Written questions by McMurdock.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of libraries in primary schools for the development of primary school students.

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. The national curriculum states that teachers are expected to encourage pupils to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. There are a number of strong links between reading for pleasure and attainment. For example, the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study report found a 34 point difference in reading performance between pupils in England who “very much” liked reading and pupils who “do not” like reading. Additionally, the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment study found that enjoyment of reading links to pupils’ reading engagement, and that reading engagement was strongly positively correlated with reading performance. There is also a strong evidence base linking reading for pleasure to other positive effects, such as improved text comprehension and grammar, increased general knowledge and character development.It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian. 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.Given this autonomy, the department does not collect information on the number of school libraries or school librarians. ​​There are currently no plans to make it a statutory requirement for primary schools to have a library, although we will continue to keep this matter under review.​The government’s reading framework offers non-statutory guidance for teachers and school leaders, including helpful guidance for schools on how to organise their school library, book corner or book stock to make reading accessible and attractive to readers.

Whether she plans to make libraries in primary schools a statutory requirement.

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. The national curriculum states that teachers are expected to encourage pupils to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. There are a number of strong links between reading for pleasure and attainment. For example, the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study report found a 34 point difference in reading performance between pupils in England who “very much” liked reading and pupils who “do not” like reading. Additionally, the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment study found that enjoyment of reading links to pupils’ reading engagement, and that reading engagement was strongly positively correlated with reading performance. There is also a strong evidence base linking reading for pleasure to other positive effects, such as improved text comprehension and grammar, increased general knowledge and character development.It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian. 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.Given this autonomy, the department does not collect information on the number of school libraries or school librarians. ​​There are currently no plans to make it a statutory requirement for primary schools to have a library, although we will continue to keep this matter under review.​The government’s reading framework offers non-statutory guidance for teachers and school leaders, including helpful guidance for schools on how to organise their school library, book corner or book stock to make reading accessible and attractive to readers.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the increase in employer National Insurance contributions on SEND transport to educational institutions.

I refer the hon. Member for South Basildon and East Thurrock to the answer of 16 December 2024 to Question 19397.

How many children with SEND use provided travel to and from educational facilities (a) nationally, (b) in Essex and (c) in South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency.

The department does not currently routinely collect data about the number of children who have their home-to-school travel arranged by local authorities. We intend to improve our data in this area so that local authorities can benchmark themselves against similar authorities and learn from one another, and so that central and local government have the robust evidence required to inform decision making. In February 2025, the department will start collecting data about home-to-school travel from local authorities. This will be a voluntary data collection at first, with the intention to make it mandatory once it is established.

Whether she plans to introduce a standardised complaints process for academy schools.

​​All academies are required to have a complaints process which adheres to Part 7 of the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014. This sets out that it is the academy’s responsibility to handle and resolve any complaints. If a complainant has concerns that an academy did not handle a complaint in line with the regulations, they can then escalate to the department, whose role it is to consider whether the academy followed the correct process. The department’s ‘Best practice guidance for academies complaints procedures’ can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/setting-up-an-academies-complaints-procedure/best-practice-guidance-for-academies-complaints-procedures.​

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a national safeguarding framework for all educational institutions including academies.

The department already has an established and robust safeguarding framework in place for educational institutions in the form of ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (KCSIE). This is statutory safeguarding guidance which sets out the legal duties and responsibilities that schools and colleges, including academies, must follow to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.KCSIE is regularly reviewed to see where it needs strengthening and to ensure it is reflective of emerging risks in safeguarding.

What steps she is taking to improve teacher (a) recruitment and (b) retention in (i) Essex and (ii) South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency.

​​​Delivering the government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child relies on a highly skilled workforce in schools, with evidence demonstrating that high-quality teaching is the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s outcomes.​​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 government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, key to which is ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. We have accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its school teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign ‘Share your Skills’.A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a Targeted Retention Incentive of up to £6,000, after-tax, if working in disadvantaged schools. There are four schools in South Basildon and East Thurrock that are eligible for Targeted Retention Incentives.The department is also working closely with teachers and school leaders to improve workload and wellbeing. This includes introducing a new school report card to in place of Ofsted’s single headline grades, to provide a clearer picture of schools’ strengths and weaknesses for parents and more proportionate accountability for staff. It also includes promoting flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time to be taken from home, and making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, to ensure schools are able to capture the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. The named flexible working ambassador for schools in South Basildon and East Thurrock is Thomas Gainsborough school, part of Unity Schools Partnership.High-quality continuous professional development is also key to ensuring we have and retain an effective teaching workforce. ​The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. These Hubs play a significant role in delivering Initial Teacher Training, the Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications and Appropriate Body services. Chafford Hundred South Essex Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Basildon, Brentwood, Castle Point, Maldon, Rochford, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock.

