Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of requiring schools to fund extended periods of education following exclusion on safeguarding.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is for local authorities, under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996, to arrange and fund suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of exclusion, illness or other reasons, may otherwise not receive suitable education. Local authorities are required to arrange alternative provision for a permanently excluded child as soon as possible, and at the latest by the sixth school day of the child’s absence.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when schools will be reimbursed for the increase in National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
We have provided schools with over £1.1 billion to support them with the increases to employer National Insurance contributions from April 2025.
We published schools’ allocations in May 2025, and payments were made in September and October 2025.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
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 settlements in meeting pupil need and demographic growth.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Spending per pupil was at its highest ever level in the 2024/25 financial year, in real terms, and there has been further real terms growth in spending in 2025/26. The school funding settlement announced at the Spending Review more than protects per pupil funding in real terms, with a further £1.7 billion increase in 2026/27.
Every year, the department uses the schools national funding formula 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, based first and foremost on pupil numbers.
We recognise the pressures caused by demographic changes in some areas. The lagged funding system helps to give schools more certainty over funding levels. This aids their planning and is particularly important in giving schools with falling rolls time to re-organise their staffing and costs. The department also provides local authorities with growth funding, which they use to support schools whose pupil numbers are rising.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the number of children in South Cambridgeshire constituency waiting more than 20 weeks for an EHCP assessment.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not hold information on the length of time that children and young people wait for an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment to be carried out.
The department does publish information on the number of EHC plans that are issued within the statutory 20-week timeframe. The number and percentage of plans issued within this timeframe (excluding cases where exceptions apply) for both Cambridgeshire and England are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/b46a4968-aafd-4bd6-948a-08de4155ee12.
Information at constituency level is not available.
Information on EHC plans maintained by local authorities, including requests for an EHC needs assessment, the number of assessments carried out, the number where a decision is made to assess, and the number of plans issued within 20 weeks, are included in the annual statistical release. The latest January 2025 statistics were published in June 2025 here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans/2025.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the number of children waiting more than 20 weeks for an EHCP assessment.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not hold information on the length of time that children and young people wait for an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment to be carried out.
The department does publish information on the number of EHC plans that are issued within the statutory 20-week timeframe. The number and percentage of plans issued within this timeframe (excluding cases where exceptions apply) for both Cambridgeshire and England are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/b46a4968-aafd-4bd6-948a-08de4155ee12.
Information at constituency level is not available.
Information on EHC plans maintained by local authorities, including requests for an EHC needs assessment, the number of assessments carried out, the number where a decision is made to assess, and the number of plans issued within 20 weeks, are included in the annual statistical release. The latest January 2025 statistics were published in June 2025 here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans/2025.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that schools are not required to subsidise EHCP provision from their core budgets.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Since 2014, local authorities are have been required to allocate funding to their local mainstream schools according to a formula that includes factors relating to the likely incidence of special educational needs (SEN) amongst their pupils, and to identify an amount within each school’s overall budget as a guide to what they might need to spend on supporting those pupils, including those with education, health and care plans. Schools are then expected to cover additional costs in respect of SEN pupils up to £6,000 per pupil. For annual costs in excess of £6,000, the local authority should allocate top-up funding from their high needs budgets. The government is providing over £12 billion high needs funding to local authorities in the 2025/26 financial year.
Mainstream school funding is increasing by 2.6% per pupil in the 2026/27 financial year compared to 2025/26. This will support mainstream schools with ongoing costs, including the costs of SEN support. When the Schools White Paper is published later this year, it will set out additional funding for both schools and local authorities to drive forward much needed reform of the SEN and disability system.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
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 Government's SEND reforms on children and young people in South Cambridgeshire.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department will set out the full Schools White Paper later in the new year, building on the work we have already done to create a system that is rooted in inclusion, where children receive high quality support early on and can thrive at their local school. Impact assessments will be produced alongside final reform proposals when published in the Schools White Paper.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of administrative and bureaucratic barriers within local authorities on the timeliness of EHCP assessments.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department understands that some families face challenges with securing education, health and care (EHC) plans in a timely way. We are committed to restoring confidence in the system of support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) so that they all get the opportunities they need to achieve and thrive in their education.
The department publishes annual SEN2 data on EHC plans and assessments, including timeliness. This informs performance monitoring and targeted support. Local authorities performing poorly receive additional oversight and specialist advice.
The department continues to monitor and work closely with local authorities that have issues with EHC plans timeliness. This includes, where needed, providing specialist SEND Adviser support to help identify the barriers to carrying out the EHC plan process in a timely way and to put in place practical plans for recovery.
A new SEND inspection framework launched in January 2023, with all local areas to be inspected by 2027, to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will promote multimodal literacy as part of the new curriculum rollout.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is for every child and young person to receive a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative education.
The department agrees with the Curriculum and Assessment Review that building the skills for young people to critically engage with and assess information from a range of sources, including multi-modal texts, is increasingly important
The reformed English programme of study and English language GCSE will expose students to the study of a wider range of text types and genres, including transient texts, supporting them to analyse and challenge arguments, building media literacy.
Media literacy is an increasingly important skill to enable young people to identify “fake news” and to spot different types of mis- and disinformation, especially online.
Secure, well-founded knowledge is essential for students to understand how arguments are constructed across different types of media and to recognise the various ways in which language can be used to persuade.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timeline is for the (a) new oracy framework and (b) combined oracy, writing and reading framework.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department welcomes the Curriculum and Assessment Review’s focus on oracy. Expressing oneself fluently and communicating well is crucial for life and work, and an important vehicle for social justice.
We will make sure that communication skills are more clearly expressed through revised programmes of study. We will also create a primary oracy framework and a combined secondary oracy, writing and reading framework to be published following the revised national curriculum.
The primary oracy framework will support teachers to help their pupils become confident, fluent speakers by the end of key stage 2. This will build on our primary frameworks for reading and writing.