Written questions by Dance.

What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to fund inclusive education in England beyond the funding allocated in (a) the Autumn Budget 2024 and (b) March 2025.

In the 2025 Spending Review, we announced that funding for schools is increasing by £4.2 billion by 2028/29 compared to 2025/26. This additional funding will provide an above real terms per pupil increase on the core schools budget, which will take per-pupil funding to its highest ever level and enable us to transform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.The funding announced at the Spending Review means a significant investment in the support available for pupils with SEND within mainstream schools. We are continuing to engage closely with children, parents and experts as we develop plans to ensure all children get the outcomes and life chances they deserve. We will be setting out further steps later this year.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of CPR training in schools in (a) Yeovil constituency (b) Somerset.

All state funded schools, including those in Yeovil, are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education curriculum in relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) education. This includes how to deal with common injuries, call the emergency services and administer CPR and understand the purpose of defibrillators.Schools have the autonomy to decide how they teach CPR and which resources to use, often choosing to use expert organisations to deliver additional content. The department does not monitor this as schools decide what to adopt in their local areas, choosing lesson plans and materials that are relevant to them.Ofsted are responsible for inspecting schools’ RSHE provision as part of their personal development judgement.

What steps she is taking to support (a) schools and (b) Somerset Council to encourage the recruitment and retention of Special Educational Needs Coordinators.

The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special and alternative provision schools cater to those with the most complex needs.The funding announced at the last Spending Review means a significant investment in the support available for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) pupils within mainstream schools. This will support the government’s plan to deliver an excellent, inclusive education for every child, with a world class curriculum and highly trained, expert teachers.The special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) must be a qualified teacher, or the head teacher, working at the school. On 1 September 2024, the government introduced a new mandatory leadership level National Professional Qualification (NPQ) for SENCOs. The NPQ ensures SENCOs receive high quality, evidence-based training and equips them with the knowledge and skills to work with other leaders to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome, safe and that they belong. Since going live, over 10,500 members of the school workforce have started their SENCO NPQ journey.

What steps she is taking to help schools in (a) Yeovil constituency and (b) Somerset Council maintain external specialist (i) educational psychologists and (ii) therapists.

Educational psychologists play a critical role in the support available to children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). That is why we are already investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists over two cohorts, starting their studies in 2024 and 2025. This is in addition to the £10 million currently being invested in the training of over 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023.As these trainees complete their studies, they will join the workforce to support local authority educational psychology services, including contributing to statutory assessments.The department is also working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with SEND.

What steps she plans to take to ensure that a child's legal right to special educational needs support will be included in the upcoming whitepaper.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.We will build a system which is grounded in evidence, identifies and supports need at the earliest opportunity, and ensures families can secure support swiftly without a fight. There will always be a legal right to additional support for children and young people with SEND.We are continuing to engage closely with children, parents and experts as we develop plans to ensure all children and young people get the outcomes and life chances they deserve.

What steps she is taking to encourage the (a) provision and (b) use of (i) accessible and (ii) free CPR training resources in schools in Yeovil constituency.

All state funded schools, including those in Yeovil, are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education curriculum in relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) education. This includes how to deal with common injuries, call the emergency services and administer CPR and understand the purpose of defibrillators.Schools have the autonomy to decide how they teach CPR and which resources to use, often choosing to use expert organisations to deliver additional content. The department does not monitor this as schools decide what to adopt in their local areas, choosing lesson plans and materials that are relevant to them.Ofsted are responsible for inspecting schools’ RSHE provision as part of their personal development judgement.

What steps she is taking to help improve the quality of special educational needs and disabilities provision in Yeovil constituency.

The department continues to support improvements in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision in Somerset, including in Yeovil.This financial year, Somerset Council received £8.4 million through the High Needs Provision Capital Allocation to expand specialist provision and improve accessibility in mainstream schools.Six primary schools in Yeovil are also participating in the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools programme. This initiative brings together health and education professionals, and expert parent carers, to strengthen whole school SEND provision, upskill staff, and improve outcomes for neurodivergent pupils.The department and NHS England continue to engage with the Somerset SEND partnership and are occasional observers to their SEND partnership board to support system-wide improvement.We also support educational outcomes through academy trust oversight and regional improvement for standards and excellence initiatives.The government’s ambition is that all children and young people with SEND or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed.

What steps she plans to take to help protect the data of home educated children, in the context of provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill contains provisions requiring local authorities to maintain registers of children who are not in school. These registers are intended to aid local authorities in identifying children who are missing education and support them.The department is aware of the importance of protecting personal data. Existing laws, including the Data Protection Act and UK-GDPR, will apply to all data that is processed as part of the duty to maintain registers. These laws put in place robust restrictions on data collection, storage and sharing as well as respecting the rights of the individuals to access, rectification and erasure. However, there are circumstances where data sharing is essential, particularly when it concerns a child’s safety or wellbeing. The Bill provides a restricted list of individuals and agencies with whom data may be shared, solely for the purposes of safeguarding a child’s education or welfare. Any breach of these protections by a local authority could be subject to penalties or regulatory action by the Information Commissioner.We will outline in statutory guidance how local authorities must balance the need to share data for safeguarding and educational support purposes with individuals’ right to privacy.