What steps her Department is taking to promote alternatives to university to young people.

The government is developing a comprehensive strategy for post‐16 education and skills, to break down barriers to opportunity, support the development of a skilled workforce, and drive economic growth through our Industrial Strategy. We have established Skills England to ensure we have the highly trained workforce needed to deliver the national, regional and local skills needs of the next decade. It will ensure that the skills system is clear and navigable for individuals, for both young people and older adults, strengthening careers pathways into jobs across the economy. The department will support the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university, regardless of their background, where they live and their personal circumstances. However, all young people must have a genuine choice of high-quality further or higher education pathways, or in-work training including apprenticeships, so that young people can follow that pathway that is right for them. Firstly, the department is promoting apprenticeships which offer a range of high-quality options for young people, with over 700 apprenticeship standards approved for delivery. We actively promote apprenticeships in schools and colleges through our Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge Programme (ASK). Through it, we increase awareness of apprenticeships and Higher Technical Qualifications amongst students in years 10-13, parents, carers, teachers and careers advisers. During the 2023/24 academic year, ASK engaged with 2,366 schools and colleges. The ASK sessions reached over 575,000 students. In addition, the department is developing new foundation apprenticeships to give more young people a foot in the door at the start of their working lives whilst supporting the pipeline of new talent that employers will need to drive economic growth. Secondly, the department is introducing a Youth Guarantee, as part of the measures set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper. This will ensure that all young people aged 18-21 in England can access quality training, educational opportunities or help to find work. The Youth Guarantee will involve working closely with Mayoral Authorities, and building on existing provision and entitlements, to test new ways of supporting young people into employment or training. To do this we will mobilise eight place-based Youth Guarantee trailblazers with £45 million of funding in 2025/26. Thirdly, the department continues to raise awareness amongst young people of alternative options to university, starting from a young age. Secondary schools have legal requirements to provide independent careers guidance and to provide at least six opportunities for providers of technical education or apprenticeships to speak to all pupils. Our government-funded network of Careers Hubs, coordinated by The Careers and Enterprise Company, supports schools and colleges to maximise these opportunities. The Skills for Life website also sets out the wide range of education and training options available for young people. Together, these steps ensure that we continue to support all young people to either go to university, or to access high-quality apprenticeships, further education opportunities, and support to find work, depending on the path that is right for them.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that young people leave school equipped with relevant skills for working life.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE.The review will seek to deliver a curriculum that ensures children and young people leave compulsory education ready for life and ready for work, and one that builds the knowledge, skills and attributes young people need to seize opportunity and to thrive in the changing workplace. This includes weaving speaking and listening skills, as well as digital and other life skills, into their learning.The review group will publish an interim report in early spring setting out its initial findings and confirming the key areas for further work. Its final report, with recommendations, will be published this autumn. We will take decisions on what changes to make in light of these recommendations.

What steps her Department is taking to lower rates of student absence in secondary schools in (a) Essex and (b) South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency.

This government is determined to tackle the generational challenge of school absence which is a fundamental barrier to learning and life chances. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, which limits their opportunity to succeed. There is evidence that more students are attending school this year compared to last, thanks to the sector’s efforts, although around 1.6 million children remain persistently absent and miss 10% or more of lessons.Central to the department’s approach are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which was made statutory on 19 August 2024 and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance. The guidance promotes a 'support first' approach, and sets out clear expectations on how schools, trusts, local authorities and wider services, including those in Essex and South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency, should work together and with families to address attendance barriers and provide the right support, including where a pupil is not attending due to special educational needs.Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard which is maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities within the sector to share existing best practice on how to improve attendance. This is why the department set up a network of 31 attendance hubs, who have offered support to 2000 primary, secondary and alternative provision schools, including in Essex, and shared their strategies and resources for improving attendance. Bringing together best practice from the hubs, we have also published an attendance toolkit which aims to support schools to identify the drivers of absence in their setting and address these. The toolkit can be accessed here: https://attendancetoolkit.blob.core.windows.net/toolkit-doc/Attendance%20toolkit%20for%20schools.pdf.In addition to this work, the department also aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.From early 2025, new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams will support all state schools by facilitating networking, sharing best practice across areas, including attendance, and empowering schools to access support and learn from one another. For schools requiring more intensive support, RISE teams and supporting organisations will work collaboratively with their responsible body to agree bespoke packages of targeted support and challenge, based on a school’s particular circumstances.School attendance is also supported by broader investments, such as funded breakfast clubs across all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn. The department is working across government on plans to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults. Additionally, the department will initiate new annual Ofsted reviews focusing on safeguarding, attendance, and off-rolling.Schools can also allocate pupil premium funding, which has now increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs to attend school regularly.

