Written questions by Asato.

Whether the civil service has implemented a policy of paid leave for staff who have experienced domestic abuse.

The Civil Service is committed to raising awareness of domestic abuse and providing guidance and support to managers and employees in tackling its occurrence and effects. It is for departments to decide their domestic abuse policy and the provision of paid special leave to victims of domestic abuse. Model policy guidance issued to departments by the Cabinet Office sets out a framework of advice and support for managers and their team members experiencing domestic abuse. The model guidance advises managers to consider using special leave to support domestic abuse victims. Other forms of special leave may also be relevant such as emergency leave for dependants and leave for court attendances.

How many and what proportion of Work Coaches have been trained to understand domestic abuse; and who that training is provided by.

All staff new to DWP complete learning on Domestic Abuse as part of their induction. Work Coaches then complete role specific learning which includes further learning on domestic abuse which will build their knowledge to develop the relevant skills to help all customers, by tailoring their support to their individual needs. All learning is delivered by DWP staff. In total 27,714 work coach staff have completed domestic abuse learning over the last five years. Please note that the number of trained staff may include individuals who have since moved roles or left the organisation.

Whether her Department requires staff in multi-agency safeguarding hubs to receive safeguarding training on the risks of non-intimate partner coercive and controlling behaviour of older victims.

Coercive and controlling behaviour (CCB) is a particularly insidious form of domestic abuse and I recognise the long-term emotional and psychological distress it can cause victims, including older people.Statutory guidance on CCB has been issued to the police and other agencies, which can be found here [Controlling or coercive behaviour statutory guidance]. In addition, the Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance is clear that older victims may face additional challenges and barriers in accessing support and that it is crucial that they get the support they need.Multi-agency safeguarding hubs have a crucial role to play in the safeguarding system by keeping vulnerable adults, including vulnerable people, safe. Multi-agency safeguarding hubs are non-statutory, and models and ways of working vary between areas. As these are local initiatives, local authorities are best placed to make decisions on the training and guidance required for staff.The Government is committed to tackling the abuse of older people. We are providing the specialist organisation Hourglass with £532,121 this year. This funding will provide enhanced helpline support with a focus on reaching marginalised communities across England and Wales by providing more training to staff in their organisation and external agencies.

Whether her Department has provided guidance for multi-agency staff on non-intimate partner coercive and controlling behaviour of older victims.

Coercive and controlling behaviour (CCB) is a particularly insidious form of domestic abuse and I recognise the long-term emotional and psychological distress it can cause victims, including older people.Statutory guidance on CCB has been issued to the police and other agencies, which can be found here [Controlling or coercive behaviour statutory guidance]. In addition, the Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance is clear that older victims may face additional challenges and barriers in accessing support and that it is crucial that they get the support they need.Multi-agency safeguarding hubs have a crucial role to play in the safeguarding system by keeping vulnerable adults, including vulnerable people, safe. Multi-agency safeguarding hubs are non-statutory, and models and ways of working vary between areas. As these are local initiatives, local authorities are best placed to make decisions on the training and guidance required for staff.The Government is committed to tackling the abuse of older people. We are providing the specialist organisation Hourglass with £532,121 this year. This funding will provide enhanced helpline support with a focus on reaching marginalised communities across England and Wales by providing more training to staff in their organisation and external agencies.

Whether her Department requires mandatory training in coercive and controlling behaviour for all staff in multi-agency safeguarding hubs.

Coercive and controlling behaviour (CCB) is a particularly insidious form of domestic abuse and I recognise the long-term emotional and psychological distress it can cause victims, including older people.Statutory guidance on CCB has been issued to the police and other agencies, which can be found here [Controlling or coercive behaviour statutory guidance]. In addition, the Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance is clear that older victims may face additional challenges and barriers in accessing support and that it is crucial that they get the support they need.Multi-agency safeguarding hubs have a crucial role to play in the safeguarding system by keeping vulnerable adults, including vulnerable people, safe. Multi-agency safeguarding hubs are non-statutory, and models and ways of working vary between areas. As these are local initiatives, local authorities are best placed to make decisions on the training and guidance required for staff.The Government is committed to tackling the abuse of older people. We are providing the specialist organisation Hourglass with £532,121 this year. This funding will provide enhanced helpline support with a focus on reaching marginalised communities across England and Wales by providing more training to staff in their organisation and external agencies.

Whether his Department requires mandatory training in coercive and controlling behaviour for health and social care staff in multi-agency safeguarding hubs.

All National Health Service staff are required to complete mandatory safeguarding training which includes a focus on domestic abuse. Coercive and controlling behaviour is included within the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act’s definition of Domestic Abuse. Staff will undertake further safeguarding training relevant to their role.NHS Safeguarding regularly shares awareness and learning for staff via national, regional, and local safeguarding networks through collaboration with peer advocacy and lived-experience services for victims. Learning materials include information on non-intimate partner coercive and controlling behaviour of older victims.For non-NHS staff working in multi-agency safeguarding hubs, local authorities have a statutory duty to make enquiries about safeguarding concerns under the Care Act 2014.

