Written questions by Hayes.

What steps she is taking to improve the retention of teaching assistants who support children with SEND.

Teaching assistants play a vital role in children’s education, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). They are crucial to ensuring we give children the best possible life chances.This government values and recognises the professionalism of the entire school workforce. That is why we are establishing the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) through the Employment Rights Bill, introduced in Parliament on 10 October 2024.The SSSNB will mean that in future years, employers and employee representatives will come together to negotiate terms and conditions and pay for school support staff, including teaching assistants, to ensure they are properly recognised and rewarded for the work they do. The SSSNB will also be tasked with establishing a national terms and conditions handbook and advising on suitable training and career progression routes that recognise the varied and vital roles support staff undertake.Most school support staff, including teaching assistants, are currently employed on National Joint Council (NJC) for local government services pay and conditions. The NJC is a negotiating body made up of representatives from trade unions and local government employers. Employees covered by the NJC for local government services pay and conditions have been offered a pay increase of 3.2% from 1 April 2025, which is subject to agreement by the recognised NJC unions. The government does not play a role in this process.

Whether she plans to introduce a national pay framework for teaching assistants.

Teaching assistants play a vital role in children’s education, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). They are crucial to ensuring we give children the best possible life chances.This government values and recognises the professionalism of the entire school workforce. That is why we are establishing the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) through the Employment Rights Bill, introduced in Parliament on 10 October 2024.The SSSNB will mean that in future years, employers and employee representatives will come together to negotiate terms and conditions and pay for school support staff, including teaching assistants, to ensure they are properly recognised and rewarded for the work they do. The SSSNB will also be tasked with establishing a national terms and conditions handbook and advising on suitable training and career progression routes that recognise the varied and vital roles support staff undertake.Most school support staff, including teaching assistants, are currently employed on National Joint Council (NJC) for local government services pay and conditions. The NJC is a negotiating body made up of representatives from trade unions and local government employers. Employees covered by the NJC for local government services pay and conditions have been offered a pay increase of 3.2% from 1 April 2025, which is subject to agreement by the recognised NJC unions. The government does not play a role in this process.

What steps she is taking to standardise access to high-quality (a) training and (b) continuing professional development for teaching assistants.

Teaching assistants play a vital role in children’s education, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). They are crucial to ensuring we give children the best possible life chances.This government values and recognises the professionalism of the entire school workforce. That is why we are establishing the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) through the Employment Rights Bill, introduced in Parliament on 10 October 2024.The SSSNB will mean that in future years, employers and employee representatives will come together to negotiate terms and conditions and pay for school support staff, including teaching assistants, to ensure they are properly recognised and rewarded for the work they do. The SSSNB will also be tasked with establishing a national terms and conditions handbook and advising on suitable training and career progression routes that recognise the varied and vital roles support staff undertake.Most school support staff, including teaching assistants, are currently employed on National Joint Council (NJC) for local government services pay and conditions. The NJC is a negotiating body made up of representatives from trade unions and local government employers. Employees covered by the NJC for local government services pay and conditions have been offered a pay increase of 3.2% from 1 April 2025, which is subject to agreement by the recognised NJC unions. The government does not play a role in this process.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) pay freezes and (b) real-terms wage reductions on the teaching assistant workforce.

Teaching assistants play a vital role in children’s education, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). They are crucial to ensuring we give children the best possible life chances.This government values and recognises the professionalism of the entire school workforce. That is why we are establishing the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) through the Employment Rights Bill, introduced in Parliament on 10 October 2024.The SSSNB will mean that in future years, employers and employee representatives will come together to negotiate terms and conditions and pay for school support staff, including teaching assistants, to ensure they are properly recognised and rewarded for the work they do. The SSSNB will also be tasked with establishing a national terms and conditions handbook and advising on suitable training and career progression routes that recognise the varied and vital roles support staff undertake.Most school support staff, including teaching assistants, are currently employed on National Joint Council (NJC) for local government services pay and conditions. The NJC is a negotiating body made up of representatives from trade unions and local government employers. Employees covered by the NJC for local government services pay and conditions have been offered a pay increase of 3.2% from 1 April 2025, which is subject to agreement by the recognised NJC unions. The government does not play a role in this process.

