Written questions by Thomas.

What steps her Department has taken (a) with schools and local authorities to strengthen the measures used to identify young carers and (b) to ensure that schools are audited against those measures.

Young carers were added to the school census as a specific group for the first time in 2022/23. The department expects the census data to improve over time as the collection becomes better established. We are looking at the ways the data is entered to see if we can make technical changes that will support more accurate reporting without overly burdening schools.The statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ requires designated safeguarding leads to undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills to carry out their role. This includes having a good understanding of, and alertness to, the needs of young carers to identify their needs.In its inspections of local authority children’s services, Ofsted evaluates whether professionals identify children and young people in need of help and protection, and whether they provide help to families when they need it. Ofsted have recently consulted on a new education inspection framework, and their full response will come in September. The proposals include a specific evaluation of inclusion, ensuring that schools can provide appropriate support for all disadvantaged and vulnerable children, including young carers.

What assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the education curriculum to prepare young people for the future workplace.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, to ensure a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum that readies young people for life and work.The Review is being undertaken in close consultation with education professionals and other experts, parents, children and young people, and other stakeholders such as employers, universities and trade unions. The Review has received call for evidence submissions from a variety of employers, colleges and representatives.The Review has published a well-evidenced, clear interim report, which sets out its interim findings and confirms the key areas for further work. This report sets out that the Review has heard consistently from children and young people and their parents that they want more focus on the applied knowledge and skills that will equip them for later life and work; such as financial education, careers knowledge and politics and governance. The interim report can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-and-assessment-review-interim-report.During its next phase, the Review is considering whether there is sufficient coverage of knowledge and skills that are essential to sufficiently prepare children and young people for future life and to thrive in a fast-changing world.The Review’s final report and recommendations will be published in autumn, at which point the government will respond.

What steps her Department is taking to improve the transition from play-based to formal learning.

Children’s earliest years are crucial to their health, development and life chances. The early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure every child has the best start in life and is prepared for school. Practitioners should carefully organise enabling environments and cultures for high-quality play to support children’s learning and development. In the summer term of the academic year in which children turn five, children are assessed against the EYFS Profile, which seeks to measure children’s level of development and support their successful transitions into year 1.The department has launched an independent, expert-led Curriculum and Assessment Review to ensure a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum. The Review is addressing the curriculum and assessment system from ages 5 to 19, ensuring that children build on their crucial learning and development in the early years. The interim report expresses an ambition for the curriculum to ensure effective transitions, and progression through each key stage of education. However, covering ages 0-5, the EYFS is outside of the Review’s scope. The wider work of the department will consider these areas.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that young people consider social care as a potential future career.

High-quality, careers information, advice and guidance (CIAG) is key to helping young people make informed decisions about their future. The department funds person-centred, impartial careers information and advice across all employment sectors, including social care.​Through The Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC), we fund Careers Hubs which lead partnerships including secondary schools, colleges, employers and strategic and local authorities to connect young people to local skills and economic needs through a responsive careers education programme. ​The Health Sector Advisory Group, in partnership with CEC, is exploring solutions to address workforce and skills challenges and inspire young people to take up careers in health and social care. Their recent report, Examining the Skills Gap, showcases effective local initiatives that give young people real-world insight into social care careers and can be found here: https://www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/evidence-and-reports/examining-the-skills-gap-inspiring-young-people-to-take-up-careers-in-health-and-social-care/.The National Careers Service is a free, government-funded careers information and guidance service. Its website gives access to digital tools and resources’ covering over 130 industry areas and 800 job profiles including several social care roles.The government has introduced measures to raise awareness, boost access, and improve the quality of training available in the healthcare sector, including the ‘Next Generation’ campaign promoting technical education pathways inspiring pupils to pursue careers in sectors like social care.

What recent discussions her Department has had with the local authority on the number of secondary school placements in Gloucestershire.

The government works to support local authorities to ensure that every local area has sufficient places for children that need them. The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities.The department engages with councils on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional places and to consider alternatives where necessary. When local authorities are experiencing difficulties, we support them to find solutions as quickly as possible.The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools.In March, the department announced that Gloucestershire County Council has been allocated just under £9.2 million to support it to create the mainstream school places needed by September 2028.This funding, £5.6 million of which will be paid in the 2026/27 financial year and with a further £3.6 million paid in 2027/28, is on top of just over £23.1 million we have previously allocated to Gloucestershire County Council to support it in providing new school places needed over the current and next two academic years, up to and including the academic year starting in September 2026.

