Written questions by McMurdock.

What steps she is taking to promote technical courses and apprenticeships.

In September 2024, the department launched a new phase of its ‘It all starts with skills’ campaign. The campaign aims to motivate and equip young people, adults and businesses to make informed choices about skills and technical education opportunities.Inspiring action, the campaign promotes a range of skills and technical education programmes, including apprenticeships, T Levels, Skills Bootcamps, Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs), Free Courses for Jobs, Multiply, essential skills (English, mathematics and digital) and support and advice from the National Careers Service.The department has strengthened provider access legislation to require schools to give students at least six opportunities during years 8 to 13 to meet providers of apprenticeships or technical education. The department funds the Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge (ASK) programme to actively promote apprenticeships, T Levels and higher technical qualifications to year 10 to 13 students, parents, teachers and careers advisers. Over the last eight years the ASK programme has reached over 3 million students, over 230,000 parents and 100,000 teachers.The government is also committed to supporting the continued roll-out of T Levels to ensure young people have a choice of high quality options post-16. The department’s T Level ambassador network continues to champion the T Level programme with members sharing their experiences and passion for technical education. The network now stands at over 700 members including employers, providers, students and other organisations.

What steps her Department is taking to promote STEM subjects in state-maintained secondary schools.

High quality teaching is the factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s education, and therefore ensuring we have sufficient science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teachers is crucial to the department’s efforts to promote STEM subjects. That is why we have pledged to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers and have taken the first step towards delivering this by agreeing a 5.5% teacher pay award and nearly £1.1 billion additional funding for schools.The department is also offering bursaries worth £29,000 tax free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax free to encourage talented trainees to become mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers. Additionally, we offer a Targeted Retention Incentive, which is worth up to £6,000 after tax, for teachers of the same subjects in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools.Bursaries and scholarships are available to non-UK national physics trainees. Non-UK teachers of physics moving to England to start work in the 2024/25 academic year may also be eligible for the international relocation pilot payment worth £10,000.Additionally, the department supports a range of programmes to improve the teaching of STEM subjects, including Maths Hubs programme, the National Centre for Computing Education which also supports uptake of computer science qualifications, and the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme, which delivers high quality teacher professional development for Level 3 mathematics.Further, the STEM Ambassadors programme and Stimulating Physics Network promote STEM across our schools boosting the quality of teaching and enabling young people to explore and develop their skills and interest in STEM.

What steps her Department is taking to improve the provision of SEND support for children in South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency.

Departmental officials meet regularly with representatives from Essex and Thurrock local area partnerships to discuss their education, health and care (EHC) plan performance, annual review processes, sufficiency strategy and their wider support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Departmental officials challenge Essex and Thurrock about impact where appropriate and share best practice to provide support. Essex has recently announced investment of £2.9 million for additional assistance and resources to improve timeliness of the EHC plan process.Thurrock is also part of the Delivering Better Value (DBV) in SEND programme, which provides £1 million in grant funding to support local authorities to provide more effective SEND services by meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND at an early stage and with the right level of support. The department monitors Thurrock’s progress in the DBV programme through quarterly reporting and meetings with the local authority. Thurrock is also involved in the supported internship programme and has a number of young people starting specialist internships at Amazon.​This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with SEND or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach in collaboration with local area partnerships, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.

What steps her Department is taking to improve support for children with epilepsy in schools.

It is the government's ambition that schools should be well supported to meet the needs of their pupils, enabling them all to achieve and thrive. Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. Some children with medical conditions may be considered to be disabled under the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010. Where this is the case, governing bodies must comply with their duties under that Act. Governing bodies should ensure that all schools develop a policy for supporting pupils with medical conditions that is reviewed regularly and is readily accessible to parents and school staff. They must ensure that the arrangements put in place are sufficient to meet their statutory responsibilities and should ensure that policies, plans, procedures and systems are properly and effectively implemented.