Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of reviewing the No Recourse to Public Funds income thresholds to ensure equity of eligibility for all children when expanding access to the free school meals to children from families in receipt of universal credit.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department has permanently extended free school meal eligibility to children in all households with no recourse to public funds, provided they meet income thresholds set out in public guidance.
This ensures that children can access support regardless of their background or circumstances, including the immigration status of their parents.
The income thresholds for No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) households were designed to account for the differences in household income between NRPF households and those with access to additional state support to ensure parity.
The government has set out plans to extend free school meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. The department continues to keep all aspects of the free school meals system under review.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has plans to introduce monitoring arrangements to assess compliance with the updated school food standards once they are in force.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department aims to revise the School Food Standards and is engaging with stakeholders to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history.
School governors and trustees have a statutory duty to ensure compliance, holding school leaders to account for meeting the School Food Standards. Through our review, we will engage with the sector on a range of matters, including improving compliance.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to launch the consultation on updating school food standards.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department aims to revise the school food standards and is engaging with stakeholders to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history. We intend to consult on these revisions and further details on timings will be available in due course.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has issued guidance to schools following the inquest into the death of Benedict Blythe.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has not issued any guidance to schools following the inquest into the tragic death of Benedict Blythe.
The department encourages schools, colleges and settings to use resources such as those published in the allergy guidance for schools as part of their work to fulfil their statutory duties to manage allergy risks. This guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-food-standards-resources-for-schools/allergy-guidance-for-schools.
The government has committed to reviewing the statutory guidance on supporting pupils with medical conditions at school (2015), and we intend to consult on revised guidance. The current guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.
Our aim is to ensure that schools are better equipped to support all pupils with medical conditions as part of our wider ambition to create more inclusive schools through the forthcoming Schools White Paper.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that schools' core budgets in more deprived communities are not disproportionately used to meet the costs of providing free school meals.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
This department spends over £1.5 billion annually supporting the provision of free and nutritious meals to around 3.4 million children. We have also set aside over £1 billion over the multi-year spending review period to back our significant expansion of free meals support to all households on Universal Credit, taking effect from September 2026 and benefitting over half a million children.
As with all policies, we continue to keep free meals policy, including funding, under review to ensure that nutritious meals continue to be deliverable. Departmental officials meet regularly with the sector, including the school catering industry, and use these insights to inform our work.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of continuing the use of Education, Health and Care Plans to support children who have Special Education Needs and Disabilities with a guaranteed right to support.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department is determined to restore confidence in the system of support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), so that all children and young people get the chance to achieve and thrive in their education. Our aim is to improve educational outcomes.
The department is working with and listening to parents, local authorities, SEND organisations, education settings and others on how best we can strengthen the SEND system. We want to deliver better support for these vulnerable children and young people and their parents, and we are committed to getting this right. We will continue with this engagement over the summer, in preparation for consultation on a Schools White Paper in the autumn.
We have made no decisions yet on the future of education, health and care plans. There will, however, always be a legal right to additional support for children and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of schools have administered adrenaline auto-injector devices to pupils experiencing anaphylaxis at school in each year since 2017.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department does not hold this data.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has considered the implications of the more costly staffing ratios for Special Educational Needs Schools and Alternative Provisions (APs) in the funding arrangement for the new national primary breakfast club program.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The early adopter scheme will test and learn how schools are able to use programme funding, support and guidance to ensure inclusive and accessible provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities, in a range of schools, including special schools and alternative provision (AP).
In recognition of the need for higher staff to pupil ratios in these settings, special schools and AP will receive a higher funding rate per pupil in addition to the fixed termly payments and set up cost funding.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to provide financial assistance mirroring arrangements for schools via the Music and Dance Scheme to cover the cost of changes to (a) employer National Insurance contributions and (b) the National Minimum Wage.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The Music and Dance Scheme grant funding of both private schools and Centres for Advanced Training relates to financing places via means-tested bursaries only and is not intended as direct funding to meet wider employment costs.
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Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to (a) promote and (b) monitor the use of individual healthcare plans in schools to support young people living with arthritis.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. Some children with medical conditions may be considered to be disabled under the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010. Where this is the case, governing bodies must comply with their duties under that Act.
Governing bodies should ensure that all schools develop a policy for supporting pupils with medical conditions that is reviewed regularly and is readily accessible to parents and school staff. They must ensure that the arrangements they put in place are sufficient to meet their statutory responsibilities and should ensure that policies, plans, procedures and systems are properly and effectively implemented.
The statutory guidance ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’ recommends the use of individual healthcare plans as good practice. They can help schools support pupils with medical conditions, providing clarity about what needs to be done, when and by whom. The school, healthcare professionals and parents should agree, based on evidence, when a healthcare plan would be appropriate. The guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5ce6a72e40f0b620a103bd53/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions.pdf.