Whether his Department requires health and social care staff in multi-agency safeguarding hubs to receive safeguarding training on the risks of non-intimate partner coercive and controlling behaviour of older victims.

All National Health Service staff are required to complete mandatory safeguarding training which includes a focus on domestic abuse. Coercive and controlling behaviour is included within the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act’s definition of Domestic Abuse. Staff will undertake further safeguarding training relevant to their role.NHS Safeguarding regularly shares awareness and learning for staff via national, regional, and local safeguarding networks through collaboration with peer advocacy and lived-experience services for victims. Learning materials include information on non-intimate partner coercive and controlling behaviour of older victims.For non-NHS staff working in multi-agency safeguarding hubs, local authorities have a statutory duty to make enquiries about safeguarding concerns under the Care Act 2014.

Whether his Department has provided guidance for health and care staff on non-intimate partner coercive and controlling behaviour of older victims.

All National Health Service staff are required to complete mandatory safeguarding training which includes a focus on violence and abuse. The training reflects the definitions in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and accompanying statutory guidance which includes coercive and controlling behaviour.NHS Safeguarding regularly shares awareness and learning for staff via national, regional, and local safeguarding networks through collaboration with peer advocacy and lived-experience services for victims. Learning materials include information on non-intimate partner coercive and controlling behaviour towards older victims.

With reference to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions’ Oral Statement of 30 June 2025 on Welfare Reform, if he will provide a breakdown by (a) location and (b) roles of the additional 6,700 mental health workers.

NHS England publishes monthly data on the National Health Service’s Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) workforce in England. This includes data on the NHS mental health workforce employed by NHS provider trusts and integrated care boards. The information presented in the debate following my Rt Hon Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions’ oral statement on welfare reform detailed the change in the NHS’s mental health workforce between the 30 June 2024 baseline and the data for 30 April 2025.Within the NHS Monthly Workforce Statistics series, data on the mental health workforce is included in the file titled Preliminary – NHS HCHS Workforce Statistics, Trusts and core organisations – data tables, April 2025, which is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics/march-2025Tab 21 within the file presents information on the mental health workforce broken down by both staff groups and regions, showing how the total has increased over time.The definition of the HCHS mental health workforce includes those who are providing or supporting the provision of mental health services. Staff are included if they have either an NHS Occupation Code or Area of Work code that is related to mental health services. Further information on the mental health workforce definition, including a list of the relevant Occupation Code and Area of Work variables, can be found on the National Workforce Data Set guidance page, at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-tools-and-services/data-services/mental-health-data-hub/dashboards/mental-health-and-learning-disabilities-workforce-in-the-nhs

What proportion of funding his Department is providing to the (a) Best Start in Life strategy and (b) Best Start Family Hubs.

The Best Start in Life strategy makes it clear that the integration of health services within Best Start Family Hubs is critical to raising the healthiest generation of children ever, and to ensuring that every child has a happy and healthy start to life. Additionally, the strategy commits the Government to:- strengthening early childhood health services;- improving maternity and newborn care;- strengthening health visiting services;- making it easier to get vaccinated;- supporting healthy eating;- tackling tooth decay; and- giving parents and health professionals easier access to child health information.The Department is working to provide clarity on future funding and spending plans, including preparing for the first multi-year planning round for the National Health Service in years.The vision for Best Start Family Hubs goes hand in hand with the move to neighbourhood health services set out in the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan, and the three radical shifts from hospital to community, from analogue to digital and from sickness to prevention.

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of issuing statutory guidance to NHS commissioning bodies to ensure that they commission counselling and psychotherapy professionals to provide specialist support for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence from accredited registers.

The Department is working with the Home Office and other partners across the Government on a new strategy to tackle violence against women and girls. There are no current plans to issue any such guidance to National Health Service commissioners.

If he will issue guidance to NHS commissioners on commissioning qualified counselling and psychotherapy services as part of the specialist support provided to survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

The Department is working with the Home Office and other partners across the Government on a new strategy to tackle violence against women and girls. There are no current plans to issue any such guidance to National Health Service commissioners.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to (a) deliver long-term financial sustainability for the supported housing sector and (b) prevent the decommissioning of supported housing schemes.

Commissioning of local housing-related support services is for local authorities. Local authorities are best placed to decide how their funding is spent locally. For 2025-26, the Government has delivered a Settlement that begins to fix the foundations of local government by providing significant investment. The Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25. The recent Spending Review provides over £5 billion of new grant funding over the next three years for local services that communities rely on. This includes £3.4 billion of new grant funding through the Local Government Finance Settlement within financial years 2026-27 to 2028-29.At the Spending Review, the government also announced £39 billion for a new Social and Affordable Homes Programme over 10 years from 2026-27 to 2035-36. The programme is designed with the flexibility necessary to support a greater diversity of social and affordable supply, including supported housing.

What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of (a) current waiting times and (b) levels of access to specialist counselling support for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence for people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.

