Written questions by Dillon.

What assessment her Department has made of the number of kinship carers who will not be eligible for the new Kinship Allowance Pilot.

There is a duty on children’s services to arrange special guardianship support services in the local areas. Under section 14F of the Children Act 1989, “each local authority must make arrangements for the provision within their area of special guardianship support services, which includes financial support.”The department is going further to increase the level of support offered to kinship carers through the trial of a new kinship allowance to support with the costs of raising a child.At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced £40 million to pilot a new Kinship Allowance in some local authorities in England, to support up to 5,000 eligible children in kinship care.As this is a pilot scheme, the allowance will not be universal at this stage. It is important that robust evidence underpins any future national rollout to ensure the best outcomes for children and families and value for money for the taxpayer.

What steps her Department is taking to review the financial support available to kinship carers.

There is a duty on children’s services to arrange special guardianship support services in the local areas. Under section 14F of the Children Act 1989, “each local authority must make arrangements for the provision within their area of special guardianship support services, which includes financial support.”The department is going further to increase the level of support offered to kinship carers through the trial of a new kinship allowance to support with the costs of raising a child.At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced £40 million to pilot a new Kinship Allowance in some local authorities in England, to support up to 5,000 eligible children in kinship care.As this is a pilot scheme, the allowance will not be universal at this stage. It is important that robust evidence underpins any future national rollout to ensure the best outcomes for children and families and value for money for the taxpayer.

What steps her Department is taking to help support West Berkshire Council to increase SEND provision in Newbury.

The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision sits with local authorities.The department provides local authorities with capital funding to support them to meet this duty and has published allocations for £740 million in high needs provision capital allocations for the 2025/26 financial year.Of this £740 million, West Berkshire Council has been allocated just under £1.5 million.This funding can be used to improve the accessibility of schools, create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive, tailored support and provide additional special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.It is up to the council to determine how they prioritise this funding to address local need.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that multi-academy trusts maintain education standards.

Multi-academy trusts play an important role in our schools system, both supporting school improvement and driving forward high-quality education for our children.Working with schools we will drive excellent teaching and leadership, a high-quality curriculum, robust accountability and faster school improvement, and an inclusive system which removes barriers to learning to ensure every child can achieve and thrive in education. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will help deliver this by providing a core guarantee of quality education in every school, no matter where children live or what school they attend. To ensure all parts of our system are focused on delivering these excellent outcomes, the government will in future bring multi-academy trusts into our inspection system.

What steps she plans to take to support children with dyslexia to achieve grade 5 or above in English and Maths GCSEs.

The department is committed to improving outcomes for all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with dyslexia.On 5 February 2025, the government announced a £2 million investment to drive high and rising standards in reading and writing. In secondary school, teachers are being offered new training and resources this year to help them support readers at all levels, and next academic year the department will deliver further training that will be focused specifically on struggling readers in secondary school who are at risk of falling behind. The English Hubs programme is also dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, with a focus on supporting children making the slowest progress in reading. As part of the continuous professional development provided by the English Hubs, the Reading Ambition for All programme has been launched to improve outcomes for children in primary who need additional support with reading, including those with SEND.The department funds the Maths Hubs programme, a school-led network aimed at improving the teaching of mathematics for all pupils in publicly funded schools. The programme covers primary, secondary and special schools and uses a mastery-based teaching approach which aims to secure understanding of key concepts. This includes training for teachers on techniques such as avoiding cognitive overload by breaking learning down into small manageable steps, using representations to expose mathematical structure and ensuring that learning is sequenced in a coherent manner so it makes sense to pupils.

What support her Department is providing to schools to ensure that at least 50 percent of children achieve passes in (a) maths and (b) English GCSEs in Newbury constituency.

