Written questions by Rosindell.

What steps she is taking to ensure that materials used in schools do not contain scientifically inaccurate or misleading claims.

Schools are subject to statutory duties regarding political impartiality under section 406 and 407 of the Equality Act 1996. This means schools must not promote partisan political views and should ensure that pupils are provided with a balanced treatment of political issues. In 2022 the department published comprehensive guidance to support schools to meet their duties on political impartiality: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools/political-impartiality-in-schools#using-external-agencies.This includes sections on choosing resources and working with external organisations.The department does not approve or monitor externally produced resources or track their distribution. We have also not met or corresponded with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and do not fund them.If a parent is concerned about a school using politically partial, inaccurate or inappropriate resources, they should raise the matter with the school immediately and, if necessary, escalate it through the school’s publish complaints process: https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-school.

Whether her Department monitors the (a) distribution and (b) use of educational materials from (a) PETA and (b) other organisations in English schools.

Schools are subject to statutory duties regarding political impartiality under section 406 and 407 of the Equality Act 1996. This means schools must not promote partisan political views and should ensure that pupils are provided with a balanced treatment of political issues. In 2022 the department published comprehensive guidance to support schools to meet their duties on political impartiality: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools/political-impartiality-in-schools#using-external-agencies.This includes sections on choosing resources and working with external organisations.The department does not approve or monitor externally produced resources or track their distribution. We have also not met or corresponded with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and do not fund them.If a parent is concerned about a school using politically partial, inaccurate or inappropriate resources, they should raise the matter with the school immediately and, if necessary, escalate it through the school’s publish complaints process: https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-school.

What steps she has taken to work with relevant authorities to ensure that the nutritional value of food served in cafeterias in state education facilities is (a) maintained and (b) improved.

It is important that children eat nutritious food at school and the department encourages schools to have a whole school approach to healthy eating. The school food standards regulate the food and drink provided at school. School governors and trustees have a responsibility to ensure compliance with the school food standards and should work with the headteacher and the senior leadership team to ensure the school is meeting its obligations.To support governors and trustees, the department, along with National Governance Association, are running a pilot online training course on school food.

What steps she has taken to work with the relevant authorities to ensure food hygiene standards are (a) maintained and (b) improved in cafeterias in state education facilities.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is the government body with policy responsibility for food safety. All supply of food is required by law to be safe. School cafeterias that provide food on a regular basis are registered food businesses and inspected periodically by the local authority environmental health service to ensure hygiene procedures are compliant with the food hygiene regulations. Departmental officials engage with the FSA on a range of topics.

What steps she is taking to improve learning support for pupils with ADHD in (a) primary and (b) secondary state education.

The department is committed to improving support for all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other neurodiverse conditions.The department is providing £1 billion more for high needs budgets in 2025/26, bringing total high needs funding to £11.9 billion. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with complex SEND.The SEND code of practice is clear that schools should apply a “graduated approach” to identify a child’s needs, plan appropriate support, implement that support and review it regularly to ensure it continues to meet their identified needs. Through this, schools should develop personalised approaches to supporting the unique needs of individual pupils. Schools should involve pupils and their parents in this process, taking their views into consideration.In November 2024, the department established a Neurodivergence Task and Finish Group, chaired by Professor Karen Guldberg from the University of Birmingham, 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. Professor Anita Thapar, the chair of the independent ADHD Taskforce convened by NHS England, is a member of this group.The department also runs a Universal SEND Services contract to provide SEND-specific professional development and support for the school and further education workforce. The programme helps professionals to identify and meet the needs of children and young people with SEND, including ADHD, earlier and more effectively. Since the programme commenced, school and college staff have completed over 20,000 online training modules.Additionally, the department has introduced the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme, a cross-government collaboration between the department, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England, backed by £13 million of investment.PINS brings together integrated care boards, local authorities and schools, working in partnership with parents and carers to support schools to better meet the needs of neurodivergent children and their families.PINS deploys specialists from health and education workforces to build teacher and staff capacity to identify and better meet the needs of neurodivergent children in around 1,650 (10%) mainstream primary schools.

What steps her Department is taking with relevant authorities to support parents who educate their children at home.

