Written questions by Gosling.

What assessment his Department has made of the level of need for additional (a) physiotherapists and (b) rehabilitation support workers in (i) the NHS and (ii) independent sectors.

The Department has made no specific assessment of the additional need for physiotherapists and rehabilitation support workers in the National Health Service and independent sectors.The Department will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to create a workforce ready to deliver a transformed service. They will be more empowered, more flexible, and more fulfilled. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people are in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.

Whether she has considered including supported internship provision in Skills England.

This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity, so that every young person can follow the pathway that is right for them. The department recognises that high-quality supported internships are an important pathway to improve the life chances of young people with special educational needs and disabilities by supporting them into sustained, paid employment. As an executive agency of the Department for Education, Skills England will work across government to ensure that there are clear education and training pathways. It will do this by engaging employers and other partners to identify skills gaps in key sectors and using this insight to drive improvements in the skills offer to boost economic growth.

What steps he plans to take to ensure clinical leadership and advice is available within his Department for (a) Musculoskeletal conditions, (b) stroke, (c) neurological conditions, (d) cardiovascular disease, (e) continence care, (f) cancer, (g) respiratory illnesses, (h) rehabilitation, (i) frailty, (j) pediatrics, (k) women's health and (l) allergies.

National clinical directors and national specialty advisers are practising clinicians from across England who work part-time at NHS England, providing clinical leadership, advice, input, and support across distinct areas of National Health Service conditions and services, ranging from cancer and cardiovascular disease to urgent and emergency care and major trauma, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan.NHS England’s Specialised Commissioning Programme also employs clinical directors who provide clinical leadership across national programmes of care and clinical reference groups.Whilst transformation for NHS England and the Department takes place, we will continue to ensure the clinical voice remains at the core of our work.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding available to schools to purchase Adrenaline Autoinjector Pens for pupils with allergies.

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. The accompanying statutory guidance ‘Supporting pupils with medical conditions at school’ makes clear to schools what is expected of them in taking reasonable steps to fulfil their legal obligations and to meet the individual needs of pupils with medical conditions, including allergies. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.Overall schools funding will total £65.3 billion in 2025/26 compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25. This represents an increase of £3.7 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs in 2025/26 compared to 2024/25.The Spending Review reaffirmed the government’s commitment to children and young people. It announced that core schools funding, including investment in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), will rise to £69.5 billion by 2028/29.Our overall investment in schools funding is a critical step forward in our mission to support all children and young people to achieve and thrive and will support teachers and leaders to deliver high and rising standards across every school and for every pupil, including those with SEND.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help ensure that councils are accountable to their constituents during complaints processes.

Councils should follow the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, which sets out how complaints should be considered fairly and effectively. Residents dissatisfied with their complaint outcome can refer their complaint to the Ombudsman who will independently look at whether public services are being delivered properly.

What steps her Department is taking to tackle retail crime.

Tackling retail crime, in partnership with police and retailers, is a top priority for this government.In the last year of the previous government, shop theft reached a record high, and violence and abuse towards retail workers increased at an unacceptable level.This Government will not tolerate these crimes. Through our Crime and Policing Bill, we have introduced a new offence of assaulting a retail worker and we will end the effective immunity for shop theft of goods under £200.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the practice of gazumping; and whether she has made an assessment of the effectiveness of voluntary reservation agreements in residential sales.

The government recognise that the home buying and selling process in England and Wales is inefficient and costly for consumers and professionals. We continue to review evidence from other jurisdictions, including on reservation agreements, as we consider next steps.

With reference to her Department's press release of 17 November 2024 entitled £1 billion government funding boost for bus services across England to help end postcode lottery, what proportion of the additional funding will be allocated to improving the experience of disabled passengers.

The government wants everyone to have access to public transport and is committed to improving services so they are more inclusive and enable disabled people to travel safely, confidently and with dignity. At the Budget we confirmed over £1 billion in funding to improve services, protect vital routes and keep fares down. On 17 November, we confirmed how we are distributing £955 million that funding, with £712 million for local councils to deliver bus service improvement plans (BSIP) and better meet local needs, and a further £243 million for bus operators, including funding a long-standing grant to drive down fares and drive up services. Funding allocated to local authorities to deliver BSIPs can be used in whichever way they wish to improve services for all passengers, including disabled passengers. The Department for Transport's guidance to local authorities on developing their BSIPs makes clear that these must consider accessibility, inclusiveness, personal safety and security when deciding how to improve the experience for passengers.