What assessment she has made of (a) trends in the level and (b) the potential impact of school meal debt on families in Yeovil constituency.

To help break down barriers to opportunity and tackle child poverty, the government will be extending free school meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. This will lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty and put £500 back in families’ pockets, supporting parents in decisive action to improve lives ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy. Department for Work and Pensions data shows that 5,450 children in Yeovil will be eligible to receive FSM when provision is extended from September 2026.This autumn, the Child Poverty Strategy will deliver measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty. The Taskforce is considering all available levers to reduce child poverty and recognises the importance of financial resilience for low-income families. Increasing financial resilience is one of the four key themes for the strategy, and in February the Taskforce met with external experts to discuss this topic specifically.

What discussions she has had with parent-led organisations in (a) Yeovil constituency and (b) Somerset on the planned Special Educational Needs and Disabilities white paper.

The department funds the Participation and Family Support programme, which ensures we can gather lived experience and insights from children, young people, parents and carers within the special educational needs and disabilities system from across England. A key aim of the work is to strengthen the involvement of parent carers and improve communication between local authorities and families, which is why we fund annual grants to all parent carer forums (PCFs) across England.The National Network of Parent Carer Forums is the strategic voice of PCFs across England. The steering group is made up of 9 regional PCF leads, which includes the south west, working strategically in co-production with government departments.The department is continuing to engage closely with children, parents and experts as we develop plans to ensure all children get the outcomes and life chances they deserve.

What steps she is taking improve the experience of parents and carers when using the Special Educational Needs and Disability system in Yeovil constituency.

A local area inspection of Somerset’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services, undertaken by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) in March 2020, identified nine areas of significant weakness. They revisited in November 2022 and confirmed that seven had made sufficient progress. To address the remaining two areas, Somerset developed an accelerated progress plan, supported by the department and NHS England (NHSE) SEND Advisors. Progress was closely monitored and, by February 2025, the plan was stepped down following sufficient improvement.The department and NHSE continue to engage with the Somerset SEND Partnership to discuss the local SEND system. Somerset Parent Carer Forum (PCF) representatives are valued strategic members at these meetings, which ensures their voices are heard, support to families continues, their issues are addressed, and true co-production takes place. We also engage with the regional and national PCF Networks to share information, escalate concerns and celebrate success.

What steps she is taking to support schools to better identify pupils' range of additional needs outside of the classroom.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education.Schools, further education colleges, sixth form colleges, and 16 to 19 academies are required to identify and address the special educational needs (SEN) of the pupils they support and, in the case of mainstream settings, to use their ‘best endeavours’ to make sure that a child or young person who has SEN gets the support they need.All schools should apply the ‘graduated approach’ that is outlined in the ‘SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years’, which means identifying a child’s needs, planning appropriate support, implementing and reviewing the support regularly to ensure it continues to meet the identified needs. Through this, schools should develop personalised approaches to supporting the unique needs of individual pupils. The code of practice can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25.To support settings to identify need early, we are strengthening the evidence base of what works to improve early identification in mainstream settings. For example, evidence reviews from University College London have recently been published. These will help to drive inclusive practices as they highlight what the best available evidence suggests are the most effective tools, strategies and approaches for teachers and other relevant staff in mainstream settings to identify and support children and young people with different types of needs.

What steps she is taking to support (a) schools and (b) local authorities to provide education, care and health plans for children with special educational needs in Yeovil constituency.

The duty to conduct education, health and care (EHC) needs assessments, and to issue EHC plans if required, rests with the local authority.The department monitors and works closely with local authorities that have issues with the EHC needs assessment and plan process. Where there are concerns about a local authority’s capacity to make improvements, we ensure that the cause of problems is identified and an effective recovery plan is implemented.A joint local area inspection of Somerset’s special educational needs and disabilities services, undertaken by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) in March 2020, identified nine areas of significant weakness. Following actions taken, the CQC and Ofsted revisited in November 2022 and confirmed that sufficient progress had been made in seven areas, including the timeliness and quality of EHC plans. Somerset produced an Accelerated Progress Plan to address the two remaining areas. With specialist support from special educational needs and disabilities advisors, sufficient progress was made on these areas and the plan was stepped down in February 2025.

What discussions her Department has had with industry bodies on strengthening (a) apprenticeships and (b) training routes in the hospitality sector to support small and medium-sized businesses in Yeovil constituency.

