Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robert Halfon and Heather Wheeler

Monday 23rd October 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Heather Wheeler (South Derbyshire) (Con)]

20. What steps her Department is taking to support people aged 16 to 19 in education.

[The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)]

We are investing an additional £3.8 billion over the course of the Parliament to strengthen post-16 education and training, and we will boost 16-to-19 funding by £1.6 billion compared with 2021-22. We have launched our T-level programme, and 52% of apprenticeship starts in 2022-23 provisionally were by young people under 25.

[Mrs Wheeler]

I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. Does the Department have any jurisdiction over an academy refusing to offer a sixth-form place to a high-performing pupil with special educational needs who has more than met the academic requirements for one?

[Robert Halfon]

I was really sorry to hear about the difficult experiences of my hon. Friend’s constituent; I was disturbed to hear what has gone on. I know that my hon. Friend has raised the matter in correspondence with the Department, which the Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Wantage (David Johnston), recently addressed. I hope that her constituent is now safely settling in at her new college, but the Schools Minister and I will absolutely look at this again.