Written questions by Coyle.

What assessment she has made of the role of volunteer-led family support services in supporting the objectives of the Best Start in Life and Family Hubs programme.

Awaiting answer.

Whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of establishing a national register for foster parents.

Fostering services are required to maintain their own records and registers of approved foster carers in line with the National Minimum Standards and associated regulations.We recently published the ‘Renewing Fostering: Homes for 10,000 More Children’ action plan which sets out our ambitious plans to strengthen fostering. At the same time, we launched a call for evidence, which sought views on how to improve the foster care system, including questions on a national fostering register.We are currently analysing the responses to this call for evidence. These insights will help us consider the potential merits, benefits and practical implications of introducing a national register for foster carers as part of future policy development.

What steps her dept is taking to ensure that schools (a) remain up to date with AI technology as it develops and (b) remain equipped to offer support for their pupils.

The department is committed to ensuring that schools can benefit and use artificial intelligence (AI) safely and effectively. We are supporting staff to stay up to date with developments through clear guidance, as well as online support materials to help staff use AI confidently, safely and responsibly. Developed with sector experts, these materials set out what all staff should know about using AI safely with potential use cases and an additional toolkit for leaders to help address the risks and opportunities of AI across their whole setting.The department has accepted all the relevant recommendations of the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, and will refresh the computing curriculum to build digital confidence from an early age, and to include essential content on AI. Work is now underway to develop the new curriculum, and the department will conduct a public consultation on the draft programmes of study in summer 2026.The department is investing in the infrastructure and evidence schools need to adopt technology well and make informed choices. This includes setting digital and technology standards and programmes such as the EdTech Testbed Programme and EdTech Evidence Board.In late January, the department, in partnership with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology also announced plans to work with industry on the development of AI tutoring tools. Central to these plans is that any generative AI tutoring tools are co-created with teachers, are aligned to the curriculum and meet safety standards. As this work progresses, all tools developed will be rigorously tested and evaluated for safety, quality and effectiveness before they are made available for use in schools, ensuring they genuinely support learning and protect pupils.

With reference to her Department's press notice entitled £740 million allocated for 10,000 new places for pupils with SEND, published on 27 March 2025, what data she holds on how the additional funding was spent by Local Education Authorities.

The £740 million high needs capital investment in 2025/26 is on track to create around 10,000 new specialist places, in both special and mainstream schools.Local authorities share plans for their HNPCA with the department as part of grant assurance checks. We do not publish these due to the potential commercial sensitivities, but we encourage local authorities to publish where possible to aid transparency.

What steps her Department is taking to help raise awareness of the reintroduction of maintenance grants.

This government is committed to supporting the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to attend higher education (HE). We must, therefore, reform the HE system to better support disadvantaged students. That is why we announced, on 29 September 2025, that we will introduce new targeted means-tested maintenance grants for students from low-income households studying courses aligned with our missions and the Industrial Strategy, funded by a levy on income from international student fees.We reiterated this commitment in the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper on the 20 October 2025, which sets out our ambition for a world leading and financially sustainable HE sector that delivers value for students, widens participation, drives local and national growth and supplies the skills our labour market needs.We will set out further details on targeted maintenance grants at the Autumn Budget.

What discussions she has had with (a) the Secretary of State for Transport, (b) rail operators, (c) regional mayors and (d) Transport for London on ensuring that apprenticeships are open to young people whereve

This government has a driving mission to break down barriers to opportunity and we want to rebalance opportunities towards young people, who have the most to gain from apprenticeships but who too often have been locked out of accessing these opportunities...