Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether proposed SEND reforms will consider the experiences of SEND children with regards to SATs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Statutory tests and assessments at primary school help measure the attainment of pupils in relation to the standards set out in the national curriculum and help teachers and parents identify where pupils may need additional support in a certain subject area. The department’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms are designed to ensure that every child can access a high quality, inclusive education, with early and consistent support in place across the system.
Key stage 2 tests are subject to robust test development processes, which include reviews involving serving teachers and experts in SEND, as well as trials with hundreds of year 6 pupils. Children with SEND have a range of needs and abilities, and it is important they can participate in assessments to demonstrate their achievements. Schools can utilise a range of access arrangements where appropriate, while for any children with SEND and others who are working below the standards of the national curriculum assessments there are alternative teacher assessments.
Primary assessments were reviewed as part of the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review 2025, led by Professor Becky Francis. In line with the Review’s recommendations, we are strengthening the national curriculum so that it is more accessible and ambitious for all pupils, including those with SEND.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will consider the experiences of SEND children in SATs, and include reform of SATs and other statutory assessment in the government's plans to put inclusion at the heart of education.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Statutory tests and assessments at primary school help measure the attainment of pupils in relation to the standards set out in the national curriculum and help teachers and parents identify where pupils may need additional support in a certain subject area. The department’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms are designed to ensure that every child can access a high quality, inclusive education, with early and consistent support in place across the system.
Key stage 2 tests are subject to robust test development processes, which include reviews involving serving teachers and experts in SEND, as well as trials with hundreds of year 6 pupils. Children with SEND have a range of needs and abilities, and it is important they can participate in assessments to demonstrate their achievements. Schools can utilise a range of access arrangements where appropriate, while for any children with SEND and others who are working below the standards of the national curriculum assessments there are alternative teacher assessments.
Primary assessments were reviewed as part of the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review 2025, led by Professor Becky Francis. In line with the Review’s recommendations, we are strengthening the national curriculum so that it is more accessible and ambitious for all pupils, including those with SEND.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her proposals for SEND reform, if she will give assurance to adopters and special guardians that their children, a majority of whom require active in-school additional support, which is currently funded through a patchwork of Pupil Premium Plus at school level and by individual EHCPs, will have their particular needs taken account of in her Department’s decisions on this issue.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As part of our reforms, we will ensure children get the right support in their early years setting, school, and college. We will do this by investing in new training for all staff, early intervention, better buildings and equipment, and making sure that every setting has access to expert professional support when it is needed.
The department's consultation ‘Adoption support that works for all’ sets out a vision for more predictable, joined up support for adoptive and kinship children, including stronger multi-disciplinary work across social care, health and education. The consultation runs until 5 May 2026 and the outcomes and next steps will be published later this year. For adoptive special guardianship children, this forms an important backdrop to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) proposals. More details on the consultation are available here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/adoption-and-special-guardianship-support-fund-team/adoption-support-that-works-for-all/supporting_documents/adoption-support-that-works-for-all-consultation-document-feb-2026pdf.
Alongside this, Individual Support Plans will be developed by settings, parents and young people, giving every child or young person receiving targeted or specialist support a clear and consistent record of their needs. This will be backed by £1.6billion funding flowing directly to schools, colleges and nurseries to meet needs earlier and get support in place, as part of the £4 billion more we are investing over three years.
We also want families’ voices and experiences to shape SEND policy and local delivery, ensuring families can influence decision-making around the support they receive. Nationally we will improve access to services by increasing investment in the national helpline. Additionally, we will continue to work with and expand parent carers in strategic partnership roles to support system-wide improvements.
