Written questions by Newbury.

What recent meetings her Department has had with victims of forced adoptions in England.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has met with members of the Movement for an Adoption Apology, and the Adult Adoptee Movement, to hear first hand the experiences of those affected by historical adoption practices. Their testimonies and insights are vital, and they are helping to shape the government’s ongoing work in this area. The department continues to engage proactively with a range of organisations to understand fully the implications of past practice and to consider the most appropriate steps forward.

What recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of salary differences between college lecturers and school teachers on recruitment to further education teaching posts for (a) construction and (b) electrical engineering courses.

Further education (FE) colleges are responsible for setting and negotiating staff pay and terms and conditions within colleges. The government recognises that colleges are facing recruitment challenges in construction and engineering. That is why our targeted retention incentive scheme gives eligible early career college teachers in priority subjects, including building and construction and engineering, up to £6,000 after tax annually. In the 2024/25 academic year, almost 6,000 teachers received payments. In addition, we have announced that areas with Local Skills Improvement Plans will benefit from £20 million to form partnerships between FE providers and construction employers. This will help to build links between colleges and industry and boost the number of teachers with construction experience in FE. Across the spending review period, we will provide £1.2 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028/2029. This significant investment will ensure there is increased funding to colleges and other 16 to19 providers to enable the recruitment and retention of expert teachers in high value subject areas, and interventions to retain top teaching talent.

What steps she is taking to ensure local authorities use the foster to adopt pathway for children in care.

Fostering to adopt, also known as early permanence, is a crucial way to offer children stability at a very early stage, preventing multiple moves in the care system. The department has provided funding of £250,000 in 2025/26 for Adoption England to promote this practice and it is encouraging that the number and proportion of early permanence placements has increased from 14% (400) in 2020/21 to 23% (676) in 2023/24. This is avoiding delays and minimising disruption for more children, allowing them to bond with their adoptive family at an earlier stage. Adoption England have also published national standards in this area. The purpose is to promote and shape effective early permanence practice in all adoption agencies across the country to ensure families receive a consistent and high-quality approach no matter where they live, and enable more children to benefit from early permanence placements.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of the foster to adopt pathway for (a) adopted children and (b) the stability of adoptive placements.

Fostering to adopt, also known as early permanence, is a crucial way to offer children stability at a very early stage, preventing multiple moves in the care system. The department has provided funding of £250,000 in 2025/26 for Adoption England to promote this practice and it is encouraging that the number and proportion of early permanence placements has increased from 14% (400) in 2020/21 to 23% (676) in 2023/24. This is avoiding delays and minimising disruption for more children, allowing them to bond with their adoptive family at an earlier stage. Adoption England have also published national standards in this area. The purpose is to promote and shape effective early permanence practice in all adoption agencies across the country to ensure families receive a consistent and high-quality approach no matter where they live, and enable more children to benefit from early permanence placements.

What proportion of vehicles rented by her Department are electric vehicles.

0.11% of cars rented by the department were electric vehicles over the past two years, which equated to a total of five.The department will have a new vehicle hire contract in place from 2026 and, working with suppliers and other government departments, it is our intention to update our current vehicle hire policy to include a strategy of ‘electric first’. This will direct our drivers to seek electric vehicles as a first option, hybrids as a second option and finally combustion engine vehicles where there are no alternatives available.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of variations in per pupil funding for places in pupil referral units on pupils' educational outcomes.

Most funding for pupil referral units, and other alternative provision (AP), comes from local authorities’ high needs budgets, Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and AP to £11.9 billion. Of that total, Staffordshire County Council is being allocated over £143 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £10.4 million on this year’s DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF). This NFF allocation is an 8.7% increase per head of their 2 to 18-year-old population, on their equivalent 2024/25 NFF allocation.Top-up funding is agreed locally, between the local authority and alternative providers themselves. The top-up funding should reflect the costs of additional support to meet the individual pupil or student’s needs. Top-up funding also reflects costs that relate to the facilities required to support a pupil or student’s education and training needs and can take into account expected place occupancy levels and other factors, which means they can vary from one local authority to another.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that there is adequate capacity in pupil referral units in (a) Cannock Chase constituency and (b) Staffordshire.

