Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment she has made of the adequacy of the level of funding for EHCP plans in (a) the UK, (b) the West Midlands and (c) Dudley constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, following the Autumn Budget 2024. This brings total high needs funding for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to over £12 billion.
Of that total high needs funding, the West Midlands region is being allocated over £1,228 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of over £95 million on their 2024/25 DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula. Dudley Council specifically is being allocated over £62 million through the high needs funding block of the DSG, an increase of over £5 million on 2024/25.
Local authorities allocate this funding to schools, colleges and other settings, to help them with the costs of SEND provision, including for those children and young people with education, health and care plans. The department provides operational guidance for local authorities to support their allocation of high needs funding: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-funding-arrangements-2025-to-2026.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of publishing records of incidents and fatalities at nurseries.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s priority is to grow high-quality, affordable and flexible education and care for children, whilst ensuring their safety, giving every child the best start of life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
The department is responsible for setting the standards which early years settings such as nurseries must follow, these are set out in the early years foundation stage statutory framework. The department has responsibility for policy on inspection and registration but how it is implemented is for Ofsted to decide and to be held to account by Parliament.
Given the sensitivity and quality of the information around incidents, Ofsted do not publish incident data as routine statistics. However, their annual report and accounts include some national level data on notifications that may relate to incidents. The latest is accessible at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67e575d987cebda7c4ca4cde/31795_Ofsted_Annual_Report_and_Accounts_2023-24_-_Accessible.pdf.
Ofsted can only commit to publishing national headline data about the number of complaints or notifications relating to incidents.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she considered the potential merits of providing a higher level of funding to help support the implementation of the updated National Occupational Standards for hair and beauty qualifications.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is appreciated that over time National Occupational Standards change. The department expects providers to use the available funding to undertake any changes required.
The department uses the 16 to 19 funding formula to calculate the funding to institutions each academic year for the students they recruit. Funding rates depend on the size of students’ study programmes or T Levels, regardless of the type of institution.
In the 2025/26 academic year, the department will increase the national funding rate for students aged 16 and 17 and students aged 18 and over with high needs by 5.4%, compared with 2024/25, to £5,105. Other funding bands will increase proportionately.
For adults, the department is spending £1.4 billion on the Adult Skills Fund (ASF) in the 2025/26 academic year, ensuring that adults can access the education and training they need to get into employment or progress in work.
Currently, 62% of the ASF is devolved to nine Mayoral Strategic Authorities and the Greater London Authority. These authorities are responsible for the provision of ASF-funded adult education for their residents and allocation of the ASF to learning providers. The department is responsible for the remaining ASF in non-devolved areas.
For the 2024/25 academic year, the department introduced five new funding rates that apply to non-devolved ASF. Under these new funding rates, 78% of qualifications have seen an increase in funding. There are a range of factors that influence the funding bands, such as skills needs and the cost of delivery.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department provides for the provision of English for Speakers of Other Languages courses in the West Midlands Combined Authority area.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department will provide approximately £1.4 billion in funding for the Adult Skills Fund (ASF) in the 2025/26 academic year to ensure that adult learners can access the education and training they need to get into employment or progress in work. The ASF supports a range of courses, including English for speakers of other languages (ESOL).
Currently, 62% of the ASF is devolved to 9 Mayoral Strategic Authorities, including West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), and the Greater London Authority. These authorities are responsible for the provision of ASF-funded adult education for their residents and allocation of the ASF to learning providers.
WMCA devolved ASF budget for the 2024/25 academic year was £133.7 million. WMCA decide what to spend their ASF budget on and this includes ESOL. By honouring the department’s commitments to combine and further devolve adult skills funding, we give those with local knowledge the power they need to make decisions that are best for their areas.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure awarding bodies for hair and beauty qualifications update their (a) guidance and (b) training to promote inclusivity for all (i) hair and (ii) skin types.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This is a matter for the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual). I have asked its Chief Regulator, Sir Ian Bauckham, to write to my hon. Friend, the member for Dudley directly and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that social workers are trained to deal with (a) domestic violence and (b) the alienation of family members.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The regulator for the social work profession, Social Work England (SWE), sets the professional standards which all social workers must meet throughout their careers. Standard 6 refers to ‘Promote ethical practice and report concerns’ with paragraph 6.1 specifically relating to identifying and reporting abusive behaviour. Standard 1, ‘Promote the rights, strengths and wellbeing of people, families and communities’ paragraph 1.4, relates to recognising the importance of family members.
The providers that deliver Social Work initial education have their courses assured and approved by the regulator against the education and training standards. Course providers must update and design their courses to incorporate new and emerging results from developments in research, legislation, government policy and best practice. Once a social worker is degree qualified, they are expected, as part of the registration renewal process, to evidence ongoing continuous professional development. Provision of continuous professional development for employed social workers is a matter for their employer.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) keeping records of all incidents in nurseries and (b) making these statistics publicly available.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government’s priority is to grow high-quality, affordable and flexible education and care for children, whilst ensuring their safety, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
The department is responsible for setting the standards which early years settings such as nurseries must follow, these are set out in the early years foundation stage statutory framework. The department has responsibility for policy on inspection and registration, but how it is implemented is for Ofsted to decide, and to be held to account by Parliament.