What steps the Department is taking to support (a) parents and (b) carers facing domestic (i) abuse and (ii) violence from (A) children and (B) wards.

The scale of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in our country is intolerable and this Government will treat it as the national emergency that it is. Tackling VAWG is a top priority and our mission is to halve VAWG within a decade. To achieve this ambitious aim, it is essential that we tackle domestic abuse and all forms of interpersonal abuse. This Government’s target to halve VAWG within the next decade will only succeed if we continue to ensure children and young people are also at the heart of prevention and intervention programmes and policies. Progressing work around child to parent abuse is an important part of this and we will consider the responses to the consultation on the definition of child to parent abuse as part of our approach to addressing this issue.

With reference to the report entitled Social Selection on the Map, published by the Sutton Trust on 3 September 2024, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of (a) reviewing existing admissions code policies and (b) making Pupil Premium eligibility a required part of schools’ oversubscription criteria.

The department has no current plans to make eligibility for the pupil premium a mandatory oversubscription criteria in school admission arrangements.However, through the Children’s Wellbeing Bill, the department is planning to legislate on requiring all schools to cooperate with the local authority on school admissions, special educational needs and disabilities inclusion and place planning, by giving local authorities greater powers to help them deliver their functions on school admissions and ensure admissions decisions account for the needs of communities.We expect this will require taking forward changes to the School Admissions Code. As part of this, the department will also consider any wider changes necessary to ensure fair access to school for all. Any changes to the Code will require a statutory process, including a full public consultation and parliamentary approval.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the parental income thresholds used to determine the level of support for maintenance loans.

The department needs to ensure that the student funding system is financially sustainable. The department recognises the impact that the cost-of-living crisis has had on students, which is why the highest levels of support are targeted at students with household incomes of £25,000 or less.For the 2025/26 academic year, the department will be increasing loans for living costs by 3.1%, which is in line with the forecast rate of inflation based on the RPI All Items Excl Mortgage Interest (RPIX) inflation measure. Vulnerable groups of students eligible for benefits, such as lone parents and some disabled students, qualify for higher rates of loans for living costs. This ensures that most support is targeted at students from the lowest income families, while keeping the student finance system financially sustainable.There is much more to do to expand access and improve outcomes for disadvantaged students. That is why the department has announced that it expects the higher education sector to do more to support students by working with the government and the Office for Students and by making the most of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement. The department will be setting out longer term plans for the sector next year.

With reference to the Sutton Trust’s Inequality in early years education report, published on 24 January 2024, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of establishing a national strategy for the reinvigoration of children’s centres.

The government’s Opportunity Mission aims to give all children the best start in life, breaking the link between young people’s background and future success.This means supporting strong family relationships and stable home environments, providing access to family services that provide the right help at the right time, alongside quality early education.Family hubs do great work to help families access vital services. The Autumn Budget 2024 included an announcement of £69 million to continue delivery of the existing network of family hubs for 2025/26. More than 400 family hubs opened under the existing programme, targeted at the most disadvantaged areas.The department’s long term intention is to reform the early years system and improve family services to provide the foundation of opportunity and improved life chances for children.The department is considering how best to achieve these aims under the terms of the subsequent muti-year spending review.

What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of vision zero approaches to road safety in other countries.

The safety of our roads is a priority and we are currently developing a road safety strategy – the first in over a decade.The DfT Chief Scientific Adviser is meeting with international experts to understand the effectiveness of a range of interventions and their implications for road safety in this country.

With reference to the Sutton Trust’s Closing the Attainment Gap report, published on 22 February 2024, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of expanding free school meal eligibility to all children on Universal Credit.

The government is driving an agenda of change to break down the barriers to opportunity and to reduce child poverty, working across local and national government.Child poverty has increased by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low income family. That is why the government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, tackling the root causes, and giving every child the best start at life. To support this, a new Ministerial taskforce has been set up to develop a Child Poverty Strategy, which will be published in the spring.The department is also committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity so that all children have the freedom to achieve and thrive in education. To support this aim, the government is committed to introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school to set children up for the day and ensure they are ready to learn, while supporting parents and carers to work.Disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools, as well as 16 to 18-year-old students in further education (FE), are entitled to receive free meals on the basis of low income. 2.1 million disadvantaged pupils are registered to receive free school meals (FSM) and a further 90,000 are registered to receive FE free meals. In addition, all children in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England's state-funded schools are entitled to Universal Infant Free School Meals, which benefits around 1.3 million pupils.As with all government programmes, we will keep our approach to FSM under review.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the pupil premium to post-16 institutions.