In the 2023/24 academic year, 69.7% of students in the Newbury constituency achieved a grade 4 or above in both English and mathematics, and 49.5% of students achieved a grade 5 or above in both subjects.High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.To drive standards in reading and writing, the government has committed £27.7 million in the 2025/26 financial year. This includes new training and resources for secondary school staff to support reading in key stage 3, with a specific focus on readers who are at risk of falling behind. The department’s English Hubs programme also supports the teaching of phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. Newbury’s nearest English Hub is Whiteknights English Hub.To drive standards in mathematics the department funds the Maths Hubs programme, supported by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics. Local maths hubs provide school-to-school support focused on mathematics subject knowledge and pedagogy training for teachers in primary and secondary schools. The Newbury constituency is served by the Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire Maths Hub, which reports participation from 85% of schools from within its region.

What support her Department is providing to schools that are having to reduce costs in Newbury constituency.

Overall school funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning the core school budget will total £65.3 billion. This is a 6% rise in cash terms compared to 2024/25.Schools in West Berkshire local authority are attracting £143.6 million through the dedicated schools grant. This represents an increase of 2.6% per pupil compared to 2024/25.We are providing schools with an additional £615 million in the 2025/26 financial year to support them with the 4% teacher pay award and 3.2% support staff pay offer. Schools will be expected play their part in driving productivity across the public sector and find approximately the first 1% of pay awards by ensuring resources are deployed to maximise support for teaching and learning.We are supporting schools to make savings and bring down operating costs. For example, 400 schools participating in the department’s new energy offer are projected to save an average of 36% compared to previous contracts.We are also working to secure better banking solutions and provide services such as Get Help Buying for Schools and the Teaching Vacancies Service to reduce procurement and recruitment costs.We know workforce deployment is the biggest component of school budgets. We will support schools to benefit fully from the tools we already offer to benchmark and integrate resourcing and curriculum planning, such as the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. We will also introduce a new toolkit to support schools to adopt evidence-based deployment models.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of proposed reductions in staff numbers in schools in Newbury on academic outcomes for children.

Recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child. This is why the government’s Plan for Change has committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers in secondary and special schools, and in our colleges, over the course of this Parliament.To support this key pledge, we recently announced a 4% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools from September 2025. This builds on the 5.5% pay award for 2024/25, resulting in a near 10% pay award since this government came to power, to ensure teaching is once again a valued and attractive profession. This is on top of the £700 million invested across schools and further education this year, which included bursaries for trainees and increasing targeted retention incentives for early career teachers, in key subjects. We also provided resources to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing and now allow more flexibility for teachers, such as undertaking planning, preparation assessment from home.Our investment is starting to deliver. The workforce has grown by 2,346 full-time equivalent (FTE), between 2023/24 and 2024/25, in secondary and special schools. Overall teacher numbers have also increased in Newbury constituency under this government, with 842.2 FTE teachers in November 2024, as reported in the latest Schools Workforce Census.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that schools in deprived areas offer A-level physics courses to pupils.

High and rising school standards are central to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and provide every child with the best start in life. Whilst it is ultimately for individual schools to decide which A level courses to offer their students, the best way of supporting schools to offer A level physics courses, including those in deprived areas, is to ensure high quality physics teaching at all levels by helping schools to recruit and retain good teachers.For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is offering a targeted retention incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for physics teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in schools in disadvantaged areas. This is double the payments that were previously offered.For those training to teach in the 2025/26 academic year, there is a bursary worth £29,000 tax-free or a prestigious scholarship worth £31,000 tax-free to train to teach physics.There were 688 new entrants to physics postgraduate initial teacher training (PGITT) in the 2024/25 academic year, a 48% increase on the number of 2023/24 entrants.Recruitment is on track to improve even further for the cohort set to start training in the 2025/26 academic year. As of April 2025, 962 candidates have accepted offers for PGITT courses in physics, an increase of around 47% compared to the same point last year.Subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses support recruitment to initial teacher training in hard-to-recruit subjects, such as physics. SKE participants benefit from blended courses tailored to their individual needs to meet the minimum knowledge required to train to teach their chosen subject, which leads to the award of qualified teacher status.The department also funds the Subject Knowledge for Physics Teaching programme. This is a series of blended learning courses, with modules available each term to support non-specialist teachers of key stage 3 and 4 physics to enhance their subject knowledge.

