Written questions by Bhatti.

What guidance the Department plans to issue to help ensure that Individual Support Plans (ISPs) are portable across phases and settings, including post‑16 and further education.

There will be a statutory duty on schools and colleges to produce an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for every child or young person receiving targeted or specialist support, ensuring help keeps pace with their development, prevents challenges from escalating, and reduces the risk of them disengaging from learning.Our ambition is that ISPs will be interactive, easy to use and available in a digital format, supporting consistency across the system and smoother transitions for children moving between settings and phases, as well as reducing workload for teachers and educators. Drawing on user‑centred research with schools, post-16 settings, families and professionals, we are exploring how best to design the ISP as well as exploring digital approaches, so that it reduces workload for teachers and educators by bringing information together in one place and cutting down on duplicated recording, while also supporting smoother transitions so children get the support they need in their new setting from the very beginning.

How many additional educational psychologists, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists will be required annually to deliver the Experts at Hand programme.

The government is providing substantial, targeted investment to help local areas grow and strengthen their specialist workforce. Over the next three years, £1.8 billion will be made available to local area partnerships to develop and rollout of the Experts at Hand offer.Local area partnerships will design and implement their own Experts at Hand models, tailored to local needs and workforce capacity. This will be supported by strong national oversight. The department will set the overall framework, provide guidance and tools, and work closely with local areas to ensure consistent quality.​To support this, we have also announced £15 million for new speech and language therapy advanced practitioner roles, as well as continuing our investment in the educational psychology workforce with £26 million to train at least 200 educational psychologists per year from 2026 and 2027, building on previous investment.The department knows that continuing to build the pipeline of speech and language therapists is essential. That is why we are working with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with SEND.

What proportion of the £4 billion SEND investment package is allocated to universal SEND training for the 0–25 workforce, and what training standard will apply.

The department is investing over £200 million over the course of this Parliament to upskill staff in every school, college and nursery, ensuring a skilled workforce for generations to come. This significant investment, forms a central pillar of the government’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reform plans, helping to secure a fairer system where effective support is available for every child with SEND from early years to the age of 25. This investment will be supported by additional direct funding of £1.6 billion over three years in the inclusive mainstream fund for early years, schools and colleges.We are currently in the development phase of the programme, working with a wide range of experts, including the department’s Inclusion Expert Advisory Group, and the Education Endowment Foundation, to identify what content will be most impactful in supporting schools and colleges to be more inclusive.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the long‑term impact of the 2025 increase to the RDEL envelope on the financial resilience of local authorities.

The final 2026-27 Local Government Finance Settlement will make available £78 billion in Core Spending Power for local authorities in England in 2026-27, a 6.1% increase compared to 2025-26. By the end of the multi-year Settlement (2028-29), the government will have provided a 15.5% increase in Core Spending Power for local authorities in England, worth over £11.4 billion, compared to 2025-26. As a result of these changes, nine in ten councils will receive funding that broadly matches their assessed need by the end of the multi-year Settlement, up from around a third before our reforms.

How compliance with ISP duties will be enforced at school and local‑system level, and which body will hold ultimate enforcement responsibility.

I refer the hon. Member for Meriden and Solihull East to the answer of 20 April 2026 to Question 120023.

What estimate her Department has made of the potential impact of trends in the growth of EHCPs on costs to the public purse.

Families are having to fight and go through bureaucratic and legal processes to get special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support for their children despite funding increases to the high needs budget. These and other failures in the current system mean that families are rightly demanding reform and that is what the government is delivering. The plans for a reformed SEND system, including the allocation of £4 billion investment to support transformation of the system, were set out in the recently published Schools White Paper and SEND reform consultation, and annexes.The department’s assessment of future SEND spending will be updated following the SEND consultation and subject to future spending reviews.

What estimate her Department has made of the cost to the public purse of her proposed maternity pay reforms; and how she plans to fund this additional cost.

This government is committed to tackling recruitment and retention challenges and supporting teachers to stay in the profession and thrive.The recent Schools White Paper announced our commitment to fund improvements to maternity pay for school and college teachers, leaders and support staff. From September 2027/28, school teachers and leaders will see their period of full maternity pay, doubled from the current offer of 4 weeks of full pay to 8 weeks. The announcement responds to evidence that women aged 30 to 39 are the largest group of leavers from the school teacher workforce in terms of volume, which could be linked to choosing between a career and having a family.While we are not able to share the exact funding amount at this stage, we will fully fund the improved maternity offer at a national level and are currently finalising the estimates.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of maternity pay reforms on teacher retention.

