Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of directing Ofsted to ensure that one third of inspections are carried out without notice.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Ofsted typically gives a short period of notice of its inspections, to support the effective conduct of the inspection visit. It retains the ability to inspect without notice where it has concerns about a provider. For example, in early years inspections, notice normally takes place at around midday on the day before the inspection. Between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, there were 1,400 unannounced inspections (16%) in early years settings.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the absence of a formal central email channel for early years foundation stage updates for early years settings on the safety of children in those settings.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
When changes are made to the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework, the department ensures that there is a programme of communications and engagement with the sector to ensure they understand the changes being made. This includes emails sent to local authorities to disseminate to all early years settings.
In addition, where appropriate, the department produces webinars and vodcasts on the Foundation Years website, which we promote to the sector via numerous channels, including local authorities, stronger practice hubs and sector representatives. The Foundation Years website is available here: https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that Ofsted inspections are (a) standardised and (b) include safe sleep practice.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Ofsted will receive additional funding as part of the Best Start in Life Strategy to enhance the quality and consistency of early years inspections, and we will fund Ofsted to move towards inspecting all providers at least once every four years, in parity with schools.
Ofsted’s inspectors for early years inspections are early years professionals with relevant knowledge of safer sleep practice and are capable of assessing a provider’s adherence to the relevant suitability and safer sleeping requirements in the early years foundation stage (EYFS). In September 2025 we strengthened the safeguarding requirements in the EYFS statutory framework, including:
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of requests for an Education Health and Care Plan assessment are decided within the 6 week deadline in (a) each of the ten districts of Greater Manchester and (b) England; and how many and what proportion of these requests are approved.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The total number of requests for an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment which were decided within six weeks can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans/2025. This has been available since 26 June 2025.
A further breakdown of these figures showing the outcome of requests for an EHC needs assessment, which were decided within six weeks, is shown in the attached table.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2025 to Question 67189Pre-school Education: Accidents and Death, what steps she is taking to ensure that early years foundation stage safeguarding requirements are (a) implemented within early years settings, (b) read by staff on a mandatory basis and (c) communicated (i) consistently and (ii) coherently when changed.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements all early years providers must legally follow to ensure that children have the best start in life and are kept healthy and safe. The framework is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2.
Ofsted is responsible for the registration, regulation and inspection of childcare provision in England. Ofsted, as a regulator, has a responsibility to check that providers meet the EYFS requirements.
The EYFS framework states that early years providers must ensure that practitioners are supported and confident to implement the setting’s safeguarding policy and procedures on an ongoing basis.
The safeguarding changes to the EYFS framework in September 2025 were supported by a programme of communications and engagement, including webinars and vodcasts via the Foundation Years website. We worked with the sector and local authorities to ensure they understood the changes being made and how to implement them. The Foundation Years website is available here: https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/2025/07/early-years-foundation-stage-eyfs-safeguarding-reforms-2025/.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Department is taking to intervene when a multi-academy trust does not investigate serious safeguarding complaints adequately.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Academy trusts must comply with their statutory safeguarding responsibilities set out in the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014. The regulations require trusts to have regard to the ‘Keeping children safe in education’ and ‘Working together to safeguard children’ statutory guidance. This includes having robust procedures for managing safeguarding concerns. Each academy within a trust must have a designated safeguarding lead responsible for managing referrals and working with external agencies. Failure to act appropriately can trigger external review or intervention.
The department follows up safeguarding issues, where appropriate, to obtain assurance that trusts are meeting their statutory responsibilities to safeguard all children in its schools. The department can enforce compliance through the trust’s funding agreement and the Academy Trust Handbook, which includes safeguarding obligations. Breaches may lead to formal intervention and regulatory action such as issuing a notice to improve or terminating the agreement.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department collects data on (a) internal and (b) fixed-term exclusions in primary schools, broken down by race.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department does not collect data on circumstances where schools remove a pupil from the classroom, for serious disciplinary reasons, and where they are required to spend a limited time out of the classroom. Some schools call this internal suspension.
The department publishes data on suspensions and permanent exclusions in state-funded schools in England. The most recent full academic year release, covering 2023/24, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/suspensions-and-permanent-exclusions-in-england/2023-24. This has been available since 10 July 2025.
Published data includes numbers and rates of suspensions, by ethnicity, in state-funded primary schools and is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/f3a89f3f-b18e-46c3-a167-08dde2cf2374.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has a planned timeline for consultation on the proposed International Tuition Fee Levy; and which higher education institutions she has (a) met with and (b) plans to meet with in the future in relation to that proposal.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The immigration White Paper sets out a series of measures that will achieve a reduction in net migration, while maintaining the UK’s globally competitive offer to international students and making a significant contribution to growth by boosting our skills base.
This includes the commitment to explore the introduction of a levy on higher education provider income from international students, with proceeds to be reinvested in the domestic higher education (HE) and skills system. The department will engage with the HE sector on the design of the international student levy and wants to understand providers’ views on this work.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential financial impact of the proposed International Tuition Fee Levy on English Universities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The immigration White Paper sets out a series of measures that will achieve a reduction in net migration, while maintaining the UK’s globally competitive offer to international students and making a significant contribution to growth by boosting our skills base.
This includes the commitment to explore the introduction of a levy on higher education provider income from international students, with proceeds to be reinvested in the domestic higher education (HE) and skills system. The department will engage with the HE sector on the design of the international student levy and wants to understand providers’ views on this work.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed International Tuition Fee Levy on the global competitiveness of higher education and research in England.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The immigration White Paper sets out a series of measures that will achieve a reduction in net migration, while maintaining the UK’s globally competitive offer to international students and making a significant contribution to growth by boosting our skills base.
This includes the commitment to explore the introduction of a levy on higher education provider income from international students, with proceeds to be reinvested in the domestic higher education (HE) and skills system. The department will engage with the HE sector on the design of the international student levy and wants to understand providers’ views on this work.