Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support local authorities to reduce SEND assessment backlogs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department publishes annual SEN2 data on education, health and care (EHC) plan assessments, including timeliness of assessment. These data underpin our monitoring of local authority performance, support targeted intervention, and strengthen transparency across the system. SEN2 returns inform regular engagement and monitoring meetings with local areas and help us identify where additional support or challenge may be required.
Through our special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) improvement and intervention programmes, we focus on areas showing signs of decline to help strengthen services. When inspections, other local intelligence or monitoring highlight concerns, including failures to meet statutory duties on EHC plan timeliness, we provide a range of universal, targeted and intensive support. This includes peer‑to‑peer support from sector-led improvement partners.
Local authorities struggling to meet the 20‑week timeframe receive enhanced monitoring, and specialist SEND Advisers are deployed where further diagnostic support is needed.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve outcomes for children with special educational needs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has recently announced £200 million of investment over the course of this Parliament to upskill staff in every school, college and nursery, ensuring a skilled workforce for generations to come. This builds on our £3 billion investment to create more specialist places and ensure more children and young people can thrive at a setting close to home.
This government is determined to deliver reform that stands the test of time and rebuilds the confidence of families, which is why we have undertaken a national conversation to gather information and views from parents, teachers and experts in every region of the country so that lived experience and partnership are at the heart of our solutions.
We will set out our plans for reform in the upcoming Schools White Paper, building on the work we’ve already done to create a system that’s rooted in inclusion, where children receive high-quality support early on and can thrive at their local school.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of levels in the availability of specialist school places in constituencies such as Aldridge-Brownhills.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure there are sufficient school places for pupils in their area, including those with special educational needs and disabilities. If a local authority identifies a shortage of places, resulting in a significant number of pupils needing to travel a long way to access a placement, they should consider creating, adapting, or expanding provision to meet that need.
The department has announced at least £3 billion for high needs capital between 2026/27 and 2029/30. Local authorities can use this funding to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools, adapt mainstream schools to be more accessible, and create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.
This builds on the £740 million invested in 2025/26, which is on track to create around 10,000 new specialist places. Of this, Walsall Council received an allocation of just over £5 million. We will confirm local authority allocations for 2026/27 later in the spring.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps is her Department taking to ensure that all pupils leave school with life-saving road safety skills.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills to the answer of 14 October 2025 to Question 77400.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure all children can access cycle training at school.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to increasing activity levels for all children. Schools have the flexibility to decide on the activities they provide to deliver a rounded and enriching education to suit their pupils’ needs.
The government currently funds a cycling training programme called Bikeability, with the aims to equip more children and families with the skills, confidence, and knowledge needed to cycle safely on roads, while encouraging active travel in everyday life. This investment is part of a broader effort to support local authorities in developing and constructing walking, wheeling, and cycling facilities across England.
The department welcomes the opportunity for continued collaboration with Bikeability to create sustainable improvements in physical activity for young people. For example, through active travel and promoting the overall wellbeing benefits of physical activity, including through cycling.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for its policies of the benefits to educational outcomes of regular physical activity.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Physical education (PE) and sport are vital elements of a rounded and enriching education that every child deserves. As outlined in the government's response to the curriculum and assessment review recommendations, the department will be strengthening the national curriculum for PE, recognising its role in supporting pupils’ wellbeing and educational outcomes.
We have also made a commitment to set out a core enrichment offer that every school and college, in every community, should aim to provide for all children beyond the statutory curriculum. Our ambition is that all schools should provide an offer to all pupils that meets the new benchmarks. This includes access to sport and physical activities, civic engagement, arts and culture, nature, outdoor and adventure, and developing wider life skills.
As announced last June by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, the department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to develop a new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network which aims to support schools to ensure all children and young people have equal access to high quality PE and extracurricular sport.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate has she made of the number of places that will be available for a) young British nationals and b) young EU nationals in each of the next five years under the new Erasmus scheme; and what assessment has she made of the expected regional allocation and breakdown of places.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We have now concluded negotiations with the European Commission on the UK’s association to Erasmus+ in 2027. This commitment covers the 2027/28 academic year. Any participation in Erasmus+ into the next Multiannual Financial Framework from 2028/34 will need to be agreed in the future and be based on a fair and balanced contribution.
We expect that over 100,000 people could benefit from mobility and partnership opportunities from participation in 2027.
We will have detailed information on the UK’s Erasmus+ beneficiaries after our first year of participation.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he will require the Department for Education or newly responsible central government bodies to publish borough-level data on SEND provision, EHCP timeliness and outcomes once funding is centralised, to ensure regional transparency for areas such as Walsall and the Black Country.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Information on the number of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) is published in the statistical release, Special educational needs in England, accessible at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england/2024-25. This includes information for each local authority on the number of pupils with SEN, their type of need, type of school attended and characteristics such as ethnicity, age sex, and free school meal eligibility.
Information on the number of education, health and care (EHC) plans maintained by each local authority is published in the statistical release, accessible at:https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans/2025. This includes information for each local authority on the number of plans maintained for all children and young people aged 0 to 25, including those educated other than in schools. It also covers the timeliness for issuing EHC plans, the number of requests for and number of EHC needs assessments carried out, the placement of children and young people with an EHC plan, and the number of plans which cease and the reasons why they cease.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 29 October 2025 to Question 83833 on Schools: Employers' Contributions, what estimate she has made of the proportion of the £3.7 billion increase in school funding for 2025-26 that will be used to meet additional costs associated with increases in employers’ National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As part of the £3.7 billion increase in funding for schools in the 2025/26 financial year, the department is providing mainstream schools and high needs settings with over £930 million to support them with the increases to employer national insurance contributions (NICs) from April 2025.