The department believes further education has a crucial part to play in ensuring the UK has the skills needed for sustainable economic growth. A range of options and priorities will be considered to secure a sustainable and adequate funding of post-16 institutions and learners as part of the next stage of the spending review, which is expected to conclude in late spring 2025.

What steps she is taking to ensure that apprenticeship opportunities are made more widely available for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This government has a driving mission to break down barriers to opportunity. As part of this, we want to ensure that more people from disadvantaged backgrounds can undertake apprenticeships.The department continues to pay additional funding to employers and training providers to support them to take on young apprentices, apprentices with learning difficulties and disabilities, and care leavers.The department has begun work to develop new foundation apprenticeships, providing high quality entry pathways for young people. We will engage with relevant stakeholders to inform our thinking to maximise the positive impact on young people, including those in disadvantaged areas. More detail on foundation apprenticeships will be set out in due course.

If she will take steps to increase the funding for the Child Maintenance Service to ensure prompt responses to correspondence from (a) residents of Nuneaton constituency and (b) other correspondents.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to make significant investments in improving customer communications and correspondence through digital transformation and the Service Modernisation Programme. A proportion of the overall funding for the programme is and will continue to be used to improve the service, including response times to correspondence. One aim of the Programme is to improve CMS response times by increasing the capability of our self-service platforms, simplifying guidance and internal systems for our colleagues, and by freeing up caseworker time. We strive to ensure staff are equipped with the tools needed to respond quickly and comprehensively to customer correspondence, however response times can vary depending on the complexity of individual cases. We will continue to invest in improving our contact channels for customers to offer a more flexible and responsive service to all customers.

What steps her Department is taking to increase funding for skills-based education in Nuneaton constituency.

The government is committed to offering skills training to learners to help them acquire the necessary skills for employment or further training. The Adult Skills Fund (ASF), previously the Adult Education Budget (AEB), is worth £1.34 billion this academic year and fully funds or co-funds education and skills training for eligible adults aged 19 and over.In 2024/25, as part of the AEB transition to the ASF, the department introduced five new funding rates, which has seen 78% of qualifications funded through the Education and Skills Funding Agency.The department is investing in level 3 learning via the ‘free courses for jobs’ offer, which allows eligible learners to access a high value level 3 qualification for free. An additional funding uplift is paid by the department, at two different rates, for providers that offer a wide range of sector subjects.The total ASF allocation for a provider in the Nuneaton constituency for the 2024/25 academic year is approximately £4.6 million. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-allocations-to-training-providers-2024-to-2025.Over £7.5 billion in 16 to 19 programme funding will be invested during the 2024/25 academic year as part of the department’s drive for all young people to access high quality education and training that meets their needs and helps them to thrive. My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced at Budget a further boost of £300 million in the 2025/26 financial year for further education (FE) to ensure young people are developing the skills they need to succeed and a further £300 million to support colleges to maintain, improve and ensure suitability of their estate.Information on 16 to 19 funding allocations received by institutions in Nuneaton is available in the published allocations, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/funding-education-for-16-to-19-year-olds#published-allocations.For the 2023/24 academic year, 16 to 19 funded institutions in the Nuneaton constituency were allocated £31.23 million in 16 to 19 funding. This includes high needs student funding, student support funding and funding for the FE teachers pension scheme employer contribution grant. For the 2024/25 academic year, they received £33.96 million. This is an increase of £2.73 million, or 8.7%.

With reference to paragraph 1.30 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, when she plans to publish a consultation on the proposed Infrastructure Strategy.

Investment in Infrastructure is crucial for delivering the government’s missions, which is why the government is fundamentally reforming how it delivers infrastructure through a 10-year infrastructure strategy, establishing the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), and delivering ambitious planning reform.The 10-year infrastructure strategy will be published next spring, alongside the 2025 Spending Review. Government is developing the strategy working closely with the National Infrastructure Commission and Infrastructure and Projects Authority. The government will engage extensively with businesses, industry bodies and other stakeholders.

With reference to paragraph 3.19 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, when she plans to publish further information on her plan to increase capacity on the West Coast main line.

The delivery of High Speed Two (HS2) is expected to nearly double seat capacity between London and Birmingham, which is the most congested section of the West Coast Main Line. We are taking into consideration the recent proposal from the Mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands for enhancing rail connectivity between the Midlands and the North West, and will set out a clear plan to address capacity and connectivity issues in due course.