What recent assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the guidance on the secondary school admissions process to ensure parents are better equipped to support their children’s preparation.

Local authorities are required to comply with the school admissions code. This includes a requirement to publish a composite prospectus for parents, including information relating to how to apply for schools in that area, information on the admission arrangements for each state-funded school in their area and the number of parental preferences expressed for the school in the previous year. Local authorities must also publish an annual report on admissions for all the state-funded schools in their area.In 2024, 82.9% of applicants were offered their first-choice secondary school and 94.6% received offers from one of their top three choices. At primary level, 93.2% of applicants were offered their first-choice primary school and 98.6% received offers from one of their top three choices.If a parent or other party is dissatisfied with the information provided by the local authority, they can complain, in the first instance, through the local authority’s complaints procedure. If they remain dissatisfied, they can complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. Additionally, if my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education becomes aware of an issue she can, if necessary, use her powers to direct the local authority, where it is failing in a legal duty.

What recent steps she has taken to support (a) schools and (b) other institutions that are being targeted by social media hate campaigns.

The Online Safety Act introduces new responsibilities for social media companies and search services to ensure the safety of their users on their platforms. All relevant services must have systems and processes in place to allow users and others to report harmful content that the services are responsible for under the Act.All school employers have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees.No school staff should feel unsafe or face violence or abuse in the workplace. The department will always support school staff to ensure they can work in a safe and calm environment.Schools should have their own clear processes in place for dealing with issues of bullying or harassment, including online hate aimed towards school staff. All incidences of bullying or harassment should be reported immediately to the designated lead and headteacher or governing body or proprietor. Should an incident constitute a potential criminal offence, it would be for the school to consider involving the police.

What recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the allocation of funding for (a) PE and (b) Sports Premium in Gloucestershire.

Physical education (PE) is a national curriculum subject at all key stages and all schools receive funding to deliver it as part of their core budget. Core school budgets are increasing by £3.2 billion in 2025/26, meaning the core school budgets will total over £64.8 billion compared to almost £61.6 billion in 2024/25. Through the dedicated schools grant, Gloucestershire is receiving £522.3 million for mainstream schools in 2025/26. This represents an increase of 2.3% per pupil compared to 2024/25.All primary schools receive PE and sport premium funding to make additional and sustainable improvements to the PE, sport and physical activity they provide, which is allocated on a formula based on the number of pupils in the school.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that teachers have access to accompaniment by professionally trained companions during (a) disciplinary and (b) grievance hearings.

The Employment Relations Act (ERA) 1999 states that teachers, like any other workers, are entitled to be accompanied by a colleague, a trade union employee or an official accredited by a trade union if called to a disciplinary or grievance meeting by their employer. Individuals may also ask to be accompanied by someone else, but the employer does not have to agree. The government has no plans to change that position for teachers.

If she will take steps to ensure that teachers are given priority to enrol their children at schools they teach at.

All mainstream state funded schools must have clear admission arrangements, set by the school’s admission authority, which include the oversubscription criteria they will use to give priority for places where there are more applicants than places available. The School Admissions Code allows admission authorities to give priority in their oversubscription criteria for children of staff who have been employed at the school for two or more years at the time when their application for a school place is made. The priority may also be applied for children of staff who have been recruited to fill a vacant post at the school for which there is a demonstrable skills shortage.It is for individual admission authorities to decide whether to include such a priority in their admissions criteria, provided the arrangements comply with the School Admissions Code.

What assessment she has made of the impact of Covid 19 on the reception class cohort of September 2025; and whether additional (a) preparation and (b) provision has been made for that cohort.

