of the entitlement hours is convenient for parents’ working hours.
Over 500,000 children will benefit from additional funded hours this term which means that hundreds of thousands of families are better able to balance work and family life, with parents who use their full entitlement saving an average of £7,500 a year, and more children getting the high quality early education that will give them the best start in life.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that (a) nurseries in Mid Leicestershire and (b) other early years providers receive adequate levels of support to access childcare entitlements due to be implemented in September 2025; and what steps she is taking to support providers with (i) staffing, (ii) SEND provision and (iii) capital funding to meet increased demand.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change. In 2025/26, we plan to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, an additional £2 billion (over 30% increase) in comparison to 2024/25 as we roll out the expansion of the entitlements. The department continues to help people discover rewarding early years careers through the ‘Do something Big’ national recruitment campaign, building on our pilot of delivering financial incentives in 38 local authorities this year. With regards to special educational needs and disabilities, inclusion funding will fund extra resources for providers to better support inclusion and early intervention.
We have awarded £37 million of capital funding in the first phase to 300 primary schools which we expect will deliver up to 6,000 nursery places, with over 4,000 available from September 2025 to support the childcare expansion.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many permanent civil servants in her Department had their contract of employment terminated as a result of poor performance in the (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25 financial years.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department does not hold a central dataset of the reasons for a dismissal in respect of those years.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department spent on in-person surveys conducted by external polling companies in (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025 to date.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department’s expenditure is recorded by financial year. It has spent the following on public polling through external polling companies between 2023 and 31 May 2025:
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including financial education for (a) primary and (b) secondary education in the national curriculum.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
I refer the hon. Member for Mid Leicestershire to the answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43513.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Independent Schools have (a) closed and (b) announced their closure, since July 2024.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Records of school closures are publicly available on the Get Information about Schools website at: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.