Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure opportunities for artists are spread more evenly across the country.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government prioritises making creative careers accessible for everyone and we are working closely with the arts sector to address barriers.
With regards to improving access to creative careers, the government has committed to delivering a refreshed UK-wide £9 million creative careers service. We will partner with industry to equip the next generation of young people with the ambition and knowledge to work in the creative industries and arts. We have also invested £500,000 to expand the King’s Trust Creative Futures programme, which is designed to break down barriers to jobs in the creative industries for young people across the country who are, or at risk of being, not in education, employment or training (NEET).
In February this year we announced a review of Arts Council England which will examine how the Arts Council can be best positioned to unlock creativity and cultural excellence in every corner of the country - making sure its structure and decision-making truly work for all communities.
Further, Arts Council England (ACE) is targeting 54 areas in England where cultural engagement and investment have been historically low through its Priority Places programme. In the 2024/25 financial year, ACE invested almost £27 million through National Lottery Project Grants (NLPG) into Priority Places.
In response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, the government has committed to revitalising arts education through a reformed curriculum and through support for teachers. A new National Centre for Arts and Music Education will improve social mobility by ensuring high quality arts education is an essential part of the broad and rich curriculum every child deserves. It will achieve this through three key areas: supporting excellent arts teaching, developing sustainable partnerships and promoting arts education.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve access to careers and address socioeconomic divides in the arts.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government prioritises making creative careers accessible for everyone and we are working closely with the arts sector to address barriers.
With regards to improving access to creative careers, the government has committed to delivering a refreshed UK-wide £9 million creative careers service. We will partner with industry to equip the next generation of young people with the ambition and knowledge to work in the creative industries and arts. We have also invested £500,000 to expand the King’s Trust Creative Futures programme, which is designed to break down barriers to jobs in the creative industries for young people across the country who are, or at risk of being, not in education, employment or training (NEET).
In February this year we announced a review of Arts Council England which will examine how the Arts Council can be best positioned to unlock creativity and cultural excellence in every corner of the country - making sure its structure and decision-making truly work for all communities.
Further, Arts Council England (ACE) is targeting 54 areas in England where cultural engagement and investment have been historically low through its Priority Places programme. In the 2024/25 financial year, ACE invested almost £27 million through National Lottery Project Grants (NLPG) into Priority Places.
In response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, the government has committed to revitalising arts education through a reformed curriculum and through support for teachers. A new National Centre for Arts and Music Education will improve social mobility by ensuring high quality arts education is an essential part of the broad and rich curriculum every child deserves. It will achieve this through three key areas: supporting excellent arts teaching, developing sustainable partnerships and promoting arts education.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to encourage young people to pursue careers in the creative and digital sectors.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
High-quality careers guidance helps young people make informed choices about their futures, so they can develop their interests and potential, and follow the path that is right for them to progress into work.
Making creative careers accessible for everyone is a key priority for the Government. Last month was ‘Discover! Creative Careers Month’ as part of our Creative Careers Programme which seeks to increase awareness, consideration and uptake of creative careers among young people aged 13-17 years old, as well as their parents and carers. The month provided 70,000 young people aged 11-18 years old with employer-led experiences and opportunities, including experiences related to digital careers, such as video games and VFX.
In our Creative Industries Sector Plan, published in June, we committed to refreshing the £9 million Creative Careers Programme as a UK-wide programme. We will partner with industry to equip the next generation of young people with the ambition and knowledge to work in the creative industries, including the createch sector, and the refreshed programme will launch in the next financial year.
Building on the Creative Careers Programme, the government announced in November that we were investing £500,000 to expand Creative Futures, delivered through The King’s Trust. The programme is designed to break down barriers to jobs in the creative industries for young people across the country who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), or at risk of being so – particularly those facing significant barriers and currently underrepresented in the creative industries.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage more young men into education.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The department recognises that participation statistics indicate females generally have lower not in employment, education or training (NEET) rates than males in most years.
In the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, we set out a comprehensive NEET prevention package to reduce NEET numbers.
Local authorities are required to offer all young people aged 16–19 support to encourage, enable or assist them to effectively participate in education or training.
The government has introduced a new Youth Guarantee to ensure that every young person has a clear pathway into education, training, or work. We have allocated £45 million for Trailblazers in the 2025/26 financial year, with a further £45 million in 2026/27, to develop and test innovative ways to bring together local leadership and support.
The department will support the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university, regardless of their background and personal characteristics.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) specialist school places and (b) resourced mainstream places for pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans are available in (i) Middlesbrough local authority area and (ii) Stockton-on-Tees local authority area; and what plans she has to increase specialist provision in those areas.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As of May 2024, Middlesbrough has 681 special school places, and 369 special educational needs (SEN) unit or resourced provision places. Stockton-on-Tees has 667 special school places and 207 SEN unit or resourced provision places.
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), sits with local authorities. The department supports local authorities to provide suitable school places for children and young people with SEND through annual high needs capital funding, including through the £740 million confirmed for the 2025/26 financial year. Of this funding, Middlesbrough has been allocated £1.4 million and Stockton-on-Tees has been allocated £2.2 million.