The government offers a range of training options, including apprenticeships and BTECs, to support employers of all sizes in the hospitality sector to benefit from and develop the skilled workforces they need.Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) give small and medium businesses a stronger role in identifying local skills issues and working collaboratively with skills providers and other local stakeholders to resolve them. From October, Business West and Somerset Chamber of Commerce will begin the process of developing a new 3-year LSIP for Somerset, which includes the Yeovil constituency.The department and Skills England engage regularly with the hospitality sector, including industry bodies such as UK Hospitality, regarding training for the sector and the government’s plans for skills.To support apprenticeships in small and medium-sized enterprises the government pays full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan or have been, or are, in local authority care, when they undertake apprenticeships with non-levy paying employers.The government also continues to pay £1,000 to both employers and providers for apprentices aged 16 to 18, and for apprentices aged 19 to 24 who have an EHC plan or have been, or are, in local authority care.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the decision not to fully fund the (a) 4 per cent teacher pay award for September 2025 or (b) 3.2 per cent pay award for school support staff on schools' budgets in Yeovil constituency.

School funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in financial year 2025/26. In May, the department announced that it is providing schools with £615 million in additional funding to support them with overall costs, including the costs of the 4% schools teacher pay award and the 3.2% local government services pay award in respect of support staff in financial year 2025/26.Somerset local authority (which allocates funding for schools in Yeovil constituency) is receiving £418.4 million for mainstream schools in financial year 2025/26 through the Dedicated Schools Grant, an increase of 2.4% per pupil compared to financial year 2024/25. On top of that, all schools will receive additional funding through the Schools Budget Support Grant, to support them with overall costs, including the costs of teacher and support staff pay awards.Schools will be expected to find approximately the first 1 percentage point of pay awards through improved productivity and smarter spending to make every pound count. This is in line with asks to the rest of the public sector to drive better value from existing budgets to help rebuild public services. Schools are not alone in making these decisions, and the department is supporting them through a suite of existing and new productivity initiatives. Our Energy for Schools service, for example, enabled the 400 schools who participated to save on average 36% compared to their previous contracts.

What steps she plans to take to ensure the provision of high-quality library services in primary schools in Yeovil constituency by the end of this Parliament.

School libraries complement public libraries by giving pupils access to a range of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school.​It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils. Headteachers have autonomy to decide how best to spend the core schools funding that is allocated to them by the department. The Autumn Budget 2024 announced an additional £2.3 billion for schools for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25, bringing the total core schools budget to almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26.The Dormant Assets strategy, published on 2 June 2025, announced that more than £130 million from the Dormant Assets scheme will be allocated to support the provision of services, facilities or opportunities to meet the needs of young people. Some of this will be used to invest in helping to foster a culture of reading for pleasure amongst disadvantaged children and young people in the spaces and places that matter to them, including schools, youth clubs and other settings like early years providers and libraries, through targeted intervention and increased access to reading material.Additionally, the English Hubs programme is dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, and they deliver the Transforming School Reading Cultures programme, as part of the English Hubs continuous professional development offer. For schools in the Yeovil constituency, the local English Hub is Cornerstone Hub.

Whether residents in Yeovil constituency will be consulted on changes to the provision of education, health and care plans.

The department is determined to restore confidence in the system of support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), so that all children and young people get the chance to achieve and thrive in their education. Our aim is to improve educational outcomes.The department is working with and listening to parents, local authorities, SEND organisations, education settings and others on how best we can strengthen the SEND system. We want to deliver better support for these vulnerable children and young people and their parents, and we are committed to getting this right. We will continue with this engagement over the summer, in preparation for consultation on a Schools White Paper in the autumn.We have made no decisions yet on the future of education, health and care plans. There will, however, always be a legal right to additional support for children and young people with SEND.

Whether she plans to reduce provision of support for children with SEND in Yeovil constituency in the next four years.

The department is determined to restore confidence in the system of support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), so that all children and young people get the chance to achieve and thrive in their education. Our aim is to improve educational outcomes.The department is working with and listening to parents, local authorities, SEND organisations, education settings and others on how best we can strengthen the SEND system. We want to deliver better support for these vulnerable children and young people and their parents, and we are committed to getting this right. We will continue with this engagement over the summer, in preparation for consultation on a Schools White Paper in the autumn.We have made no decisions yet on the future of education, health and care plans. There will, however, always be a legal right to additional support for children and young people with SEND.

What discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential impact of education, health and care plans on neurodivergent school children in rural communities.

The department is determined to restore confidence in the system of support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), so that all children and young people get the chance to achieve and thrive in their education. Our aim is to improve educational outcomes.The department is working with and listening to parents, local authorities, SEND organisations, education settings and others on how best we can strengthen the SEND system. We want to deliver better support for these vulnerable children and young people and their parents, and we are committed to getting this right. We will continue with this engagement over the summer, in preparation for consultation on a Schools White Paper in the autumn.We have made no decisions yet on the future of education, health and care plans. There will, however, always be a legal right to additional support for children and young people with SEND.

What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that every student leaves school with CPR training in Yeovil constituency.

All state-funded schools, including those in Yeovil, are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education curriculum, as part of relationships, sex and health education (RSHE). This includes dealing with common injuries, calling the emergency services and administering CPR, including developing an understanding of the purpose of defibrillators.The department is currently reviewing the RSHE curriculum, including establishing whether any additional content is needed.