Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department issues to local Government on safeguarding procedures for drivers transporting pupils to and from school.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Local authorities are responsible for arranging free home-to-school travel for eligible children. The department publishes statutory guidance to assist local authorities in meeting their duties.
The statutory guidance makes clear that local authorities must ensure the arrangements they make are suitable for the needs of the children concerned. They should ensure drivers and passenger assistants have undergone an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check with a check of the children’s barred list, and that they have received training in safeguarding and any other training they need to meet the specific needs of the children travelling.
In addition, health and safety law requires local authorities to assess risk and put in place reasonably practicable control measures to protect their employers and others, including the children for whom they arrange travel, from harm.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on special measures for local authorities not meeting statutory requirements for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department publishes annual SEN2 data on education, health and care (EHC) plans and assessments, including timeliness. This informs performance monitoring and targeted support. Where a council does not meet its duties, the department can take action that prioritises children’s needs and supports local areas to bring about rapid improvement, including through issuing improvement notices or statutory directions to drive urgent improvements.
The department works with NHS England, to support and intervene in areas of poor performance following inspection.
Recent changes to the Area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) framework conducted by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, in consultation with the department and the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, include specifying which member of the partnership should take forward areas for improvement or areas for priority action. This would include areas for improvement and priority action being directed specifically to health where appropriate.
We will work together with all stakeholders to understand the impact of any SEND reforms on Area SEND inspections and changes needed as a result of these reforms.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the changes to attendance and penalty notice regulations that came into effect on 19 August 2024 on school (a) staffing and (b) workload.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The changes to the regulations governing the school attendance register simplify and consolidate what is recorded in the attendance register by schools, reducing their complexity and burden on schools.
The changes to the penalty notice regulations aimed to improve the consistency in how penalty notices are used across the country, ending the previous postcode lottery. 81% of school or academy trust respondents agreed with the idea of a consistent national threshold for considering a penalty notice in the 2022 public consultation, which is available here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-attendance-policy-and-strategy-team/school-registers-and-national-thresholds-for-legal/supporting_documents/Consultation%20Document_Pupil%20Registration%20Regulations_Thresholds%20Legal%20Intervention.pdf.
Local authorities require information from schools to process a penalty notice. How this is done is agreed locally and should not place an undue burden on schools.
We will keep the policies under review through regular engagement with schools.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to provide additional funding to schools to help support the administrative workload resulting from the attendance and penalty notice regulations introduced in August 2024.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The changes to the regulations governing the school attendance register simplify and consolidate what is recorded in the attendance register by schools, reducing their complexity and burden on schools.
The changes to the penalty notice regulations aimed to improve the consistency in how penalty notices are used across the country, ending the previous postcode lottery. 81% of school or academy trust respondents agreed with the idea of a consistent national threshold for considering a penalty notice in the 2022 public consultation, which is available here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-attendance-policy-and-strategy-team/school-registers-and-national-thresholds-for-legal/supporting_documents/Consultation%20Document_Pupil%20Registration%20Regulations_Thresholds%20Legal%20Intervention.pdf.
Local authorities require information from schools to process a penalty notice. How this is done is agreed locally and should not place an undue burden on schools.
We will keep the policies under review through regular engagement with schools.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support Surrey County Council to deliver more housing for care leavers to improve Education, Employment and Training opportunities.
Answered by Janet Daby
The government is committed to improving support for care leavers. Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we are placing a new duty on local authorities to provide ‘Staying Close’ support to care leavers up to age 25 where their welfare requires it and requiring local authorities to publish their arrangements for supporting care leavers’ transition to adulthood. The Bill will also ensure care leavers cannot be found intentionally homeless and will introduce corporate parenting responsibilities for government departments and relevant public bodies so that they better take the needs of care leavers into account. We also fund local authorities to help care leavers stay with their foster families up to age 21, known as ‘Staying Put’.
Support is available for eligible care leavers to access bursaries to engage in education, employment and training, including £2,000 for university and £3,000 for apprenticeships.
Wider housing reforms will also benefit care leavers. On 2 July, we announced a ten-year plan to deliver the largest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation, alongside lasting improvements in safety and quality. Additionally, from 10 July, eligible care leavers under 25 will no longer need to meet a local connection or residency test to access social housing.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support Surrey County Council to improve support for children who go missing or are at risk of exploitation.
Answered by Janet Daby
Following support from the department and others, Surrey County Council's children's services were judged by Ofsted to be ‘Good’ in March 2025.
Statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ (2023), is clear that children at risk of or experiencing harm from outside their home should receive a multi-agency safeguarding response, recognising threats may arise from school, peer groups, online or the wider community.
In 2023, we published a set of multi-agency practice principles to guide local areas in their response to keeping children and young people safe from child exploitation and extra-familial harm. The principles bring together the best available evidence in this area and have been developed through extensive consultation with professionals, children, young people, parents and carers. These principles are available here: https://tce.researchinpractice.org.uk/.
Our Families First Partnership Programme, backed by over £500 million investment per year over the next three years, is rolling out reforms to family help and multi-agency child protection, including where harm is outside the home.
We expect safeguarding partners to work together to reduce the chances of children going missing, to respond effectively when they do and understand why.
We have provided clear guidance about responsibilities for all children who go missing.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support Surrey County Council improve collaborative safety planning.
Answered by Janet Daby
Following support from the department and others, Surrey County Council's children's services were judged by Ofsted to be ‘Good’ in March 2025.
Statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ (2023), is clear that children at risk of or experiencing harm from outside their home should receive a multi-agency safeguarding response, recognising threats may arise from school, peer groups, online or the wider community.
In 2023, we published a set of multi-agency practice principles to guide local areas in their response to keeping children and young people safe from child exploitation and extra-familial harm. The principles bring together the best available evidence in this area and have been developed through extensive consultation with professionals, children, young people, parents and carers. These principles are available here: https://tce.researchinpractice.org.uk/.
Our Families First Partnership Programme, backed by over £500 million investment per year over the next three years, is rolling out reforms to family help and multi-agency child protection, including where harm is outside the home.
We expect safeguarding partners to work together to reduce the chances of children going missing, to respond effectively when they do and understand why.
We have provided clear guidance about responsibilities for all children who go missing.