This funding is intended to create resourced provision adapted to support pupils needs. It can also be used to adapt mainstream schools to be more accessible and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies educational attainment of boys and girls by (a) ethnicity and (b) social class in (i) England, (ii) Greater Manchester and (iii) Oldham.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed. However, educational inequalities exist across the country and at every phase of education, particularly for white working-class children.
These gaps, whether in Oldham or nationally, are not acceptable.
Through the government’s Plan for Change, we are tackling these inequalities. The department will invest close to £1.5 billion over the next three years on improving family services and early years education to close gaps.
The department is rolling out expanded government-funded childcare entitlements and creating thousands of school-based nurseries to increase the provision of quality childcare. We will fund Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority ensuring children and families needing support most, especially those from low-income backgrounds or with additional vulnerabilities, can access it. This includes building on the great work already done by Oldham’s seven family hubs funded in this financial year.
We are expanding free school meals to all children on Universal Credit from September 2026 and have delivered record increases to early years pupil premium.
This is alongside work to drive high and rising school standards, including regional improvement for standards and excellence attainment conferences with the North-West conference open to schools in Oldham.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department have considered the sustainability of current per-pupil funding allocations.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The overall core schools budget (CSB) is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning the CSB totals £65.3 billion, compared to almost £61.6 billion in the 2024/25 financial year.
The £3.7 billion increase includes the £2.3 billion announced at the October Budget 2024, and £1.4 billion in additional funding being provided to support schools with staff pay awards as well as the increases to employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) from April 2025.
Funding for schools is increasing by £4.2 billion per year by 2028/29, compared to 2025/26. This additional funding will provide an above real terms per pupil increase on the core schools budget, taking per-pupil funding to its highest ever level and enabling us to transform the special educational needs and disabilities system.
This investment is also a critical step forward in our mission to support all children and young people to achieve and thrive and will support teachers and leaders to deliver high and rising standards across every school and for every pupil.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress her Department has made on expanding access to youth cultural programmes in areas with historically low participation.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has taken a number of steps to expand youth access to cultural programmes in under-served areas.
Arts Council England (ACE) is targeting 54 areas in England where cultural engagement and investment have been historically low through its Priority Places programme. All 54 areas include Music Hub provision which provide engagement aimed at young people; and some of the national portfolio organisations operating in Priority Places are entirely focused on children and young people, such as the BookTrust, the UK's largest reading charity which reaches millions of children each year. In 2024/25 ACE invested almost £27 million through National Lottery Project Grants to Priority Places.
The Arts Everywhere Fund, announced earlier this year, has also committed £3.2 million in funding for four cultural education programmes for the 2025/26 financial year to preserve increased access to arts for children and young people through the Museums and Schools Programme, Heritage Schools Programme, Art & Design National Saturday Clubs and BFI Film Academy.
In November, we published the Government’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, which will ensure that a high-quality arts education is an essential part of the broad and rich education every child deserves. We will revitalise arts education through a reformed curriculum and support for teachers. In September 2026 we will launch the new National Centre for Arts and Music Education, which will improve access and opportunity for children and young people, strengthening collaboration between schools and industry.
In addition, £132.5 million of dormant assets funding will be allocated to support the provision of services, facilities or opportunities to meet the needs of young people. £117.5m of this has been allocated to increase disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services, aimed at improving wellbeing and employability.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has commissioned research into the (a) underlying causes of trends in the number of children with special educational needs and (b) adequacy of funding to local authorities for supporting such children.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
International evidence indicates that the number of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is also increasing in comparable countries. Although definitions and systems vary considerably, the key drivers include improved understanding and diagnosis of need, as well as social and medical factors.
The department is strengthening the evidence base of what works to improve inclusive practice in mainstream settings, for example through our recently published evidence reviews, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/identifying-and-supporting-the-needs-of-children-with-send-in-mainstream-settings.
The department also funds a What Works in SEND programme, which is delivered by Research and Improvement for SEND Excellence Partnership. This programme produces research and local area case studies that harness best practice from practitioners and partner organisations on local area SEND service delivery.
The department is providing over £12 billion in the current 2025/26 financial year for supporting children and young people with complex SEND. This will help with the financial pressures that local authorities and schools are facing. The Schools White Paper, due to be published in the new year, will set out how we plan to move forward with reforms to improve the SEND system in future years.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support is available to help students in Knowsley access A-levels in other local authority areas.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department remains committed to ensuring that young people have access to an inclusive and extensive educational offer that adds value and helps them to achieve their long-term career aspirations.
Students from Knowsley can, and do, study A level provision in surrounding local authority areas. For example, Carmel and Riverside Colleges, both graded Ofsted Outstanding, are based in the surrounding boroughs of St Helens and Halton, and both provide subsidised transport for Knowsley students that reside more than 1.5 miles away from the college campuses.
All schools, academies, further education colleges, sixth-form colleges and other institutions that deliver 16 to 19 education are provided with 16 to 19 bursary funding, to deliver financial support to help students who could not otherwise afford to take part in education to overcome specific barriers to participation, including cost travel costs.
Additionally, through devolution, the government has given Mayoral Strategic Authorities the powers to set local transport priorities and ensure services meet residents’ needs, including support for young people’s access to education.