This government is committed to tackling recruitment and retention challenges and supporting teachers to stay in the profession and thrive.The recent Schools White Paper announced our commitment to fund improvements to maternity pay for school and college teachers, leaders and support staff. From September 2027/28, school teachers and leaders will see their period of full maternity pay, doubled from the current offer of 4 weeks of full pay to 8 weeks. The announcement responds to evidence that women aged 30 to 39 are the largest group of leavers from the school teacher workforce in terms of volume, which could be linked to choosing between a career and having a family.While we are not able to share the exact funding amount at this stage, we will fully fund the improved maternity offer at a national level and are currently finalising the estimates.

What estimate she has made of the number and proportion of pupils that would need to move from the independent to the state sector for VAT revenue from school fees to fall below the additional cost of educating those pupils in the state sector.

HM Treasury published a tax information and impact note on applying VAT to private school fees: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees/applying-vat-to-private-school-fees. This is a comprehensive assessment of the VAT policy, including estimated revenue and costs of increased pupil numbers in the state sector.

How many companies applied to the loan guarantee scheme for Jaguar Land Rover.

The government agreed to back Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) with a loan guarantee, to unlock up to £1.5 billion in commercial financing. The loan covered by the guarantee will be re-paid over 5 years. JLR supports 154,000 UK jobs and is an important customer for the automotive supply chain. JLR is in the best position to be able to identify and understand the needs of its supply chain, and to ensure that its suppliers receive timely payments. Eligible exporters are able to apply to UKEF for support. In this case, the UKEF Export Development Guarantee supports a specific commercial loan to JLR.

How much and what proportion of the loan guarantee provided to Jaguar Land Rover has been used in the wider supply chain.

The government agreed to back Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) with a loan guarantee, to unlock up to £1.5 billion in commercial financing. The loan covered by the guarantee will be re-paid over 5 years. JLR supports 154,000 UK jobs and is an important customer for the automotive supply chain. JLR is in the best position to be able to identify and understand the needs of its supply chain, and to ensure that its suppliers receive timely payments. Eligible exporters are able to apply to UKEF for support. In this case, the UKEF Export Development Guarantee supports a specific commercial loan to JLR.

How many companies were allocated funding as part of the loan guarantee to Jaguar Land Rover.

The government agreed to back Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) with a loan guarantee, to unlock up to £1.5 billion in commercial financing. The loan covered by the guarantee will be re-paid over 5 years. JLR supports 154,000 UK jobs and is an important customer for the automotive supply chain. JLR is in the best position to be able to identify and understand the needs of its supply chain, and to ensure that its suppliers receive timely payments. Eligible exporters are able to apply to UKEF for support. In this case, the UKEF Export Development Guarantee supports a specific commercial loan to JLR.

How many independent schools closed in 2024 compared with 2025.

There were 129 private school closures between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2025. In 2024, there were 58 closures and in 2025 there were 71 closures.The government does not collect pupil-level data from private schools.

How many pupils left independent schools in 2024 compared with 2025, and how this compares with the estimated figure of 3,000 pupils.

There were 129 private school closures between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2025. In 2024, there were 58 closures and in 2025 there were 71 closures.The government does not collect pupil-level data from private schools.

What assessment has the Department made of the potential impact of the proposed Level 3 and below reforms on participation by students with protected characteristics; and whether an equality impact assessment will be published before any funding decisions are implemented.

V Levels are designed to be 360 guided learning hours to enable them to be taken alongside A Levels or other V Levels to form broad study programmes, enabling breadth of study for young people who want to keep their options open. For young people who know what broad career path they want to follow, and want to study a single large qualification focused on that area, T Levels provide a great option for progression. In specific and limited cases, we will allow a partnered set of V Levels, which will enable overall depth of study in a linked area.The department will support providers to transition to V Levels and new Level 2 pathways through comprehensive guidance, exemplar materials, working with awarding organisations on providing teaching resources, and the establishment of a sector-led qualification pioneers group to test, refine, and inform effective implementation.The department has undertaken an equality impact assessment for the government consultation response and does not anticipate any negative impacts of introducing the new pathways on any groups with protected characteristics. We will carefully consider the impacts on different groups of young people as we design new qualifications.We are working closely with higher education institutions and UCAS to ensure wide recognition of V Levels, tariff points parity with other qualifications and to clearly communicate progression pathways ahead of first teaching.Further information on the rollout of 16 to 19 qualifications reform is set out in the government response and the equalities impact assessment, published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/post-16-level-3-and-below-pathways.

What assessment has her Department made of potential the impact of the proposed Level 3 and below reforms on progression to higher education.

