Written questions by Martin.

Whether she plans to implement the British Standards Institute PAS 5222 Safeguarding Children specification.

The government is committed to safeguarding children across all settings, including out-of-school settings (OOSS). That is why the department launched a call for evidence on OOSS safeguarding to better understand current safeguarding practices and explore how best to strengthen them. This closed on 21 September, and we are now analysing the responses.The department welcomes initiatives aimed at improving safeguarding, including the British Standards Institute Publicly Available Specification 5222. However, it is right that we take the time to carefully consider the evidence before setting out next steps for enhancing safety in the sector. We will respond to our call for evidence in due course.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) requiring secondary schools to provide at least one hour per week of (i) music, (ii) drama and (iii) art teaching and (b) abolishing arts carousel timetabling models on arts participation.

Art and design, music and drama within English are important parts of the national curriculum, and the government trusts schools to determine how best to teach all arts subjects, including teaching time.Schools are expected to fund the teaching of arts subjects from their core budget. School funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning that core school budgets will total £65.3 billion.In addition, a £76 million annual core grant is provided to 43 Music Hub partnerships to provide instrument tuition, loans, and whole-class ensemble teaching alongside £25 million for instruments and technology. From September 2026, the National Centre for Arts and Music Education will also support excellent teacher training in the arts, boost partnerships between schools and arts organisations and promote arts subjects.The department launched the four-year music opportunities pilot in September 2024 across 12 local areas, backed by £2 million and a further £3.85 million from Arts Council England and Youth Music. The pilot supports pupils eligible for the pupil premium and others to learn how to play an instrument or sing to a high standard, including fully funded one-to-one tuition. The findings from the pilot will inform future policy on widening music opportunities.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of encouraging schools to fully fund one-to-one music tuition for pupils eligible for pupil premium funding.

Art and design, music and drama within English are important parts of the national curriculum, and the government trusts schools to determine how best to teach all arts subjects, including teaching time.Schools are expected to fund the teaching of arts subjects from their core budget. School funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning that core school budgets will total £65.3 billion.In addition, a £76 million annual core grant is provided to 43 Music Hub partnerships to provide instrument tuition, loans, and whole-class ensemble teaching alongside £25 million for instruments and technology. From September 2026, the National Centre for Arts and Music Education will also support excellent teacher training in the arts, boost partnerships between schools and arts organisations and promote arts subjects.The department launched the four-year music opportunities pilot in September 2024 across 12 local areas, backed by £2 million and a further £3.85 million from Arts Council England and Youth Music. The pilot supports pupils eligible for the pupil premium and others to learn how to play an instrument or sing to a high standard, including fully funded one-to-one tuition. The findings from the pilot will inform future policy on widening music opportunities.

Whether she plans to increase dedicated arts funding for schools to ensure (a) music, (b) drama and (c) art are delivered as core subjects.

Art and design, music and drama within English are important parts of the national curriculum, and the government trusts schools to determine how best to teach all arts subjects, including teaching time.Schools are expected to fund the teaching of arts subjects from their core budget. School funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning that core school budgets will total £65.3 billion.In addition, a £76 million annual core grant is provided to 43 Music Hub partnerships to provide instrument tuition, loans, and whole-class ensemble teaching alongside £25 million for instruments and technology. From September 2026, the National Centre for Arts and Music Education will also support excellent teacher training in the arts, boost partnerships between schools and arts organisations and promote arts subjects.The department launched the four-year music opportunities pilot in September 2024 across 12 local areas, backed by £2 million and a further £3.85 million from Arts Council England and Youth Music. The pilot supports pupils eligible for the pupil premium and others to learn how to play an instrument or sing to a high standard, including fully funded one-to-one tuition. The findings from the pilot will inform future policy on widening music opportunities.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure distinct recognition for children from service families in education policy; and whether she will adopt a whole person, whole journey approach for such children.