While parents who choose to home educate assume full responsibility for their child’s education, the department believes that parents, educational providers and local authorities should work together to deliver the best educational outcomes for every child.As part of the Children Not in School measures included in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the department is introducing the first ever duty on local authorities to provide support for home educating families. This support duty will ensure that parents who choose to home educate their children will receive a minimum level of support from their local authority should they request it.The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill also includes measures for the introduction of statutory Children Not in School registers in every local authority in England, and an accompanying duty on parents and out-of-school education providers to provide information for these registers. The information provided will enable local authorities to identify all children who are not in school in their area, including children who are home educated, as well as any specific support needs that they might have. Collecting this information will ensure that local authorities are better able to provide appropriate support in the form of advice and information to those children and their families should they request it.The department continues to work with local authorities to collect information from existing voluntary registers of children not in school through the department’s mandatory termly elective home education data collection. This helps further build the national picture as to what support home educating parents may need.

Whether her Department is taking steps to support the teaching of Latin in state schools.

The study of ancient languages can teach us valuable lessons in history, politics and art that are still relevant today. It helps students understand the evolution of language and gives them the chance to study and analyse ancient texts that provide valuable insights into important questions for the twenty first century.All schools are free to include Latin, ancient Greek and classics as part of their curriculum. The department has been working with classics organisations to ensure that schools are aware of the free support available to them to help to teach classics and ancient languages. We will be signposting this support on the department's Education Hub shortly. The Education Hub can be accessed here: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/.

What steps she is taking to help support relevant authorities with the transportation of disabled pupils to and from school.

I refer the hon. Member for Romford to the answer of 18 November 2024 to Question 13330.

Whether her Department is taking steps to support the teaching of ancient Greek in state schools.

The study of ancient languages can teach us valuable lessons in history, politics and art that are still relevant today. It helps students understand the evolution of language and gives them the chance to study and analyse ancient texts that provide valuable insights into important questions for the twenty first century.All schools are free to include Latin, ancient Greek and classics as part of their curriculum. The department has been working with classics organisations to ensure that schools are aware of the free support available to them to help to teach classics and ancient languages. We will be signposting this support on the department's Education Hub shortly. The Education Hub can be accessed here: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/.

What steps she is taking with relevant authorities to support the education of dyslexic children in (a) Romford constituency and b) England.

The department is committed to improving support for all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with dyslexia and other neurodiverse conditions.The department is providing £1 billion more for high needs budgets in 2025/26, bringing total high needs funding to £11.9 billion. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with complex SEND.Early identification of need and support is critical to improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND, including those with dyslexia. There are already a number of measures to help teachers do this, including the phonics screening check and statutory assessments at the end of key stage 2.Measures have also been introduced to support the effective teaching of reading, including for those at risk of falling behind. This includes the English Hubs programme, the publication of the reading framework and an updated list of high quality phonics programmes for schools.The English Hubs programme is dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, with a focus on supporting children making the slowest progress in reading. As part of the continuous professional development provided by the English Hubs, the Reading Ambition for All programme has been launched to improve outcomes for children who need additional support with reading, including those with SEND.Romford’s local English Hub is New Vision. Further information is available here: https://newvisionenglishhub.co.uk/.

What steps she is taking to reduce absenteeism in secondary schools.

Tackling absence is at the heart of the government’s mission is to break down barriers to opportunity. If children aren’t in school, it doesn’t matter how effective or well-supported teaching and learning is, they will not benefit. Thanks to the hard work of parents and teachers, there has been progress, but levels of absenteeism remain higher than they were prior to the pandemic.The department has set out clear expectations of local authorities and schools in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which was made statutory on 19 August 2024. This guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdfThe guidance promotes a 'support first' approach and sets out clear expectations on how schools, trusts, local authorities and wider services 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.The department has also established 31 attendance hubs that have offered their support to around 2000 other schools, including secondaries. Hubs are established and led by senior leaders in schools with strong attendance practice. The meetings led by hubs are intended to give senior leaders in other schools a forum to discuss and share effective attendance practice.Last year, the department published an attendance toolkit, bringing together effective practice from across the hubs. The toolkit gives schools practical advice on how to diagnose and target their attendance problem and how to effectively implement great practice.We are also strengthening our tools for faster and more effective school improvement by launching the new regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams. Supported by over £20 million, these teams will offer both mandatory targeted intervention for schools identified by Ofsted as needing to improve and a universal service, acting as a catalyst for a self-improving system for all schools. The RISE teams are now beginning work with the first group of schools eligible for the targeted, bespoke service, including support for attendance as necessary. Improving school attendance is a national priority for RISE teams.This term, alongside hub lead schools and RISE advisers, the department is also delivering a programme of regional attendance conferences across England, giving secondary school leaders and senior attendance champions the chance to hear directly from hubs and other practitioners on improving attendance.Every state school in England is now required to share their attendance data with the department. Schools can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.We are also improving support for children, working across government on plans to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, new Young Futures Hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.The department recently announced an additional investment of £15 million to expand the work of secondary focused attendance mentors into ten new areas over the next three years. This expansion will see at least 10,800 secondary school pupils in Blackpool, Hartlepool, Hastings, West Somerset, Norwich, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Nottingham, Rochdale and Walsall supported to improve their attendance.This pilot will also be externally evaluated to improve the existing evidence base on effective one-to-one attendance interventions. The information from this pilot will be published to help inform secondary school practice nationally.