What steps her Department is taking to help prevent bullying in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Essex.

All schools must have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying. They are free to develop their own anti-bullying strategies to suit their specific needs and are held to account by Ofsted.Schools must take a strong stand against all forms of bullying and should tackle bullying at the earliest opportunity to prevent it from escalating, particularly given the impact it can have on pupils, both emotionally and physically.​The department has published advice to support schools with addressing incidents of bullying. The guidance is clear that schools should make appropriate provision for a bullied child's social, emotional and mental health needs. The guidance is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/625ee64cd3bf7f6004339db8/Preventing_and_tackling_bullying_advice.pdf.​The department has also published a practical tool to help schools, which can be found on the Educate Against Hate website. It is available here: https://educateagainsthate.com/resources/respectful-school-communities-self-review-signposting-tool-2/.

What discussions her Department has had with (a) parents and (b) teachers about home-to-school transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The department’s home-to-school travel policy aims to make sure that no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. Local authorities must arrange free home-to-school travel for children of compulsory school age, 5 to 16, who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance, their special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so.Officials work closely with local authorities to understand the challenges they face and support the delivery of home-to-school travel. The department knows it is challenging for authorities to arrange free travel for all eligible children largely due to challenges within the wider SEND system, where more children and young people need to travel a long way to a school that can meet their needs. The government is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools so more children can have their needs met in their local community.The delivery of home-to-school travel is governed by statutory guidance for local authorities. The department revised this guidance in 2023. The insight and experiences of a wide range of partners, including individual parents and schools as well as bodies that represent them, were valuable in revising the guidance. Officials continue to engage with a wide range partners to understand how the current arrangements are operating.

What steps her Department is taking to help reduce the number of children who need to travel long distances to a school with SEND provision.

This government is aware that many children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) struggle to find a suitable school placement that is close to their home and meets their needs. This government committed to addressing this by improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.We want more children and young people to receive the support they need to thrive in their local mainstream school, reducing the need for pupils to travel a long way to access a specialist placement. Many mainstream settings are already delivering specialist provision locally, including through resourced provision and special education needs units but we need to go much further to ensure this support is available to far more children across the country.This government is also committed to ensuring special schools play a vital role in supporting pupils with the most complex needs. The Children and Families Act 2014 requires local authorities to ensure there are sufficient school places for all pupils, including children and young people with SEND. If a local authority identifies a shortage of special school places, resulting in a significant number of pupils needing to travel a long way to access a placement, they could consider creating or expanding provision.My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has announced £740 million for high needs capital in the 2025/26 financial year to support children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision. This new funding can be used to adapt classrooms to be more accessible for children and young people with SEND, create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs, alongside continuing to provide places to support pupils in special schools with the most complex needs. The department will confirm local authority allocations for this funding in the spring.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure schools with SEND provision are accessible for low-income families.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision (AP) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. ​The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.By strengthening support in the early years, children’s needs can be identified earlier ensuring that support is put in place which can prevent needs escalating and ensure children are able to thrive when they arrive at school.The department will also strengthen accountability on mainstream settings to be inclusive including through Ofsted, support the mainstream workforce to increase their SEND expertise and encourage schools to set up resourced provision or special educational needs units to increase capacity in mainstream schools.The department is providing almost £1 billion more for high needs budgets in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding to £11.9 billion. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with complex SEND. The department has also announced £740 million of high needs capital funding for the 2025/26 financial year to invest in places for children and young people with SEND or who require AP.

Pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2024 to Question 18093 on Education: Access, what progress the Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence teams are making on engaging with schools.

The new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams will begin in early 2025, with their first RISE advisers in post this January.Once established, RISE teams will engage schools to facilitate networking and sharing best practice, bringing together oversight and coordination of improvement programmes to empower schools so that they can better access this support and learn from one another. For schools that require more intensive support, the new RISE teams will work with their responsible body and supporting organisations to agree bespoke packages of targeted support, based on a school’s particular circumstances.

What assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of transport services for school children with special educational needs in (a) Essex and (b) England.

The department's ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.The department’s home-to-school travel policy aims to make sure no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. The department is working to understand how well home-to-school transport supports all children to access educational opportunity.Local authorities must arrange free home-to-school travel for children of compulsory school age who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance, their special educational needs (SEN), disability or mobility problem, or because the route is unsafe. There are extended rights to free home-to-school travel for children from low-income families, aimed at helping them exercise school choice. We know that challenges in the wider SEN system are creating pressure on home-to-school travel. More children have education, health and care plans and more of them travel a long way to a school that can meet their needs. We are grateful to local authorities for their considerable efforts to ensure eligible children can continue to get to school.The government is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, so fewer children need to travel long distances to a school that can meet their needs. This will reduce the pressure on home-to-school travel over time.In addition, the government prioritised local government at the Autumn Budget 2024. We announced £1.3 billion of new grant funding in the 2025/26 financial year for local government to deliver core services, including home-to-school travel. The government recognises the challenges local authorities are facing. Together with local income from council tax and business rates, this will provide a real-terms increase in core spending power of around 3.2%.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that children from low-income families have the same level of access to (a) high-quality education and (b) a range of options for schools as those from higher-income families.

Too often opportunity for children and young people is defined by their background. The Opportunity Mission will break the link between young people’s background and their success, ensuring family security and providing the best start in life, with all children achieving and thriving and building skills for opportunity and growth.High and rising standards in every school is at the heart of the mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances for every child, no matter their background.The department has moved quickly to start driving up school standards by beginning work to recruit an additional 6,500 expert teachers and has launched an independent, expert-led curriculum and assessment review to deliver our ambition for every child and young person to study a curriculum which is rich and broad, inclusive and innovative.From early 2025, our new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams will drive higher standards, supporting all state schools by facilitating networking, sharing best practice and empowering schools to feel they can better access support and learn from one another.At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs for the 2025/26 financial year. This means that overall core school funding will total almost £63.9 billion in the 2025/26 financial year.Admission authorities for all mainstream, state-funded schools must comply with the statutory School Admissions Code. The Code is clear that admission authorities must ensure that their admission arrangements are fair, clear and objective, and that they will not disadvantage unfairly, either directly or indirectly, a child from a particular social group. Admission authorities can choose to give priority within their oversubscription criteria to children eligible for pupil premium funding, where this is appropriate in the local circumstances.The government is proposing to legislate on requiring all schools to cooperate with the local authority on school admissions and place planning. As part of this, the department will also consider any wider changes necessary to ensure fair access to school for all. Any changes to the Code will require a statutory process, including a full public consultation and parliamentary approval.

What steps her Department takes to ensure adequate financial oversight of academy trusts; and how often financial audits are conducted of underperforming trusts.

The government is clear that strong accountability is non-negotiable. That is why it has committed to bring multi-academy trusts into the inspection system, to ensure every part of our school system is driving forward the best outcomes for children. The primary responsibility for the financial oversight of academy trusts rests with the trustees themselves, supported by the financial management and governance requirements and framework set by the department in academy trusts’ Funding Agreements, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-and-free-school-funding-agreements. Further guidance is provided by the academy trust handbook accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/academy-trust-handbook/academy-trust-handbook-2024-to-print, and the Academies Accounts Direction, found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/academies-accounts-direction. This framework states that all academy trusts must have an annual external audit of their annual accounts by a registered statutory auditor. This external scrutiny provides the department with a high level of confidence that oversight is professional and consistent, as the external auditors must comply with auditing standards set by an independent regulator. Auditors must also give an opinion on whether the accounts are true and fair and provide an opinion to the department on regularity and compliance by the trust, reporting any transactions they have identified which have breached our requirements. Additionally, auditors prepare management letters, describing any weaknesses in the trust and recommendations for improvement. The department require trusts to respond to audit findings in an appropriate and timely manner. The framework also outlines that all academy trusts must:Implement robust financial procedures including internal checks of the suitability of, and compliance with, their financial systems.Have an audit committee to manage their risks and oversee the checks of systems of control. This committee must ensure an appropriate approach to scrutiny, such as the appointment of internal auditors, report on this work in their annual accounts and take ownership of balancing their budget and send a copy to the department in advance of each year.Publish their annual audited accounts and details of their objectives, achievements and future plans and set out what they have done to promote value for money in support of those objectives as part of their annual report and accounts. Where concerns are identified, the department will intervene in a way that is proportionate to the risk and preserves education provision. This can include issuing a trust with a Notice to Improve (NtI) or, in the most serious cases, termination of the Funding Agreement. Where academy trusts are experiencing significant financial difficulty, the department is clear that its starting approach will always be to have a supportive conversation to explore the challenges trusts are facing and suggest the practical ways it may be able to support. The department will consider the financial, educational and governance aspects of the trust and work through budget returns with trusts, including discussing revisions to the forecasts as necessary based on recent pressures. Academy trusts are delivering a high standard of financial management and governance. The latest published data shows that 98.2% of trusts had a cumulative surplus or a zero balance, 99.8% of academy trust accounts received unqualified opinions. In addition, independent auditors concluded that there were no regularity exceptions in trust accounts for over 92% of trusts, and less than 1% of academy trusts are subject to an active NtI.

