Written questions by Cooper.

What assessment she has made of trends in the number of university graduates currently in non-graduate roles; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of careers service support in assisting graduates in accessing graduate roles.

The department has not undertaken any specific assessment of trends of graduates in non-graduate roles. However, the Office for National Statistics have previously released data on numbers of graduates in non-graduate roles using one particular definition of graduate roles supplied by the Institute for Employment Research. The releases are for 2021 to 2022 and 2012 to 2020, and they show that the percentage of graduates in non-graduate roles has dropped from 37.2% in 2012 to 36.0% in 2020. The full 2021 to 2022 release is available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/adhocs/1450onslocalgraduatesandnongraduatesemployedingraduateandnongraduaterolesnumbersandproportionsforukcountriesandregions2021and2022.The full 2012 to 2020 release is available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/adhocs/13929employedgraduatesinnongraduaterolesincityregions2012to2020.While most universities provide graduate careers support, the National Careers Service complements this by offering personalised, accessible and impartial advice to all adults, including recent graduates.Careers service support should assist graduates in accessing graduate roles, ensuring that they contribute to the economy and society through the skills that they acquire. The department knows from Skills England’s September 2024 report ‘Driving Growth and Widening Opportunities’ that many of England’s businesses are dependent on graduate skills.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the upcoming rise in undergraduate tuition fees on the take up of university courses by students from deprived backgrounds.

In January 2025, the government published an Equality Impact Assessment of the impact of changes to fee limits and student support for the 2025/26 academic year on undergraduate students with protected characteristics and disadvantaged students. This is available here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2025/41/pdfs/ukia_20250041_en.pdf.The department does not believe that the increase in tuition fee limits by forecast RPIX inflation of 3.1% for the 2025/26 academic year will significantly alter participation decisions for most students, as the value of tuition fees will remain unchanged in real terms and the corresponding increase in upfront tuition fee loans for the 2026/26 academic year will ensure that higher education remains free at the point of access for students eligible for support.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) support and (b) care workers who work with children and young people with SEN have access to adequate training before starting their roles.

The training that care and support workers receive before working with children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will depend on who employs the worker, and the purpose for which they are employed. If workers are supporting children with specific medical conditions, the following guidance explains how staff should be supported and trained in line with this guidance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5ce6a72e40f0b620a103bd53/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions.pdfFor social workers, Social Work England is the regulator for the social work profession in England. It sets the professional standards that all social workers must meet throughout their careers. These standards include promoting the rights, strengths, and wellbeing of individuals, families, and communities, including those with SEND.The department has recently consulted on new Post Qualifying Standards, which give greater clarity on the knowledge and skills expected of child and family social workers, including in relation to children with SEND.

What assessment she has made of the (a) level of use of AI by students to complete assessments in (i) secondary, (ii) further and (iii) higher education and (b) the potential impact of use on the validity of academic qualifications.

The department policy paper on generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education sets out some of the opportunities and risks education establishments should be aware of when considering generative AI technologies, including use of AI in assessments. The policy paper can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/generative-artificial-intelligence-in-education/generative-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-education.The department is working to ensure teachers are equipped and supported to promote safe and appropriate use of AI.Schools, colleges and awarding organisations need to continue taking reasonable steps, where applicable, to prevent malpractice involving the use of generative AI. Teachers know their pupils best and are experienced in identifying their individual pupils’ work.A new departmental group will advise on digital, AI and technology to prepare children and young people for an AI and tech-enabled world, as well as promoting the use of AI and Edtech for better teaching and learning. Expert and evidence-informed recommendations will be produced.The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) has published guidance on AI use in assessments. This guidance provides teachers and exam centres with information to help them prevent and identify potential malpractice involving the misuse of AI. The JCQ guidance can be found here: https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/malpractice/artificial-intelligence/.Ofsted and Ofqual both published policy papers in April 2024 outlining their approach to AI and Ofsted are currently updating their AI Strategy. The Office for Students will be including actions relating to AI in its upcoming 2025 to 2028 Strategy.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of including political education in the national curriculum.

For secondary schools, democracy and politics is currently taught through the national curriculum for citizenship at key stages 3 and 4, which covers parliamentary democracy, the key elements of the constitution of the United Kingdom, the power of government and how citizens and parliament hold it to account. Primary schools can choose to teach citizenship, using non-statutory programmes of study at key stages 1 and 2.Support for curriculum delivery is available through optional, free and adaptable resources from Oak National Academy (Oak). Oak launched its new curriculum sequences for secondary citizenship earlier this academic year, with the full package of curriculum resources expected to be available by this autumn. Oak resources can be found here: https://www.thenational.academy/.The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE.The Review Group has now published its interim findings and clarified that its next phase of work will consider coverage of key knowledge and skills within every subject. The interim report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-and-assessment-review-interim-report.The government will respond to the review’s final recommendations in the autumn.

What recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of persistent school absences in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England; and what steps her Department is taking to improve school attendance in those areas.