Whether she is taking steps to promote cooperation within the tertiary education sector with the Republic of San Marino.

This government is resetting the relationship with our European friends to strengthen ties, secure a broad-based security pact and tackle barriers to trade.We are working with the higher education (HE) sector to ensure our world leading universities continue to attract the best and brightest and support the UK’s economy.The UK is outward looking and welcomes international students, including those from San Marino, who make a positive impact on the UK’s HE sector, our economy and society as a whole.

What discussions she has had with (a) the Secretary of State for the Home Department and (b) higher education institutions in England on reducing the number of instances of sexual assault reported in those institutions.

There is no place for sexual misconduct of any kind in higher education (HE) or anywhere else. The department expects university leaders to take positive action to tackle this blight wherever it grows on their campuses. To support universities to stamp out sexual misconduct, the Office for Students has introduced new requirements for preventing, addressing and investigating incidents. These take effect in August 2025. Departmental officials are working with sector bodies to ensure HE providers are prepared to implement the new measures that will establish, amongst other things, regulatory requirements for preventative training, reporting mechanisms and providing support to students. All HE providers will need to show they have the capability and resource capacity to implement the new requirements. More details of this condition can be found here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-providers/student-protection-and-support/harassment-and-sexual-misconduct/prevent-and-address-harassment-and-sexual-misconduct/.

What steps she is taking with higher education institutions to improve (a) training for staff on and (b) levels of awareness of safeguarding at those institutions.

There is no place for sexual misconduct of any kind in higher education (HE) or anywhere else. The department expects university leaders to take positive action to tackle this blight wherever it grows on their campuses. To support universities to stamp out sexual misconduct, the Office for Students has introduced new requirements for preventing, addressing and investigating incidents. These take effect in August 2025. Departmental officials are working with sector bodies to ensure HE providers are prepared to implement the new measures that will establish, amongst other things, regulatory requirements for preventative training, reporting mechanisms and providing support to students. All HE providers will need to show they have the capability and resource capacity to implement the new requirements. More details of this condition can be found here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-providers/student-protection-and-support/harassment-and-sexual-misconduct/prevent-and-address-harassment-and-sexual-misconduct/.

If she will take steps to ensure that English pupils are educated to a basic level in the history of each nation of the UK.

The national curriculum for history has a strong focus on British history. It gives teachers and schools the flexibility to teach pupils about the history of each nation of the UK across the three key stages.At key stage 1, pupils should be taught about changes within living memory, events beyond living memory that are significant nationally, and the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national achievements. At key stage 2, when teaching about changes in British history, further foundations can be developed for the teaching of the history of each nation of the UK.Teaching about each nation of the UK can take place across the time periods and themes at key stage 3 and non-statutory examples are suggested across this key stage. The nations of the UK could also be taught within the requirement for the study of an aspect or theme in British history that consolidates and extends pupils’ chronological knowledge from before 1066 and within local history across the three key stages.As part of the flexibility all schools have in teaching the national curriculum, schools and teachers are able to determine which examples, topics and resources to use to stimulate and challenge pupils and reflect key points in history.The department announced a Curriculum and Assessment Review last year. The Review’s interim report is due to be published in early spring 2025, with a final report later in the year. The government is legislating so that, following the Review and the implementation of reforms, academies will be required to teach the new national curriculum, alongside other state-funded schools.

What steps she has taken with relevant authorities to impove school attendance in Romford constituency.

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 efforts of families and schools, 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. The guidance promotes a 'support first' approach and sets out clear expectations on how schools, trusts, local authorities and wider services 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. This guidance can be accessed at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf.Every state school, including across Romford, 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 identify patterns and 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 we have set up a network of 31 attendance hubs, including a lead hub school in Romford, who, collectively, have offered support to 2000 primary, secondary and alternative provision schools 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 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 and challenge, 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 access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, new Young Futures hubs, including 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 steps she has taken to work with local authorities to support the early years sector in Romford constituency.