Whether her Department has plans to review the adequacy of transparency requirements for academy trusts, including (a) financial reporting and (b) decision-making processes.

The government is clear that strong accountability is non-negotiable. That is why it has committed to bring multi-academy trusts into the inspection system, to ensure every part of our school system is driving forward the best outcomes for children. The primary responsibility for the financial oversight of academy trusts rests with the trustees themselves, supported by the financial management and governance requirements and framework set by the department in academy trusts’ Funding Agreements, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-and-free-school-funding-agreements. Further guidance is provided by the academy trust handbook accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/academy-trust-handbook/academy-trust-handbook-2024-to-print, and the Academies Accounts Direction, found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/academies-accounts-direction. This framework states that all academy trusts must have an annual external audit of their annual accounts by a registered statutory auditor. This external scrutiny provides the department with a high level of confidence that oversight is professional and consistent, as the external auditors must comply with auditing standards set by an independent regulator. Auditors must also give an opinion on whether the accounts are true and fair and provide an opinion to the department on regularity and compliance by the trust, reporting any transactions they have identified which have breached our requirements. Additionally, auditors prepare management letters, describing any weaknesses in the trust and recommendations for improvement. The department require trusts to respond to audit findings in an appropriate and timely manner. The framework also outlines that all academy trusts must:Implement robust financial procedures including internal checks of the suitability of, and compliance with, their financial systems.Have an audit committee to manage their risks and oversee the checks of systems of control. This committee must ensure an appropriate approach to scrutiny, such as the appointment of internal auditors, report on this work in their annual accounts and take ownership of balancing their budget and send a copy to the department in advance of each year.Publish their annual audited accounts and details of their objectives, achievements and future plans and set out what they have done to promote value for money in support of those objectives as part of their annual report and accounts. Where concerns are identified, the department will intervene in a way that is proportionate to the risk and preserves education provision. This can include issuing a trust with a Notice to Improve (NtI) or, in the most serious cases, termination of the Funding Agreement. Where academy trusts are experiencing significant financial difficulty, the department is clear that its starting approach will always be to have a supportive conversation to explore the challenges trusts are facing and suggest the practical ways it may be able to support. The department will consider the financial, educational and governance aspects of the trust and work through budget returns with trusts, including discussing revisions to the forecasts as necessary based on recent pressures. Academy trusts are delivering a high standard of financial management and governance. The latest published data shows that 98.2% of trusts had a cumulative surplus or a zero balance, 99.8% of academy trust accounts received unqualified opinions. In addition, independent auditors concluded that there were no regularity exceptions in trust accounts for over 92% of trusts, and less than 1% of academy trusts are subject to an active NtI.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure students have access to a broad curriculum that supports diverse career pathways, especially in schools undergoing staffing reductions.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE.The review will seek to deliver an excellent foundation in core subjects of reading, writing and maths, alongside a broader curriculum, so that children and young people do not miss out on subjects such as music, art, sport and drama, as well as vocational subjects.It will also seek to deliver a curriculum that ensures children and young people leave compulsory education ready for life and ready for work, building the knowledge, skills and attributes young people need to thrive.The review is taking place in the context of an education system facing considerable challenges and staff shortages. It will recognise and seek to account for these issues when considering how a broad curriculum can be delivered. The Terms of Reference for the review can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66d196b7d107658faec7e3db/Curriculum_and_assessment_review_-_aims_terms_of_reference_and_working_principles.pdf.The department has announced its intention to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers and to encourage more teachers into shortage subjects, support areas that face recruitment challenges, and tackle retention issues.