Written questions by West.

With reference to the Schools White Paper, what plans she has to safeguard local authority-run schools.

Awaiting answer.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of (a) adding more female scientists to the National Curriculum and (b) making it mandatory for exam boards to include them in the syllabus.

The government’s ambition is for every child and young person to receive a rich and broad, inclusive and innovative education, and that the whole curriculum reflects our modern society and diverse communities.The science curriculum provides a broad and flexible framework that allows schools to choose how they teach topics across the key stages, and this can include the study of female scientists. We are in the process of refreshing the national curriculum, including the sciences. We will consult on the curriculum from early summer, and we will fully implement the new full national curriculum for teaching from September 2028.Exam boards are responsible for developing qualification specifications that meet the subject content requirements set by the department and are accredited by Ofqual. While the department is responsible for decisions that relate to the scope of the subject content to be taught and assessed, exam boards are responsible for their own specifications.

What steps her Department is taking to help promote the inclusion of disability history in the national curriculum.

The government’s ambition is for every child and young person to receive a rich and broad, inclusive and innovative education, and that the curriculum reflects our modern society and diverse communities, including disabled people. We will ensure disability is taught in the curriculum, so that all children and young people have a positive and informed understanding of disability.The history curriculum provides a broad and flexible framework that allows schools to select which topics to teach across the key stages, and this can include history relating to disabled people. We are in the process of refreshing the history curriculum to support the teaching of the inherent diversity within history. We will consult on the curriculum from early summer, and we will fully implement the new full national curriculum for first teaching from September 2028.

What steps she is taking to ensure that early years staff have access to adequate safety training; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of safety requirements within the Ofsted framework.

The safety of our youngest children is our utmost priority and the department continually monitors and reviews safeguarding requirements to ensure children are kept as safe as possible.The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements early years providers must meet to ensure that children are kept healthy and safe. It is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68c024cb8c6d992f23edd79c/Early_years_foundation_stage_statutory_framework_-_for_group_and_school-based_providers.pdf.pdf. In September 2025, changes were introduced to strengthen safeguarding requirements in the EYFS, including clearer expectations on safeguarding training.A new safeguarding training annex now sets out clearly what safeguarding training must cover and to support providers, a free online safeguarding training package is being developed by the department with the NSPCC, aligned to the updated requirements.Ofsted inspects early years providers under the Education Inspection Framework against the full range of EYFS requirements. Inspectors assess whether providers are meeting statutory requirements and taking appropriate action to keep children safe.

What steps is she taking to help improve pay and conditions in the further education sector.

Further education (FE) colleges, rather than the government, are responsible for setting and negotiating staff pay and terms and conditions within colleges.In May 2025, the department announced a further £190 million investment for colleges and other 16 to 19 providers in addition to the £400 million of extra funding we already planned to spend on 16 to 19 education in financial year 2025/26.Across the Spending Review period, we will provide £1.2 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028/2029.This significant investment will ensure there is increased funding to colleges and other 16 to19 providers to enable the recruitment and retention of expert teachers in high value subject areas, and interventions to retain top teaching talent Targeted recruitment incentives of up to £6,000 (after tax) are available for eligible early career FE teachers working in key science, technology, engineering and mathematics and technical shortage subjects, in disadvantaged schools and colleges (including in Sixth Form Colleges). This payment is separate to teachers’ usual pay.

With reference to the University and College Union news item entitled New analysis shows over 15,000 university job cuts as UCU launches UK wide strike ballot, published on 10 October 2025, what steps she is taking to help prevent job reductions in higher education.

Higher education (HE) providers are independent. This means government is not involved in workforce matters as it is in other education sectors.While government understands that HE providers must make difficult business decisions to safeguard their financial sustainability, we encourage providers to work with their staff to develop sustainable models that retain talent and expertise and provide stability for the workforce and the institution. All efficiency measures taken by the sector should provide a better long-term future for staff, students and the country.