What steps she is taking to ensure fair pay for teaching assistants.

Teaching assistants play a vital role in children’s education, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). They are crucial to ensuring we give children the best possible life chances.This government values and recognises the professionalism of the entire school workforce. That is why we are establishing the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) through the Employment Rights Bill, introduced in Parliament on 10 October 2024.The SSSNB will mean that in future years, employers and employee representatives will come together to negotiate terms and conditions and pay for school support staff, including teaching assistants, to ensure they are properly recognised and rewarded for the work they do. The SSSNB will also be tasked with establishing a national terms and conditions handbook and advising on suitable training and career progression routes that recognise the varied and vital roles support staff undertake.Most school support staff, including teaching assistants, are currently employed on National Joint Council (NJC) for local government services pay and conditions. The NJC is a negotiating body made up of representatives from trade unions and local government employers. Employees covered by the NJC for local government services pay and conditions have been offered a pay increase of 3.2% from 1 April 2025, which is subject to agreement by the recognised NJC unions. The government does not play a role in this process.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing (a) retention bonuses and (b) bursaries for teaching assistants.

Teaching assistants play a vital role in children’s education, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). They are crucial to ensuring we give children the best possible life chances.This government values and recognises the professionalism of the entire school workforce. That is why we are establishing the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) through the Employment Rights Bill, introduced in Parliament on 10 October 2024.The SSSNB will mean that in future years, employers and employee representatives will come together to negotiate terms and conditions and pay for school support staff, including teaching assistants, to ensure they are properly recognised and rewarded for the work they do. The SSSNB will also be tasked with establishing a national terms and conditions handbook and advising on suitable training and career progression routes that recognise the varied and vital roles support staff undertake.Most school support staff, including teaching assistants, are currently employed on National Joint Council (NJC) for local government services pay and conditions. The NJC is a negotiating body made up of representatives from trade unions and local government employers. Employees covered by the NJC for local government services pay and conditions have been offered a pay increase of 3.2% from 1 April 2025, which is subject to agreement by the recognised NJC unions. The government does not play a role in this process.

How many teaching assistants have left the profession in the last year; and what estimate her Department has made of the cost to schools of this turnover.

Teaching assistants play a vital role in children’s education in schools across the country.The school workforce census shows that the full-time equivalent (FTE) of teaching assistants has increased each year since 2019/20, rising to 288,800 in 2024/25. This is an increase of 5,900 since 2023/24.A December 2024 departmental survey entitled ‘School and college voice’ found that a large majority of leaders (82%) reported recruiting teaching assistants or learning support staff since January 2024. However, these roles were commonly reported as the hardest to fill.

Whether funding allocations through the National Funding Formula will allow headteachers to maintain levels of teaching assistant support.

The overall core schools budget is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning that it will total £65.3 billion, compared to £61.6 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. This is a 6% overall increase, which against the backdrop of a challenging fiscal picture, demonstrates the government’s commitment to enabling every child to achieve and thrive through delivery of the Opportunity Mission.This total includes part of the additional funding announced on 22 May to support schools with the cost of staff pay in the 2025/26 financial year, including for the 3.2% local government pay offer in respect of support staff.Headteachers are ultimately responsible for employment of teaching assistants in their schools, as they are best placed to understand the specific needs of their pupils and make staffing decisions accordingly. To help them to do so, we will support schools to benefit fully from the tools we already offer to benchmark and integrate resourcing and curriculum planning, such as the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. We will also introduce a new toolkit to support schools to adopt evidence-based deployment model.

What steps she is taking to ensure that schools teach about the environment.

The national curriculum in England provides a broad framework within which schools have the flexibility to develop the content of their own curricula. Topics related to the environment can be taught within all key stages of the science and geography curricula. They can also be taught within the citizenship curriculum, which is compulsory at key stages 3 and 4.The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The Review wants to ensure a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum that readies young people for life and work. The Review Group published an interim report on 18 March, and the final report with recommendations will be published in the autumn.

What steps she is taking to increase accessible holiday club provision for SEN children requiring one to one support.