Whether her Department plans to increase school funding to expand the provision of free school meals.

The department spends around £1.5 billion annually on free lunches for 2.1 million school pupils under benefits-based free school meals, over 90,000 disadvantaged students in further education, and around 1.3 million infants under universal infant free school meals. In addition to this, eligibility for free meals drives billions of additional pounds in disadvantage funding.Schools have autonomy to allocate their budgets to comply with their duty to provide free meals in line with nutritional guidance set out in the school food standards.As with all government programmes, including free school meals, we keep our approach under continued review.

What steps she is taking to ensure that funding allocated to schools for free school meals is not used for other purposes.

The department spends around £1.5 billion annually on free lunches for 2.1 million school pupils under benefits-based free school meals, over 90,000 disadvantaged students in further education, and around 1.3 million infants under universal infant free school meals. In addition to this, eligibility for free meals drives billions of additional pounds in disadvantage funding.Schools have autonomy to allocate their budgets to comply with their duty to provide free meals in line with nutritional guidance set out in the school food standards.As with all government programmes, including free school meals, we keep our approach under continued review.

What steps his Department is taking to help ensure that all schools within a local authority accept children with Education, Health and Care Plans.

The Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on schools named by a local authority on an education, health and care plan to admit a child. The local authority must have consulted with the school and carefully considered any views expressed before naming it on a plan. This duty to admit applies to maintained schools, academies, non-maintained special schools and independent schools approved for these purposes by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, under section 41 of the Act.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. We are committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, and ensuring special schools cater to children and young people with the most complex needs, restoring parents’ trust that their child will get the support they need.The department is working closely with experts on reforms, recently appointing a Strategic Advisor for SEND, who will play a key role in convening and engaging with the sector, including leaders, practitioners, children and families as we consider the next steps for the future of SEND reform.

What steps she is taking to help ensure that primary schools can fund their SEND provision without reallocating funding from other budget areas.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) 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 additional £3.2 billion for mainstream schools and young people with complex SEND for the 2025/26 financial year. This means that overall school funding will total almost £64.8 billion in 2025/26. Most schools funding is not allocated and ring-fenced for specific purposes, such as for supporting pupils with SEND. Schools decide how to spend their budgets to meet their legal duties and other responsibilities, including support for their pupils with SEND. Of the increase in total schools funding, £1 billion will be 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 over £12 billion. Of that total, West Berkshire Council is being allocated over £30 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £1.8 million on this year’s DSG high needs block. High needs funding is allocated by local authorities to primary schools for the costs of special educational needs support in excess of £6,000 per pupil per annum.

When she plans to publish the draft guidance for gender questioning children in schools.

The department is currently reviewing the draft non-statutory guidance for schools and colleges on gender questioning children, in addition to reviewing the statutory guidance on relationships, sex and health education.​My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has been clear that children’s wellbeing must be at the heart of this guidance and, as such, the government is looking carefully at the consultation responses, discussing with stakeholders and considering the relevant evidence, including the final report of the Cass Review which was published post-consultation, before setting out next steps.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing funding to ensure that the Lifelong Links programme can be extended to all children in care.

The department is committed to helping children thrive and wants the best for every child and family. We know that a stable support network and loving relationships are crucial to supporting children in care and care leavers to thrive.To support this, the department is currently funding 50 family finding, befriending and mentoring programmes, being delivered by 45 local authorities. These programmes will help children in care and care leavers to identify and connect with the important people in their lives and create safe, stable loving relationships. Of the 45 local authorities, 23 are delivering Lifelong Links as their family finding programme.The family finding, befriending and mentoring programme is being evaluated and this will inform decisions about the future of the programme.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that education, health and care plan assessments are (a) progressed and (b) issued promptly.