Detailed pupil absence data is collected as part of the school census and published on a termly basis. All absence data for England, including data at regional and local authority level, is available via the National Statistics releases.The department does not publish attendance data at the constituency level, so we are unable to provide data specifically for the Mid Cheshire constituency. However, local authority, regional, and national absence data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england. Additionally, the department publishes more frequent experimental attendance data on a fortnightly basis, which you can access here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-attendance-in-schools, or via the dashboard here: https://department-for-education.shinyapps.io/pupil-attendance-in-schools/.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 across the Mid Cheshire 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 Cheshire, 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. This toolkit is available 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 feel they can better 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, 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 a range of measures, including access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, new Young Futures hubs which include access to mental health support workers, and an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults. The department will also 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 recent assessment her Department has made of the number of unfilled teacher posts in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire, (c) the North West and (d) England in each of the last five years; and what steps she is taking to (i) fill those vacancies and (ii) improve teacher recruitment and retention in those areas.

Recruiting and retaining more teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the within-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high-quality teaching. This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes.Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, and can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.This includes the number and rate of unfilled teacher posts in each school, local authority, region and nationally. Figures for the North West and England are published at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/f3eb0c32-ece8-4c6e-778a-08dd2da39723.The attached table provides the number and rate of unfilled teacher posts in the Mid Cheshire and Cheshire constituencies, aggregated from local authority level data, in each of the last five academic years, as at November each year.The growing number of teacher shortages is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across schools, both mainstream and specialist, and 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. The department has 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, the department has 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’.In addition to recruiting expert teachers, the department wants existing teachers to stay and thrive in the profession. 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 six schools in Mid Cheshire that are eligible for Targeted Retention Incentives.To further support retention, the department has made available workload and wellbeing resources, developed with school leaders, through our new Improving Workload and Wellbeing online service, and continues to promote the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which currently has nearly 4,000 school and college signatories.The department is also funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders, providing professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted so far, with support continuing to be available through Education Support’s website.The department is also committed to supporting schools in implementing flexible working practices, including taking planning, preparation and assessment time remotely.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. They play a significant role in delivering Initial Teacher Training, the Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications and Appropriate Body services. Cheshire Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester.

What steps her Department is taking to tackle inequalities in education outcomes in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England.

Every child and young person should have every opportunity to achieve and thrive. The Opportunity Mission will promote equal opportunities for all by setting every child up for the best start in life, helping them achieve and thrive, and build skills for ...

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential implications for its policies of the National Literacy Trust's report entitled Children and Young People's Reading in 2024, published in November 2

​​High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.​We know that reading for pl...

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of primary school libraries on social disadvantage.

Reading for pleasure is hugely important and is associated with a range of academic, social and emotional benefits. The 2021 Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study data for England showed that the pupils who said they liked reading the most ...

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of school libraries on pupils' (a) attainment and (b) wellbeing.

Reading for pleasure is hugely important and is associated with a range of academic, social and emotional benefits. The 2021 Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study data for England showed that the pupils who said they liked reading the most ...

What estimate she has made of the number of young people out of work, education and training in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England.

The department publishes statistics on those not in education, employment or training (NEET) for England from the labour force survey (LFS) for young people aged 16 to 24. This can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-s...

How much funding her Department allocated to (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England in each of the last 10 years.

The department cannot provide comparable funding back to 2010 due to the changes in the funding system since that time. The scope of the per pupil funding before and after the 2018/19 financial year are not directly comparable. In particular, funding for ...

What the average per-pupil funding was that her Department allocated to (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England in each year since 2010.

The department cannot provide comparable funding back to 2010 due to the changes in the funding system since that time. The scope of the per pupil funding before and after the 2018/19 financial year are not directly comparable. In particular, funding for ...

What the average (a) primary and (b) secondary school class size was in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England in each of the last five years.

The department publishes annual statistics on class sizes in state-funded schools in England here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics. The England averages for the most recent five y...

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of including information about school libraries in the school census return.

The department has no current plans to collect any specific data about school libraries in the school census.The school census is the department’s primary source of administrative data about pupils attending schools in England. We keep the content of all ...

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the guidance issued to local education authorities on funding schools for in-year (a) transfers of pupils and (b) growth in pupils on roll.

The department has allocated £242 million in Growth and Falling Rolls funding to local authorities in 2024/25 through the dedicated schools grant, which local authorities can use to support schools managing significant growth in pupil numbers. We allocate...

What estimate she has made of the average age at which a child was referred for an Education, Health and Care Plan in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England in each of the last five years.

Information on education, health and care (EHC) plans is published in the statistical release ‘Education, health and care plans’. This includes information on the total numbers of requests for an EHC plan received by each local authority. The publication ...

What capital funding her Department has allocated to schools in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England in each of the last 10 years.

The department provides annual capital funding to support the education sector, which includes funding to maintain and improve the condition of the school estate and to create school places. The department’s capital budget also supports providers other th...

What steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of teachers in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England.

​​​​​​High quality teaching is the factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s education. There are now 468,693 full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England, but the government must do more to ensure it has the workforce need...