Local authorities are responsible for providing enough school places for their area. The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to secure mainstream school places and through the high needs provision capital allocations to invest in places for children and young people with special education needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision (AP). In Cannock Chase constituency there are four special schools, one pupil referral unit (PRU), one Progress Centre and one independent AP provider. Ensuring schools and other education settings have the resources and buildings they need is a key part of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life. Responsibility for keeping education buildings safe and well-maintained lies with settings and their responsible bodies, such as local authorities and academy trusts. The department supports them by providing capital funding, delivering major rebuilding programmes and offering guidance and support. The department has allocated £1.8 billion in condition funding for the 2024/25 financial year to improve the condition of schools, including PRUs. As part of the 2025/26 financial year budget, we are increasing capital funding to improve the condition of the estate to £2.1 billion, which is £300 million more than this year. The department expects to publish allocations in the spring, including for individual local authorities and other responsible bodies. Capital funding beyond 2025/26 will be set out following the spending review.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that pupil referral unit premises are fit for purpose.

Local authorities are responsible for providing enough school places for their area. The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to secure mainstream school places and through the high needs provision capital allocations to invest in places for children and young people with special education needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision (AP). In Cannock Chase constituency there are four special schools, one pupil referral unit (PRU), one Progress Centre and one independent AP provider. Ensuring schools and other education settings have the resources and buildings they need is a key part of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life. Responsibility for keeping education buildings safe and well-maintained lies with settings and their responsible bodies, such as local authorities and academy trusts. The department supports them by providing capital funding, delivering major rebuilding programmes and offering guidance and support. The department has allocated £1.8 billion in condition funding for the 2024/25 financial year to improve the condition of schools, including PRUs. As part of the 2025/26 financial year budget, we are increasing capital funding to improve the condition of the estate to £2.1 billion, which is £300 million more than this year. The department expects to publish allocations in the spring, including for individual local authorities and other responsible bodies. Capital funding beyond 2025/26 will be set out following the spending review.

What support her Department provides to care leaver university students outside of term time.

This government is committed to providing support for care leavers to ensure they have the practical and emotional support they need as they move towards independence.Local authorities must provide assistance to care leavers near to the place they are rec...

What steps her Department is taking to increase the provision of level (a) five and (b) six qualifications in areas that do not have a university.

The department continues to support access to higher level qualifications to break down barriers to opportunity and support economic growth.The department continues to support learners who wish to progress from Level 3 to a higher level, whether that is t...

If she will make an assessment of the value for money of the central costs of operating academy trusts.

The primary responsibility for the financial oversight of academy trusts rests with the trustees themselves, who are supported by the financial management and governance requirements set by the department in academy trusts’ funding agreements, the academy...

Pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2024 to Question 4283 on Schools: Admissions, what steps her Department is taking to issue guidance to Local Planning Authorities on appropriate levels of section 106 cont

In August 2023, the department published two non-statutory guidance documents for local authorities planning for education, local planning authorities (LPAs) and other stakeholders involved in the delivery of schools.The guidance on 'Estimating pupil yiel...

If she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of trends in the number of requests to schools to remove LGBT+ literature from school libraries.

The current national curriculum requires teachers to encourage pupils to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. It also emphasises the importance of children listening to, discussing and reading for themselves a ...

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the central costs of academy trusts on the budgets of academy schools.

The primary responsibility for the financial oversight of academy trusts rests with the trustees themselves, who are supported by the financial management and governance requirements set by the department in academy trusts’ funding agreements, the academy...

What steps her Department is taking to ensure the adequacy of school place provision in areas with high levels of housebuilding.

Local authorities are responsible for providing enough school places for children in their area. The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on their own pupil forecasts...

What steps she is taking to support (a) children with SEND and (b) their parents in (i) Cannock Chase constituency and (ii) Staffordshire.

Following the last Ofsted inspection, departmental officials have been working with Staffordshire County Council (SCC) to closely monitor progress against the areas for improvement identified by inspectors. The department appointed a special educational n...