Given the sensitivity and quality of the information around incidents, Ofsted does not publish incident data as routine statistics. However, their annual report and accounts include some national level data on notifications that may relate to incidents. This document can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67e575d987cebda7c4ca4cde/31795_Ofsted_Annual_Report_and_Accounts_2023-24_-_Accessible.pdf.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding has been allocated for STEM professional development from April 2025; and how teachers will access this funding.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The following programmes are delivering teacher professional development in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the 2024/25 academic year.
The Maths Hub Programme, which is supported by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, provides school-to-school support on subject knowledge and pedagogy training for teachers of mathematics. The aim is to raise the standard of mathematics education from reception to age 18 and enhance the quality of mathematics teaching through a collaborative national network of mathematics educational professionals. Teachers can access support by contacting their Maths Hub here: https://www.ncetm.org.uk/maths-hubs/find-your-hub/.
The Advanced Maths Support Programme (AMSP) provides high quality teacher continuing professional development (CPD) and national support to increase participation and attainment in level 3 Maths. Support is provided across all state-funded schools and colleges in England and prioritises areas of greatest need. Teachers can access support through the AMSP website here: https://amsp.org.uk/.
The mathematics and English 16 to 19 further education (FE) workforce grant supports CPD activity targeted at teachers who teach level 2 and below mathematics and English to 16 to 19 year-olds, including GCSEs and Functional Skills Qualifications (FSQs), in FE settings in line with the Condition of Funding policy. The department is currently running a grant competition to secure new providers.
The Subject Knowledge for Physics Teaching programme is a series of blended learning courses, offered for free, covering the key stage 3 and key stage 4 physics curriculum to support non-specialist teachers of physics to enhance their subject knowledge. These are delivered and supported by physics specialists who identify eligible schools across England and include face-to-face sessions, online tutorials and independent learning. Teachers may apply to take part through ‘STEM Learning’, which can be found here: https://www.stem.org.uk/.
The National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) supports teachers through the provision of online CPD, as well as other elements such as industry-led outreach events, a revision platform, programmes to encourage more girls into computing and a self-assessment tool for schools to review their computing provision. Further details of the support offered to teachers can be found at: https://teachcomputing.org/.
Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) courses support recruitment to initial teacher training in hard-to-recruit subjects with funding currently available in the following STEM subjects: chemistry, computing, mathematics and physics. SKE participants benefit from blended courses tailored to their individual needs to meet the minimum knowledge required to train to teach their chosen subject, which leads to the award of Qualified Teacher Status. Details can be found here: https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/how-to-apply-for-teacher-training/subject-knowledge-enhancement.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to (a) improve university access for students from underrepresented backgrounds and (b) tackle financial barriers faced by such students.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government will support the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university, regardless of their background.
Too many people across our country do not get the opportunity to succeed. The government will act to change this.
The government recognises that UK higher education creates opportunity, is a world-leading sector in our economy and supports local communities. The government is committed to a sustainable funding model, which supports high value provision thereby powering opportunity and growth and meeting the skills needs of the country.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to tackle disparities in educational attainment between the most and least affluent area; and whether she plans to review the funding formula to help ensure more effective distribution of resources to schools serving disadvantaged communities in (a) Dudley and (b) elsewhere.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department wants to break down barriers to opportunity for every child, no matter what their background, and have an education system in which all children and young people can achieve and thrive.
All children deserve to have the best start in life, and the department will achieve this by ensuing access to high-quality early education and childcare. By upgrading space in primary schools, the department will create an additional 3,000 nurseries which will transform life chances.
The department has moved quickly to start driving up school standards by beginning work to recruit an additional 6,500 expert teachers, and have already launched an independent, expert-led curriculum and assessment review to deliver our ambition for every child and young person to study a curriculum which is rich and broad, inclusive and innovative.
The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will ensure our education and children’s social care systems transform life chances for millions of children and young people, by ensuring the school system is fair for every child. Every primary school, including those in Dudley, will be required to provide free breakfast clubs, to ensure that every child, no matter their background, is well prepared for the school day. We will limit the number of branded uniform items that a school can require to cut costs for parents and families.
The schools national funding formula (NFF) distributes funding based on school and pupil characteristics. The NFF targets funding to schools which have the greatest numbers of pupils with additional needs. In 2024/25, 10.2% of the formula is targeted towards deprived pupils. The department is considering the impact of the formula on local authorities, including Dudley. It is important that there is a fair education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed.
More widely, for too many children, living in poverty robs them of opportunity and affects their ability to learn. Child poverty has gone up by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family.
My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, therefore announced the appointment of the Secretary of State for Work and Pension and the Secretary of State for Education to be the joint leads of a new ministerial taskforce, to begin work on a Child Poverty Strategy. The government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, tackle the root causes, and give every child the best start at life.