Written questions by Dance.

What steps she is taking to ensure there is consistent onboard information on request stops on rail services across the South West.

The process for request stops is standard for all stations on Great Western Railway’s (GWR) network. Alighting passengers must inform the conductor to request the stop, and boarding passengers need to signal the driver by raising their hand as the train approaches. However, I am aware that the operator has issues with some of their older fleet specifically for onboard information as the Passenger Information System is not always working as it should be. GWR are working with their technology supplier to improve the consistency of passenger information.

What assessment she has made of the need to collect data on special (a) the number of special school places and (b) the waiting lists for such places in (i) Yeovil constituency, (ii) Somerset and (iii) England.

For the first time in 2023, the School Capacity Survey (SCAP) asked local authorities to provide data on the capacity of special schools and the capacity of special educational needs units and resourced provision in mainstream schools.The department now have a second year’s worth of data which tells us approximately how many places local authorities think were available on 1 May 2024. This is only approximate at the moment as it is the second year of data collection, and the data are still being developed in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.The survey also asked local authorities to submit forecasts for the number of pupils with education, health and care plans resident in their local authority who are expected to need a place in specialist provision.Specialist capacity and forecast data for all local authorities can be accessed on GOV.UK here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity/2023-24.

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 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 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.

Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to support homeless people in Yeovil constituency.

The Government is committed to getting back on track to ending all forms of homelessness across the country. Our cross-Government homelessness strategy will set out the actions needed across central and local government and the homelessness sector to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping. The Government is supporting people at risk of and experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping across the country with more than £1 billion funding, a £316 million increase on last year. This includes £84 million new funding announced on 10 October 2025. Councils are able to use this funding to meet the needs of people in their area, and local authority allocations are published on gov.uk.

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 the potential merits of recognising (a) mental health and (b) learning difficulties as separate protected characteristics to disability.

I refer the hon Member to the answer given to PQ 64372

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.

Whether he plans to review the adequacy of the £30,000 grant cap for the Disabled Facilities Grant in England.

In England, the Government continues to fund the locally administered Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) which helps eligible older and disabled people on low incomes to adapt their homes.We have provided an additional £172 million across the current and previous financial years to uplift the DFG, which could provide approximately 15,600 home adaptations to give older and disabled people more independence in their homes. This brings the total funding for the DFG to £711 million in 2024/25 and 2025/26.We continue to keep all aspects of the DFG under consideration. Recently, we carried out a review of the upper limit for the DFG. We are currently considering the findings.

Whether he is taking steps to establish a specialised service for people with very severe myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue symptom in Yeovil constituency.

We published the final myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), delivery plan on 22 July, which focuses on boosting research, improving attitudes and education, and bettering the lives of people with this debilitating disease.The commissioning of ME/CFS services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs), including the NHS Somerset ICB, which covers the Yeovil constituency, based on their local population. The ME/CFS final delivery plan includes an action for the Department and NHS England to explore whether a specialised service should be prescribed by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for very severe ME/CFS.

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 recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of (a) clinical oncology workforce shortages and (b) staffing levels on the adoption of innovative cancer treatments by NHS Trusts.

We are building our cancer workforce. As of June 2025, there are over 1,800 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the speciality of clinical oncology in National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England. This is almost 440, or 31.5%, more than 2020.Following additional investment through recent spending review settlements, trainees across 16 cancer-related specialties, including clinical and medical oncology, increased from 623 to 773 per year, a 24% increase.To grow the workforce, NHS England has been expanding specialty training places in key cancer professions. Targeted national campaigns and outreach activities, for example in clinical oncology, also promote cancer career pathways, with a focus on increasing applications to under-supplied professions.Training Academies in Imaging, Endoscopy, and Genomics are being delivered across regions to provide intensive skills development and support new models of care, including for cancer patients. Ongoing investment in practice education enhances clinical supervision, education and training across cancer and diagnostic workforces, increases placement capacity, supports staff retention, and contributes to high-quality patient care.

Whether he plans to require Integrated Care Boards to provide sustainable funding to enable (a) the continuation of successful pilot projects on Type 1 Diabetes and Eating Disorders and (b) those projects to become regional centres of excellence.

NHS England has provided up to £1.5 million a year for the five current Type 1 Disordered Eating pilots for three years. This funding is transferred to integrated care boards on an annual basis and in 2025/26 has been ringfenced.Decisions on funding for future years have yet to be taken.

What steps NHS England is taking to raise awareness of Type 1 Diabetes and Eating Disorders among healthcare professionals in diabetes and eating disorder services in (a) Somerset and (b) England.

NHS England is currently funding five Type 1 Disordered Eating (T1DE) pilots, with the aim of increasing understanding of the characteristics and care needs of people with T1DE, assessing the feasibility of the service delivery model and build the evidence base for an integrated diabetes and mental health pathway.Pilot sites are delivering a national high level service specification alongside testing local novel approaches to improving care including to awareness raising of the condition amongst both diabetes and eating disorder health care professionals. A national evaluation is currently underway to assess the impact of the five current pilot services. NHS England will review the evaluation findings to understand further opportunities to promote awareness of T1DE amongst healthcare professionals beyond the five pilot areas.NHS England works alongside its partners to support the delivery of key messages around diabetes education and awareness. This includes through a digital diabetes platform which is developing educational resources for T1DE.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the NHS (a) funding and (b) commissioning structures on Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy provision in South West England.

The National Health Service keeps under review the range of services it offers patients. The use of stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy is thought to prolong overall survival and improve quality of life. NHS England provides the treatment to those eligible across England.Our £70 million investment in new radiotherapy machines will ensure that the most advanced treatment is available and accessible to patients across the country. By March 2027, up to 27,500 additional treatments per year will be delivered, including up to 4,500 receiving their first treatment for cancer within 62 days of referral, helping to treat more cancer patients in faster time.Adiditionally, the Department is working closely with NHS England to make sure we have the right workforce with the right skills up and down the country. This includes cancer care and radiotherapy treatment services.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2025 to Question 75506 on the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs: Finance, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of delivering funding beyond 2025-26 to the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs.

My officials continue to work closely with the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs in delivering the 25/26 grant. Any assessment of the potential merits of providing further funding beyond 25/26 will form part of future spending decisions.

Whether he has made a recent assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of providing NHS standard eye tests to children in primary school in (a) Yeovil constituency and (b) England.

The UK National Screening Committee recommends vision screening in school for children aged between four and five years old to look for reduced vision in one or both eyes.Free National Health Service sight tests are also widely available for children under 16 years old and under 19 years old in full time education from high street optical practices. To address challenges with access to high street NHS sight testing services faced by children with learning disabilities and/or autism, integrated care boards are now able to commission NHS sight tests in special educational settings across England.