The Armed Forces Covenant aims to ensure that service people and their families are not disadvantaged by their service to our country. The government is dedicated to recognising and supporting the education of children and young people from military families within the state-funded education system, ensuring they have the opportunity to achieve and thrive.Schools are allocated additional funding through the Service Pupil Premium to help them better support the specific needs of children from service families. For the 2025/26 financial year, over £26 million has been allocated to state-funded schools in England through the Service Pupil Premium, at a rate of £350 per pupil.The government remains open to new evidence regarding the specific needs of service children and is committed to finding the best ways to support them throughout all educational phases.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing student loans for apprentices.

Apprenticeships are jobs with training, allowing apprentices to earn a wage whilst getting hands-on industry experience. Apprenticeships training is funded by the government and by employers, meaning that apprentices do not have to pay towards the cost of their training. For this reason, apprentices are not eligible for student finance, but we remain committed to ensuring that apprentice wages support the attraction of talented individuals into apprenticeships.On 1 April 2025, the Apprentice National Minimum Wage (ANMW) increased by 18% to £7.55 per hour, from £6.40, which will help to encourage more young people to upskill via apprenticeships. Apprentices under 19, or aged 19 and above and in the first year of their apprenticeship, are entitled to the ANMW. In all other cases, apprentices must receive at least the correct national minimum wage for their age, although many employers choose to pay more than the minimum.This government also wants to ensure that more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds can undertake apprenticeships. We continue to pay a bursary of £3,000 to apprentices under the age of 25 who have been, or are, in local authority care. The bursary is paid in instalments over the first year of the apprenticeship, supporting care leavers as they transition into employment.

What steps she is taking to (a) develop and (b) implement in-classroom screening tools for dyslexia; and if she will include those tools in the (i) training and (ii) resources provided to teachers.

The statutory guidance ‘SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ is clear that meeting the needs of a child with special educational needs (SEN) does not require a diagnostic label or test. Instead, the department expects teachers to monitor the progress of all pupils and put support in place where needed. The full guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25.The department is committed to improving support for all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with specific learning difficulties. As part of this, the department is considering both international evidence and best practice in its policymaking on SEN, with a focus on strengthening the evidence base on what works to identify and support needs in mainstream settings, including for specific learning difficulties.The department has also commissioned evidence reviews from University College London, which will highlight what the best available evidence suggests are the most effective tools, strategies and approaches for teachers and other relevant staff in mainstream settings to identify and support children and young people (age 0 to 25) with different types of needs.In November 2024, the department established the Neurodivergence Task and Finish Group, chaired by Professor Karen Guldberg from Birmingham University, to provide an expert view and make recommendations on how to best meet the needs of neurodivergent children and young people within mainstream education settings. The group brings together experts including clinicians, scientists and academics, education professionals, and charities representing specific types of neurodivergence. We have been clear that in developing their advice, we expect the group to draw on a wide range of inputs, including other sector experts and stakeholders, to ensure appropriate coverage of other types of neurodivergence. The group will also listen to the voices of neurodivergent children and young people, their parents, and others who care for them.The initial teacher training and early career framework, which replaces the core content framework and early career framework from September 2025 and underpins what all new teachers should learn, contains significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with SEND. The adaptive teaching content includes, for example, developing an understanding of different pupil needs, and learning how to provide opportunities for success for all pupils.

What discussions she has had with Skills England on the decision to exclude level 7 apprenticeships from the Apprenticeship Levy; and whether she is exploring alternative support for firms to provide these qualifications.

The government is committed to spreading opportunities and economic growth supported by a strong skills system.This government has an extremely challenging fiscal inheritance. There are tough choices that need to be taken on how funding should be prioritised in order to generate opportunities for young people that enable them to make a start in good, fulfilling careers, and the department will therefore be asking more employers to step forward and fund a significant number of level 7 apprenticeships themselves outside of the levy-funded growth and skills offer.The department has received a wide range of representations on level 7 apprenticeships which it is currently considering. These have been received directly and via Skills England, which has engaged with a wide range of stakeholders on this matter and has shared its findings with the department.The department recognises the importance of providing clarity as soon as possible on future funding for level 7 apprenticeships and will communicate next steps in due course.