Giving children the best start in life is the foundation of government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. The earliest years are the most crucial stage of child development. That is why we have set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. As announced in Plan for Change, we will measure our progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment by 2028. Research showed that the COVID-19 pandemic set back children’s learning and development and may have exacerbated the outcome gap. To help achieve the milestone set out in Plan for Change, the department will work in partnership with the sector, reforming training and support for the workforce to drive up standards. We will offer sustained professional development and work with providers to help spread evidence-based programmes as part of comprehensive plans to drive high-quality early education and care.  We will ensure that the reception year sets children up for success, by rolling out schools’ access to evidence-based programmes that boost early literacy and numeracy skills.The department is providing a range of high-quality support and training for early years educators and leaders, building a stronger, more expert workforce, to enable settings and childminders to deliver quality early education, including currently available continuing professional development and support such as Maths Champions, Early Years Child Development Training, and the Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs. The government will also deliver the largest ever uplift to the early years pupil premium in the 2025/26 financial year, increasing the rate by over 45%, equivalent to up to £570 per eligible child per year. This unprecedented increase is an investment in quality early education for those children who need it most, in the areas that need it most, to give them the support they need to be ‘school ready’ at age 5 and go on to have the best life chances.

What steps her Department is taking to improve the mental health of teachers.

I refer the hon. Member for Tewkesbury to the answer of 14 February 2025 to Question 29516.

What steps her Department are taking to increase +-teacher retention rates in rural areas.

High quality teaching is the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s education which is why sufficient high-quality teachers is key to delivering the government’s agenda to break down the barriers to opportunity. Measures will include getting more teachers into shortage subjects, supporting areas that face recruitment challenges and tackling retention issues. This will help ensure that children across the country, including rural areas, have the expert qualified teachers they need in order to achieve and thrive.There are now 468,693 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, but numbers have not kept pace with demand. This is why the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department is offering a Targeted Retention Incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools, many of which are in rural areas. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.The department is also working closely with teachers and school leaders to improve workload and wellbeing, which are key drivers of retention. We are also promoting flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time to be taken from home, and have made key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.This includes ensuring there is a compelling financial offer to attract and keep high-quality teachers in these areas. The minimum starting salary for teachers, including those in rural areas, increased to £30,000 from the start of the 2023/24 academic year, and following the 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools from September, this has further increased to £31,650.The department has announced an initial teacher training (ITT) financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle worth £233 million, a £37 million increase on the last cycle. This includes a range of measures, including bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.The department has established a network of 87 Teaching School Hubs serving schools across the country. The Hubs provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers and play a significant role in delivering ITT, the Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications and Appropriate Body services. Odyssey Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Tewkesbury, Forest of Dean, and Gloucester.

What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Fund; and whether the (a) funding and (b) services provided will extend beyond March 2025.

Previously, a three-year mixed-method evaluation was carried out by the Institute of Public Care (IPC), Oxford Brookes University (2018-2021), on behalf of the department. The report found that ‘a high proportion (83%) of parents and guardians participating in the longitudinal survey found the funded support helpful or very helpful overall.’ The IPC report also found ‘a statistically significant (substantial, with large effect size) improvement in parent and guardian estimates of the extent to which the main aim of the funded support had been met by the end of the intervention’ and reported that parents and guardians scored on average ‘7 out of 10 in relation to a question about the extent to which positive change(s) for their child and/or family had been sustained six months since the conclusion of ASF-funded support.’ The full report can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6391c41a8fa8f53ba783e8ad/Evaluation_of_the_Adoption_Support_Fund_2018_to_2022_-_summary_.pdf.The adequacy of the therapies available within the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) is currently being assessed from multiple angles. The National Institute for Health Research is currently conducting a randomised control trial into dyadic developmental psychotherapy (DDP), one of the main therapies the ASGSF funds. This research is currently in the third and final phase and will give robust evidence into the effectiveness of DDP. Moreover, the department started to collect data from outcomes measurement tools for ASGSF-funded therapies in December 2023. As therapy treatment comes to an end, this data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of individual ASGSF-funded therapies.ASGSF therapy applications are generally permitted to extend up to 12 months, allowing children and families to receive continuing therapy across financial years. The department will shortly be finalising business planning decisions on how its budget will be allocated for the next financial year. All decisions regarding the ASGSF are being made as part of these discussions. An announcement will be made as soon as possible.

What steps her Department is taking to help reduce the backlog of Education, Health and Care Plans in (a) Gloucestershire and (b) England.

The department wants to ensure that, where required, education, health and care (EHC) plan assessments are progressed promptly and, if needed, plans are issued as quickly as possible so that children and young people can access the support they need.Local...

If her Department will take steps to ensure that additional funding for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in mainstream schools is equitably distributed in rural areas.

Local authorities are responsible for allocating additional funding from their high needs budgets to mainstream schools for their pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The department is providing an increase of almost £1 billion f...