We know that too many people, including survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence, are not receiving the mental health care they need, and that waits for mental health services are too long. We are determined to change that, which is why we have chosen to prioritise funding to expand NHS Talking Therapies. This means that the number of people completing a course of treatment is expected to increase by 384,000 by 2028/29. Latest data from NHS England for June 2025 shows that 89.1% of people completing Talking Therapies treatment waited less than six weeks for their first appointment, against a target of 75%. 98.6% of people completing treatment waited less than 18 weeks, against a target of 95%.Protecting and supporting child and adult victims and survivors of sexual abuse is a core priority for NHS England, delivered through a network of 48 specialist sexual assault referral centres (SARCs) across the country. NHS England commissions SARCs through a distinct national service specification including working with specialist support services, ensuring that children and young people aged up to 18 years old receive trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate care and safeguarding support, and that adults receive tailored care that reflects their needs and rights, with clear referral pathways to health, justice, and specialist support services. NHS England does not hold national information on current waiting times and access for people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds to specialist counselling support for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.This is in addition to the support services commissioned by the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office.

Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions she has had with Homes England on the (a) design and (b) delivery of the 10-year Affordable Homes Programme.

My Department is working closely with both Homes England and the Greater London Authority to finalise the design of the new Social and Affordable Homes Programme. We will publish a full prospectus in Autumn 2025 and open for bids in the winter.

With reference to her Department's policy paper Giving every child the best start in life strategy, published on 7 July 2025, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that parenting support delivered as part of the strategy is evidence-based.

As part of the ‘Giving every child the best start in life’ strategy, the department is investing in evidence-based parenting and home learning environment (HLE) interventions delivered through Best Start Family Hubs. These programmes are designed to support children’s early development across key domains, including communication and language, early literacy, cognitive skills, and social, emotional and behavioural wellbeing.To support local authorities in commissioning high quality provision, the department will provide guidance on the commissioning of parenting and HLE interventions with a strong evidence base and proven impact. We are working in partnership with the National Centre for Family Hubs, the Foundations What Works Centre for Children & Families, and Nesta to help local areas identify and implement the most effective programmes. This will ensure greater consistency and quality across the country and support our ambition for 75% of children to achieve a good level of development by 2028.

Whether she plans to give emotional support animals the same legal status as guide dogs.

Standards for assistance dogs are currently and historically maintained on the basis of a voluntary regulatory framework. There is no specific legislation for the regulation of assistance dogs and no legislation is planned. There are recognised standards for assistance dogs worldwide set by international bodies by which a number of UK charities and organisations are accredited. Assistance dogs are also provided by other charities and private sector organisations, including owner trainers, which are not accredited by international bodies. Assistance dogs might be regarded as such, if they serve to mitigate disabilities and have sufficient training to warrant public access. The Equality Act 2010 defines a disabled person as someone with a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. This definition is central to the Act, which aims to protect people from discrimination based on disability. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has produced guidance for businesses and service providers on assistance dogs. This guidance states that, “dependent on the specific facts and circumstances in each case, it may be a reasonable adjustment to give access to a disabled person’s Emotional Support Animal. Service providers should develop a policy that is inclusive and allows for consideration of individual circumstances”.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the extension of the PINS programme on children with developmental language disorder.

The partnerships for inclusion of neurodiversity in schools (PINS) programme covers all neurodivergence and so includes developmental language disorder. An independent evaluation of the PINS programme is underway. This evaluation will thoroughly explore the implementation and outcomes of the PINS programme, including to what extent the programme may have supported children with developmental language disorder. Interim findings from this evaluation are expected in autumn 2025 and will be published in accordance with Government Social Research protocol.

With reference to the report entitled Abuse of women runners: implications for the violence against women and girls policy agenda, published by the University of Manchester in November 2024, whether she plans to recognise women runners as a distinct group for purposes of the forthcoming Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.

This Government has been clear that the level of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in our country is intolerable, and we are treating it as the national emergency that it is. Everyone should both be and feel safe whilst going about their day-to-day lives - and we recognise the particular vulnerability that women runners may feel.We will go further than before to deliver a cross-government transformative approach to halve VAWG in a decade, underpinned by a new VAWG strategy, which we are aiming to publish in September.We are working across Government to use every tool available to target perpetrators and address the root causes of abuse and violence to keep all women safe.

With reference to her Department’s statutory guidance entitled Children missing education: statutory guidance for local authorities, published August 2024, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of specifying the (a) role and (b) responsibility of local authorities for providing education to children who are absent from mainstream education due to long term illness.

Local authorities do have a statutory duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to arrange suitable and (normally) full-time education for children of compulsory school age who, because of exclusion, illness or other reasons, would not receive suitable education without such provision. This means that where a child cannot attend school because of a physical or mental health need, and cannot access suitable full-time education, the local authority is responsible for arranging suitable alternative provision.The department sets out guidance to support local authorities to fulfil their section 19 duty available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/657995f0254aaa000d050bff/Arranging_education_for_children_who_cannot_attend_school_because_of_health_needs.pdf.The department has also issued statutory guidance for local authorities that makes clear their role and responsibilities for ’Children missing education’ which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-missing-education.This statutory guidance sets key principles to enable local authorities in England to implement their legal duty to identify, as far as it is possible to do so, children missing education and get them back into education.