This government is committed to breaking down the barriers to opportunity and that starts by ensuring every child has the best start in life. High-quality early education and childcare is essential to supporting this.By 2027/28, this government expects to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours helping working families with their childcare costs. We have committed to ensuring that 30 hours of government-funded childcare is available for eligible working parents of children aged 9 months to the time they start school, by September 2025. This is the largest expansion of funded childcare ever and will remove barriers to work for nearly half a million parents with a child under 3 in England. ​The Romford constituency is within the area covered by Havering local authority, who, under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the ‘Early education and childcare’ statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-education-and-childcare--2. The department worked closely with Havering local authority as they delivered the first two stages of the early entitlement expansion, and we continue to engage with them regularly as they prepare for September 2025. Currently no local authorities are reporting that eligible children are unable to access early years places. If through our support, Havering local authority report any sufficiency challenges, we will where possible support them with any specific requirements. We have a delivery support contractor, Childcare Works, in place to support local authorities and providers to deliver the early years expansion. Finally, on top of over £8 billion through the core funding rates, we are providing an additional £75 million grant for 2025/26 to support the sector in this pivotal year as they grow the places and the workforce needed to deliver the final phase of expanded childcare entitlements from September 2025. We know how important the details of funding arrangements are to local authorities and providers and so we will provide further details on how this grant will work as soon as possible.

If she will take steps to help increase the number of pupils taking T-Level courses in (a) Romford constituency and (b) Havering.

This government wants every young person to be able to pursue the post-16 education and training pathway that sets them up with the skills to achieve, including ensuring that more young people have access to the opportunities T Levels provide. 21 T Levels are now available and the department has introduced three new subjects this academic year, with a further T Level planned for September 2025.Over 250 providers across the country deliver T Levels, including Barking and Dagenham College in the Romford area, which is now offering six T Levels, and New City College, which is offering seven T Levels. Both colleges have benefited from capital funding to support the development of industry standard facilities and equipment for T Level students in the area.T Levels are promoted to young people via the department’s national ‘Skills for Life’ communications campaign, supported by regional PR and partnership work with organisations such as Snapchat and UCAS. Schools can also access face to face support from advisers who offer information on T Levels to support students’ and teachers’ understanding of the opportunities they provide.The department’s annual T Levels Week will take place from 2 to 6 December this year and will see providers, employers and the department’s 800 member-strong T Level ambassador network sharing student stories to raise the profile of T Levels and drive-up student demand across the country.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of (a) primary and (b) secondary school provision in Romford constituency.

Primary and secondary pupil numbers are forecast to rise from 2025/26. The department will work with local authorities and trusts to manage future demand.The department has previously approved two primary free school projects to serve planned housing development in the Rainham and Romford planning areas. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has asked the department to review mainstream free schools planned by the last government, and that have not yet opened, to ensure that they continue to meet a need for places in the local area and offer value for taxpayers’ money. As part of this, we are working with the London Borough of Havering to review the need for the planned provision in Romford.

What steps she is taking to increase the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of teachers in the London Borough of Havering.

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 more must be done to ensure we have the workforce needed to provide the best possible education for every child in all parts of the country. This is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers.The first crucial step towards achieving this is to ensure teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, and to reset the relationship with the teaching profession. As part of this, it is important that teachers receive the pay they deserve, which is why this government has accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools from September 2024. Additionally, from 1 September 2024, schools are no longer required to use performance related pay as the basis for appraisals and decisions related to pay progression. This government is providing schools with almost £1.1 billion in additional funding in the 2024/25 financial year to support schools with overall costs.Alongside teacher pay, the department is continuing to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. To help with retention, new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers can also receive a Targeted Retention Incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. 13 schools in Havering are eligible for Targeted Retention Incentives.The department has made available a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing, including its ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service and the ‘education staff wellbeing charter’. Additionally, effective use of technology can automate tasks and help manage workload for teachers. For example, high quality AI tools have the potential to reduce the amount of time that teachers spend marking, whilst supporting effective feedback and tailored teaching which drive pupil progress.In August 2024, we announced a £1 million fund to support innovators to develop proof of concept AI tools to support teachers with marking and providing feedback. Oak National Academy has also recently launched a sector-leading AI lesson planning assistant which enables teachers who choose to use it to create personalised and tailored lesson plans and resources in minutes. 40% of Oak users save around four hours per week.The department is committed to supporting schools to implement flexible working practices including taking planning, preparation and assessment time remotely, to improve recruitment and retention of teachers. The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts. The named flexible working ambassador for schools in Havering is Charles Dickens Primary School.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. London District East Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Havering.