Written questions by Costigan.

Whether her Department plans to take steps to require schools to make an assessment of the social, emotional and behavioural needs of pupils.

Schools and further education colleges are required to identify and address the special educational needs (SEN) of the children and young people they support. In the case of mainstream settings, they must use their best endeavours to make sure that a child or young person who has SEN gets the support they need. Schools report on the pupils they identify with social, emotional and mental health needs through the School Census. In 2024, 316,327 pupils were identified as having a social, emotional and mental health need as a primary type of need.

If she will ensure that the output of the Curriculum and Assessment Review includes a focus on schools adopting (a) inclusive and (b) nurturing approaches to education.

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Ealing Southall to the answer of 14 November 2024 to Question 13149.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the Opening School Facilities funding programme beyond March 2025.

This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity to enable every child to achieve and thrive, including through expanding access to sport and physical activity. This will support our cross-government missions and help to raise the healthiest and happiest generation of children ever. Funding beyond 31 March 2025 is subject to the next government Spending Review taking place this autumn. The outcome of the review will be communicated in due course.

If she will launch a consultation on the potential merits of schools having a named educational psychologist based in their local authority.

The department values the critical role educational psychologists play in the support available to children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The deployment of educational psychology services is the responsibility of local authorities as the employers of educational psychology services.The department is taking measures to support education settings to have improved access to educational psychology services by investing in growing the pipeline. The department is investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists from this year. This builds on the £10 million currently being invested in the training of over 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023. This investment will help to make specialist expertise more widely available in mainstream settings.