Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Spending Review 2025, CP 1336, published on 11 June 2025, what the constituent parts are of the commitment to making at least 5% savings and efficiencies other than the changes already announced to Level 7 apprenticeships.

Spending Review 2025 delivers on the Plan for Change and sets out spending plans for the rest of the Parliament. The settlement for the department ensures that we can invest in excellence for every child, so that we break the unfair link between background and success.

As set out in the Department for Education's section of the Departmental Efficiency Delivery Plans, the department will deliver efficiencies in both its frontline and non-frontline spending.

95% of the department spending goes to the frontline and we will continue to support frontline providers in getting maximum value from every pound spent.

In relation to children’s social care, for example, the programme (joint with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) to reform the sector focuses on preventative activity which avoids families’ needs escalating, reducing costs and demand in the system. In relation to schools, the department will work alongside the sector to go further to get best value from their resources and is expanding the suite of productivity initiatives available. We will also work with the further education (FE) sector to improve the value for money of government spend by providing FE Commissioner support to colleges and other relevant providers. We are seeking to provide opportunities for economies of scale arising from more 16 to 19-year-olds moving into post-16 education and training, simplifying processes and reducing data collection burdens, and providing greater certainty of capital funding to enable colleges with estate planning, and exploring commercial efficiencies. Further information can be found in the Departmental Efficiency Delivery Plans.