Written questions by Carden.

What capital funding is available to education providers in Liverpool Walton seeking to increase post-16 education and training capacity.

In December 2025, the government announced that almost half of the £375 million Post‑16 Capacity Fund would be devolved to strategic authorities to support further education colleges, sixth‑form colleges and 16 to 19 academies in expanding estate capacity to meet the demographic increase in learners. Devolved areas have broad scope to design their post-16 capacity programmes to meet local needs and best deliver the increase in capacity.Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) has received a share of this devolved funding. It will be for LCRCA to determine which projects best deliver the increased 16 to 19 capacity in their area. They will have until 2029/30 to deploy this funding and deliver the additional places.

What recent assessment her Department has made of the availability of post-16 provision in Liverpool Walton.

The department is working closely with Liverpool City Council and local general further education (FE) colleges to ensure there is sufficient post-16 provision in Liverpool Walton and the wider city region.In October 2025, we published the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, setting out our reforms to the skills system in England, which will develop the skilled workforce our economy needs.Reforms include the introduction of V Levels to sit alongside A and T Levels, the Further Study pathway, designed to support students to progress onto V, T or A levels and also the Occupational pathway which will support students to develop the skills needed to progress into employment or an apprenticeship.Liverpool Walton students will continue to access high quality post-16 education through school sixth forms, specialised alternative providers and outstanding FE colleges and universities within the city region.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the decision to reduce the therapy limit for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund on children using that fund.

The government made the difficult decision to cut the fair access limit in April to ensure that the fund remained financially sustainable and available to help as many children and their families as possible. As a result, this year the department has helped 14,000 children. This financial year we have invested £50 million into the adoption and special guardianship support fund. We have approved applications for nearly 14,000 children since April, for both therapy and specialist assessments. We continue to review the impact of the changes to funding made in April 2025.

What specialist support is available to adoptive parents of children with experience of trauma.

This financial year, the department has invested £50 million in the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund, giving adopted and kinship children access to therapeutic services that stabilise placements and offer specialist support to both adoptive children and parents.The department has approved applications for nearly 14,000 children since April, for both therapy and specialist assessments.In addition, the department is providing £3 million this year to Adoption England to develop more multidisciplinary teams in Regional Adoption Agencies. These joint teams, working with local health partners, enable families to receive holistic and high quality support.Adoption England is also working with Adoption Support and Local Authority Children’s ‘front door services’ to develop a much more joined-up approach to how services engage with families. The aim is to agree a protocol on collaboration so that families receive a far stronger range of support.

Pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2025 to Question 66249 on Pupil Exclusions, whether parents will retain their ability to hold local authorities and schools to account through the EHCP procedure and its safeguards.

There will always be a legal right to additional support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to ensure they are supported throughout their education and into adult life.As we have set out, the department intends to retain the SEND tribunal. Any changes we make will improve support for children and parents, stop parents from having to fight for support, and protect provision currently in place.As part of our Plan for Change, we will restore the confidence of families up and down the country and deliver the improvement they are crying out for so every child can achieve and thrive.

Pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2025 to Question 66249 on Pupil Exclusions, what her planned timetable is for her Department's changes to data collection to be made.

The proposed changes to the data collection, aimed at strengthening the oversight and monitoring of all exclusion through the school census, will require legislative amendments. As such they are subject to parliamentary procedure and are expected to come into effect for the 2026/27 academic year.

Whether her Department plans to make changes to the collection of data in relation to (a) suspensions and (b) permanent exclusions in England.

The department does not collect the pupil characteristics data for reinstated when an Independent Review Panel (IRP) has quashed a permanent exclusion.The department is taking action to strengthen the oversight and monitoring of all exclusion data collected through the school census, particularly for pupils who may be disproportionately affected by exclusion. This includes strengthening the monitoring of IRP decisions, with a stronger focus on the reinstatement of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

What estimate her Department has made of the number of disabled children not reinstated in school when an independent review panel has quashed a permanent exclusion.

The department does not collect the pupil characteristics data for reinstated when an Independent Review Panel (IRP) has quashed a permanent exclusion.The department is taking action to strengthen the oversight and monitoring of all exclusion data collected through the school census, particularly for pupils who may be disproportionately affected by exclusion. This includes strengthening the monitoring of IRP decisions, with a stronger focus on the reinstatement of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Whether her Department plans to renew the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Liverpool Walton to the answer of 29 January 2025 to Question 26025.

What plans her Department has to increase the number of children and young people reading for pleasure.

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Liverpool Walton to the answer of 14 February 2025 to Question 29850.

What assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of funding for SEND provision in (a) Liverpool and (b) England.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.Following the Autumn Budget 2024, the department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion in England. Of that total, Liverpool City Council is being allocated over £103 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), which is an increase of £10 million on this year’s DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF). This NFF allocation is an 10% increase per head of their 2 to 18-year-old population, on their equivalent 2024/25 NFF allocation.In addition to the DSG, local authorities will also receive a separate core schools budget grant (CSBG), and funding in respect of the increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions, in 2025/26. This CSBG continues the separate grants payable this year, which are to help special schools and alternative provision with the costs of teachers’ pay and pension increases, and other staff pay increases. Individual local authorities’ allocations for both grants for 2025/26 will be published in due course.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of library provision in primary schools.

School libraries complement public libraries by giving pupils access to a range of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school. The national curriculum states that teachers are expected to encourage pupils to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. There are a number of strong links between reading for pleasure and attainment. For example, the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study report found a 34 point difference in reading performance between pupils in England who “very much” liked reading and pupils who “do not” like reading. Additionally, the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment study found that enjoyment of reading links to pupils’ reading engagement, and that reading engagement was strongly positively correlated with reading performance. There is also a strong evidence base linking reading for pleasure to other positive effects, such as improved text comprehension and grammar, increased general knowledge and character development.It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian. Headteachers have autonomy to decide how best to spend the core schools funding that is allocated to them by the department. The Autumn Budget 2024 announced an additional £2.3 billion for schools for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25, bringing the total core schools budget to almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26.Given this autonomy, the department does not collect information on the number of school libraries or school librarians. ​​There are currently no plans to make it a statutory requirement for primary schools to have a library, although we will continue to keep this matter under review.​The government’s reading framework offers non-statutory guidance for teachers and school leaders, including helpful guidance for schools on how to organise their school library, book corner or book stock to make reading accessible and attractive to readers.

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

The department publishes national statistics on those not in education, employment or training (NEET) for England from the labour force survey for young people aged 16 to 24. However, these are only published at national and regional level due to limitations with sample sizes for lower-level geographies. Therefore, NEET rates for young people aged 16 to 24 cannot be provided for the area requested. The available statistics can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief.Local authorities are required to encourage, enable or assist young people’s participation in education or training and return management information for young people aged 16 and 17. This data shows that of the 10,372 young people aged 16 and 17-years-old who were known to Liverpool local authority around the end of 2022 (average of December 2022, January 2023 and February 2023), 885 were NEET or their activity was not known (530 known to be NEET and 355 young people whom the local authority could not confirm their activity). This data is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neet-and-participation-local-authority-figures. These are not national statistics but published as transparency data so some caution should be taken if using these figures. Data is not available for Liverpool, Walton constituency.In addition, 16 to 18 destination measures are published. These official statistics show the percentage of pupils not continuing to a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after completing 16 to 18 study, that is 6 months of continual activity. This can be used as a proxy for NEET at age 18. Data for Liverpool Walton is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/55eab43f-7467-408e-90c8-08dd184e91f8. This shows that out of 357 pupils completing 16 to 18 study in the 2021/22 academic year in Liverpool Walton, 39 pupils were not recorded as having a sustained destination in the 2022/23, and 23 pupils did not have their activity captured.

How much her Department has spent on consultancy fees in each year since 2021.

The government is committed to restoring the public finances and delivering value for the taxpayer.As part of this wider mission, the government has pledged to reduce wasteful spend on non-essential and expensive consultants in order to save over £1.2 billion by 2026.The latest available data that has been audited and published as part of the Group Annual Report and Accounts, is linked below:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2021-to-2022https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024The data for post-March 2024 is live and unaudited. Additionally, due to the department’s accruals accounting, the partial year’s data may be incomplete and misleading. Therefore, we are unable to provide data beyond March 2024.

What steps her Department is taking to improve support for care leavers.

The department recognises that care leavers have poorer outcomes than their peers across all aspects of their lives. We want all those leaving care to have stable homes, access to health services, support to build lifelong loving relationships, and help to engage in education, employment and training. The department is committed to helping children thrive, and we want the best for every child and family. We want to build on the foundations laid by local authorities to create a care system that works for everyone.We have already begun this vital work. My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, announced in his speech in September that we will bring forward legislation, when parliamentary time allows, to remove the local connection requirement for care leavers seeking access to social housing at the next available opportunity.In the King’s Speech, we committed to introduce a Children’s Wellbeing Bill to take forward further legislative changes needed to improve the children’s social care system, including support for care leavers.