V Levels are designed to be 360 guided learning hours to enable them to be taken alongside A Levels or other V Levels to form broad study programmes, enabling breadth of study for young people who want to keep their options open. For young people who know what broad career path they want to follow, and want to study a single large qualification focused on that area, T Levels provide a great option for progression. In specific and limited cases, we will allow a partnered set of V Levels, which will enable overall depth of study in a linked area.The department will support providers to transition to V Levels and new Level 2 pathways through comprehensive guidance, exemplar materials, working with awarding organisations on providing teaching resources, and the establishment of a sector-led qualification pioneers group to test, refine, and inform effective implementation.The department has undertaken an equality impact assessment for the government consultation response and does not anticipate any negative impacts of introducing the new pathways on any groups with protected characteristics. We will carefully consider the impacts on different groups of young people as we design new qualifications.We are working closely with higher education institutions and UCAS to ensure wide recognition of V Levels, tariff points parity with other qualifications and to clearly communicate progression pathways ahead of first teaching.Further information on the rollout of 16 to 19 qualifications reform is set out in the government response and the equalities impact assessment, published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/post-16-level-3-and-below-pathways.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the capacity of further education providers to deliver the proposed Level 2 and Level 3 reforms within the planned timetable, including workforce, facilities and employer-placement capacity.

V Levels are designed to be 360 guided learning hours to enable them to be taken alongside A Levels or other V Levels to form broad study programmes, enabling breadth of study for young people who want to keep their options open. For young people who know what broad career path they want to follow, and want to study a single large qualification focused on that area, T Levels provide a great option for progression. In specific and limited cases, we will allow a partnered set of V Levels, which will enable overall depth of study in a linked area.The department will support providers to transition to V Levels and new Level 2 pathways through comprehensive guidance, exemplar materials, working with awarding organisations on providing teaching resources, and the establishment of a sector-led qualification pioneers group to test, refine, and inform effective implementation.The department has undertaken an equality impact assessment for the government consultation response and does not anticipate any negative impacts of introducing the new pathways on any groups with protected characteristics. We will carefully consider the impacts on different groups of young people as we design new qualifications.We are working closely with higher education institutions and UCAS to ensure wide recognition of V Levels, tariff points parity with other qualifications and to clearly communicate progression pathways ahead of first teaching.Further information on the rollout of 16 to 19 qualifications reform is set out in the government response and the equalities impact assessment, published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/post-16-level-3-and-below-pathways.

What evidence supports the proposal to restrict all V Level qualifications to 360 guided learning hours: and what assessment has been made of the potential impact of this restriction on progression to higher education and skilled employment in sectors where greater breadth or depth of study is required.

V Levels are designed to be 360 guided learning hours to enable them to be taken alongside A Levels or other V Levels to form broad study programmes, enabling breadth of study for young people who want to keep their options open. For young people who know what broad career path they want to follow, and want to study a single large qualification focused on that area, T Levels provide a great option for progression. In specific and limited cases, we will allow a partnered set of V Levels, which will enable overall depth of study in a linked area.The department will support providers to transition to V Levels and new Level 2 pathways through comprehensive guidance, exemplar materials, working with awarding organisations on providing teaching resources, and the establishment of a sector-led qualification pioneers group to test, refine, and inform effective implementation.The department has undertaken an equality impact assessment for the government consultation response and does not anticipate any negative impacts of introducing the new pathways on any groups with protected characteristics. We will carefully consider the impacts on different groups of young people as we design new qualifications.We are working closely with higher education institutions and UCAS to ensure wide recognition of V Levels, tariff points parity with other qualifications and to clearly communicate progression pathways ahead of first teaching.Further information on the rollout of 16 to 19 qualifications reform is set out in the government response and the equalities impact assessment, published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/post-16-level-3-and-below-pathways.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a national redress scheme for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh.

The Government is carefully considering the valuable work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and the resulting Hughes Report, which sets out options for redress for those harmed by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. This is a complex issue, and the Government's priority is to ensure that any response is fair, balanced and sensitive to those affected.The Department is carefully considering the recommendations within the Hughes Report, including the merits of any potential redress scheme, in collaboration with relevant departments, and we aim to provide an update in due course.

What national policy interventions are being developed to help reduce abusive incidents against emergency ambulance workers.

Everyone working in the National Health Service has a fundamental right to be safe at work, including ambulance workers. At a national level there are several policy interventions being implemented and developed to help prevent and reduce violence against NHS staff.In April 2025, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced that the Social Partnership Forum’s recommendations on tackling and reducing violence, part of the 2023 Agenda for Change pay deal, had been accepted in full. This includes measures to improve data and reporting, strengthen risk assessment, and improve training and support for victims. This will be bolstered by the introduction of a new set of staff standards, as detailed in the 10-Year Health Plan. The standards will be included in the NHS Oversight Framework and act as an early warning signal for the Care Quality Commission.