I refer the hon. Member for Newbury to the answer of 26 November to Question 14834.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing the pupil premium for (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.

Every child, regardless of background, deserves the opportunity to progress and succeed in school and beyond. This government is committed to breaking the link between young people’s backgrounds and their future success. That is why removing barriers to opportunity and raising school standards are at the heart of the department’s mission to transform life chances and ensure all children can achieve and thrive.The department is providing over £2.9 billion of pupil premium funding in 2024/25 to improve the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils in England.The department is taking time to consider the various funding formulae going forward, recognising the importance of establishing a fair funding system that directs funding where it is needed. We will consider the pupil premium as part of that process, and decisions on pupil premium funding for 2025/26 will be taken later this year.The department will continue to support schools to achieve maximum impact from the pupil premium.

With reference to the report entitled Budget 2024 Briefing, published by Tech First in October 2024, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of levels of child poverty on resource allocation in schools.

The schools national funding formula (NFF) targets funding to schools which have pupils with additional needs. In the 2024/25 financial year, over £4.4 billion (10.2%) of the formula is allocated according to deprivation factors in the NFF, including free school meals (FSM) for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, and over £7.8 billion (17.8%) is allocated for additional needs overall.The department has recently published provisional factor values for the 2025/26 NFF, including the increases to the deprivation factors within the formula. This is published at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pre-16-schools-funding-local-authority-guidance-for-2025-to-2026.The core schools budget grant (CSBG), announced earlier this year to support schools with the costs of the 2024 pay awards for support staff and teachers, likewise includes a deprivation factor. This means pupils who have been eligible for FSM at any point over the past six years attract additional funding to their schools through the CSBG.On top of this funding through the NFF and CSBG, the department also provides additional funding to schools through the pupil premium to improve the attainment and wider outcomes of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. In the 2024/25 financial year, total pupil premium funding is worth over £2.9 billion.

What steps she is taking to ensure that teachers have the (a) classroom support and (b) equipment needed to support pupils with SEND.

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.High quality teaching is central to ensuring that pupils with SEND are given the best possible opportunity to achieve in their education. To support all teachers, the department is implementing a range of teacher training reforms to ensure teachers have the skills to support all pupils to succeed, including those with SEND.On 1 September 2024, the government introduced a new mandatory leadership level National Professional Qualification (NPQ) for special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs). The NPQ will play a key role in improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND by ensuring SENCOs consistently receive high quality, evidence based training. This is crucial given the central role SENCOs play in supporting pupils with SEND.A new Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF) is due to be implemented from September 2025, which contains significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with SEND, such as developing an understanding of different pupil needs and learning how to provide opportunities for success for all pupils.The availability of training and career progression opportunities for teaching assistants helps ensure schools have the skilled staff they need to deliver high quality education. The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has recently approved a new Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant apprenticeship, allowing teaching assistants to specialise in one of three areas: SEND, Social and Emotional Wellbeing, or Curriculum Provision. The apprenticeship will be available for candidates to undertake in 2025.In addition, assistive technology (AT) can break down barriers to opportunity for students with SEND. The department is broadening the effective use of AT for teachers through research, training and guidance.

Whether she plans to take steps to make the education, health and care plan application process more efficient.

For too long the education system has not met the needs of all children, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), with parents struggling to get their children the support they need and deserve. This government’s ambition is for all children and young people with SEND, or in alternative provision, to receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs, restoring parents’ trust that their child will get the support they need. The department wants to drive a consistent and inclusive approach to supporting children and young people with SEND through early identification, effective support, high quality teaching and effective allocation of resources. Our approach will support families, breaking down the barriers to opportunity for their children. The department wants to ensure that, where required, education, health and care (EHC) assessments are progressed promptly and, if needed, EHC plans are issued as quickly as possible. We will work with children, young people, parents, local authorities, schools and colleges and their partners to deliver improvements, so that children and young people can access the support they need.