We are consulting on the reforms proposed in the recently published “SEND reform: putting children and young people first”, and you can access the consultation here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/send-strategy-division/send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-firs/.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to announce the future funding settlements for the Music and Dance Scheme Schools; and whether Music and Dance Scheme Schools will receive a long-term settlement.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Brighton Pavilion to my answer of 12 February 2026 to Question 111335.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the decision made to remove funding for Specialist Assessments for adopted children and children under special guardianship orders, and in the context of long waiting times experienced by constituents in Brighton Pavilion constituency for assessments through the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), if she will publish details of how CAMHS will be supported to provide these specialised services.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Up to £2,500 of Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) funding may still be used for children to access a specialist assessment. ASGSF-funded assessments are not intended as an alternative to the specialised mental health services available through the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
The current consultation ‘Adoption support that works for all’ includes proposals for a higher quality approach to assessing the needs of adoptive and eligible kinship families. This includes improved multi-disciplinary assessments and greater linkages between social care, health, and education practitioners to ensure every child gets the right support.
For 2026/27, NHS mental health spending will rise to £16.1 billion, a real terms increase of around £140 million, to support service improvements, including CAMHS. The mental health investment standard means spending must at least keep pace with inflation, supporting local systems to maintain and improve specialist services for children.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in the context of recent uncertainty about the future of the ASGSF, what steps her Department is taking to ensure consistent, high quality therapeutic support for adopted children and their families and Regional Adoption Authorities (RAAs) is continued beyond 2028.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government has carefully considered the impact of changes to adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) funding as part of the wider Spending Review process. That is why we have confirmed continued funding through to 2027/28, alongside consultation on reform, to ensure families continue to receive support while we improve how it is delivered.
The current consultation, available at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/adoption-and-special-guardianship-support-fund-team/adoption-support-that-works-for-all/supporting_documents/adoption-support-that-works-for-all-consultation-document-feb-2026pdf recognises that while many adopted and kinship children thrive, support can be slow, fragmented and inconsistent when needs arise. It sets out a vision for a more predictable and joined-up system, with universal and targeted early help, clearer support pathways and stronger multi‑disciplinary working across social care, health and education where people need more intensive support. The consultation is also a key opportunity for stakeholders to share their views on what support is effective for children. A report on the outcomes of the consultation, together with next steps, will be published later this year.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to hold universities to account on their duty of care to students.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s position is that a duty of care in higher education (HE) may arise in certain circumstances. Such circumstances would be a matter for the courts to decide, based on the specific facts and context of the case being considered, and will be dependent on the application by a court of accepted common law principles.
The department continues to work closely with students, parents, mental health experts and the HE sector to drive meaningful change in mental health practice through the HE mental health implementation taskforce. The taskforce published its second stage report, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/higher-education-mental-health-implementation-taskforce.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what response she has to the recommendation of the October 2025 final report of the Poverty Strategy Commission for Government to consult with parents and childcare providers on increasing payment rates to providers to ensure that they do not have to introduce optional charges for meals or other aspects of care to top up state funding of free hours.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
In financial year 2025/26 alone, the government has provided over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, increasing to over £9 billion in 2026/27. We have announced the largest ever increase to early years pupil premium since its introduction and have delivered a significant tranche of supplementary funding of £75 million through the early years expansion grant.
Government funding for the entitlements does not cover consumables like meals so providers are able to ask parents to pay for these things. However, the statutory guidance is clear that these charges must not be mandatory or a condition of accessing an entitlements place.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to funding for level 7 solicitor apprenticeships on (a) equalities and (b) social mobility.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Brighton Pavilion to the answer of 13 June 2025 to Question 57823.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her Department's policies of the Protect Student Choice’s report entitled Causing gaps, creating uncertainty: why the government should lift the ban on AGQ diplomas and extended diplomas in T level subjects, published on 23 July 2025.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is fully committed to the future of T Levels, which are delivering fantastic results for thousands of young people. T Level learners who go directly into work are more likely to work in a sector related to their course than learners on other large level 3 qualifications. 71% of T Level learners agreed that their course prepared them for the workplace. This is greater than learners on comparable level 3 courses with differences of 10-15 percentage points. In 2023 and 2024, 97% of T Level learners who applied for higher education through UCAS received at least one offer.
The department’s plans for further reform to level 3 qualifications will be set out soon, informed by the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review.