Speeches by Phillipson.

“We agreed with the Treasury the wording that is in its document, about it being across Government. Of course, the next spending review will commence in 2027, so that will take place and follow into that. Susan, it might be helpful if you could set out just how we got here.”

“Yes. If you will allow me, Chair, I will briefly explain the process, because I think there has been some misunderstanding around the Budget and the OBR’s figures. The OBR set out the position connected to council deficits being accounted for within the Government balance sheet. Alongside that, we published the Treasur…”

“I agree that it is critical, given that many of the challenges that parents report are not simply about what happens in school, but about what happens with things like access to OT support or to speech and language support. All of that is a critical part of what we need to do. It also connects to our Best Start family …”

“Financial sustainability is important, but I emphasise that even if that were not a challenge, we would need to make the system better. We can all recognise that outcomes for children with SEND are far away from where we want them to be. How hard parents have to fight for support—that needs to change. There is obviousl…”

“As I say, today we launched the national conversation on SEND. Over the last year, I have spent a lot of time speaking to parents, carers, teachers, disability rights groups and others. We have had our advisory group—our experts—working with us to support that. We have also established our SEND development group, which…”

“I agree that this is extremely serious; it has obviously built up over many, many years. We are working with local authorities to manage their SEND pressures. I will directly address the question about next steps, but there are good examples that show how councils—together with the DfE, or sometimes separately—can crea…”

“It is not subject-specific; it relates to secondary and special schools.”

“I am Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary. Thank you for the opportunity to update members on the progress that the Department has made since we last met. It has been a busy year for education and for our mission to break the link between background and success. I want to take a moment of the Committee’s time to…”

“We welcome the Committee’s report and work in this area. I want to thank you and Committee members for your valuable recommendations, which we are carefully considering as part of the wider reform that we intend to set out. We are working very closely with parents, carers and others. Just today, we launched our nationa…”

“Absolutely—both on this and on children’s social care, among other issues. Those are two of the biggest challenges that we face, but there is a real opportunity to transform services and systems, which will lead to better outcomes for children, including some of the most vulnerable children in our country.”

“I believe that the current progress 8 structure has hampered progress in subjects that strengthen our economy and our society, including the arts. That is why we will consult on an improved progress 8 measure that recognises the value of those subjects and balances a strong academic core with breadth and student choice…”

“I hope it will see the light of day very, very soon, but I think it is fair to say that what lots of people were waiting for was to understand the changes that we intended to make around social security. There is more beyond that but, clearly, lifting the two-child limit was central to any effective child poverty strat…”

“The threshold, of course, applies to a different cohort, but I am pleased that we have been able to reintroduce new targeted maintenance grants. That was not something that we committed to in the manifesto, so we have gone beyond our manifesto in delivering that, alongside investment in skills, which will be a part of …”

“I’m afraid I cannot talk about the discussions that took place during that process, and what might or might not have been considered. But I do recognise that this is an issue that comes up time and again.”

“We are addressing the cliff edges that young people experience as they leave care. We will provide a national Staying Close support package, as we set out in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. That will mean that care leavers can find and keep suitable accommodation, alongside an offer of practical and emotiona…”

“That is not something that we are actively considering at the moment. Our focus has been both on the measures in the Bill, to make improvements happen, and on the changes that we are driving across the care leavers ministerial board, especially with colleagues in MHCLG around Staying Close. For far too long, children w…”

“As I say, we have the national Staying Close support package offer. We will obviously keep under review what is needed further, but we have a big and ambitious package of wider reforms to the children’s social care system. That runs alongside further comprehensive measures we also want to bring forward around the foste…”

“Absolutely. We are also working very closely with universities on many of these challenges, for example the need for year-round accommodation for young people who might not have a family home to return to. It is also why, through the higher education reforms that we have set out, we are guaranteeing for the first time …”

“We are addressing that through the early adopter programme. I should stress that that survey was carried out across education. It was not specifically from the early adopters, and we are seeing different evidence coming back from the early adopters about how they are managing to make the numbers add up and make sure th…”

“We have not set a timeline for it, but we have set the ambition. It is important to set the ambition—if you were not ambitious, you would never achieve anything. We think it is important that triple science is available to all students who wish to study it. Currently, access is uneven. Disadvantaged pupils are less lik…”