This year, the government is again investing over £200 million in the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme, with all local authorities in England. The programme provides healthy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and learning.The HAF programme funding is primarily for school aged children from reception to year 11 (inclusive) who receive benefits-related free school meals (FSM).While the majority of funding that local authorities receive should be used for holiday club places for children in receipt of FSM, local authorities have discretion to use up to 15% of their funding to provide free or subsidised holiday club places for children, who are not in receipt of benefits-related FSM, but who the local authority believe could benefit from HAF provision.Local authorities are responsible for understanding the needs of the children and families in their area and ensuring that the programme reaches those who need it. In addition, they have flexibility in how the programme can be delivered to children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or additional needs, who are in receipt of FSM, ensuring it is tailored to meet the needs of those children and their families.The department’s guidance on the HAF programme 2024 provides key points for local authorities to consider when designing provisions for children with SEND or additional needs. This guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/holiday-activities-and-food-programme/holiday-activites-and-food-programme-2024.The department encourages local authorities to engage with local and national organisations, including special schools with expertise in working with children with SEND or additional needs. Local authorities are obligated to include the numbers of children with SEND or additional needs who have participated in their programme in their post provision reporting to us.Local authorities must ensure there are sufficient school places for all pupils, including those with SEND. The Children and Families Act 2014 requires local authorities to keep the provision for children and young people with SEND under review (including its sufficiency), working with parents, young people and providers.

Whether there is a mandated process for social services to be informed when a child for whom there has been a (a) Child Protection Plan, (b) Child in Need plan and (c) safeguarding concern raised is removed fro

Schools are legally required to notify the local authority of a child’s removal from the school roll at a non-standard transition point. This relates to pupils removed from the admission register before completing the final year of education normally prov...

What steps she is taking to expand (a) skills training and (b) apprenticeship schemes in the (i) renewable energy and (ii) energy efficiency sectors.

The government is committed to the UK becoming a Clean Energy Superpower, achieving clean power by 2030 and net zero carbon emissions by 2050.The government is working to ensure that the current and future skills system in England supports workers to retr...

What steps she is taking to ensure that breakfast clubs in primary schools are accessible for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Breakfast clubs will mean that many more pupils get a supportive start to the day and are ready to learn. They will also benefit parents and mean that many pupils who would not otherwise have had breakfast will be well fed to start the day.As confirmed at...

What steps she is taking to ensure that breakfast clubs in primary schools are accessible for children with special educational needs and disabilities who receive school transport.

Breakfast clubs will mean that many more pupils get a supportive start to the day and are ready to learn. They will also benefit parents and mean that many pupils who would not otherwise have had breakfast will be well fed to start the day.As confirmed at...

What steps she is taking to ensure that primary level special schools receive funding for breakfast clubs.

Breakfast clubs will mean that many more pupils get a supportive start to the day and are ready to learn. They will also benefit parents and mean that many pupils who would not otherwise have had breakfast will be well fed to start the day.As confirmed at...

If she will take steps to improve collaboration between local authorities and multi-academy trusts in the delivery of SEND education in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. This work forms p...

What steps her Department is taking to increase the availability of pastoral support for (a) children and (b) young people.

Schools and colleges are best placed to decide what pastoral support to put in place to meet the needs of their pupils. Pastoral support should promote good mental wellbeing and respond to emerging issues. There is a range of support available to schools,...

What assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the attainment gap for pupils in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council area.

Removing barriers to opportunity and driving high and rising standards at all schools are at the heart of the government’s opportunity mission which aims to transform children’s life chances.The Education Policy Institute's Annual Report 2024 outlined tha...

With reference to the report by the Sutton Trust entitled Lessons Learnt, published on 28 October 2024, if she will make her policy to (a) review and (b) reform the pupil premium.

Every child, regardless of background, deserves the opportunity to progress and succeed in school and beyond, and this government is committed to breaking the link between young people’s backgrounds and their future success. The department is fully focuse...

What discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding for post-16 education.

Funding for post-16 education has been discussed with my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.As announced in the Budget, the government is providing an additional £300 million for further education to ensure young people are developing the ...