Written questions by Gilmour.

Whether her Department collects data from local authorities on the reasons why Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 is applied.

The department collects data from local authorities on placement reasons for pupils educated under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 for those in local authority funded placements.This information is published annually in the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ accredited official statistics: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of embedding a cross-governmental approach to young people who go missing.

The government takes the issue of any child going missing, from home or care, extremely seriously and has provided clear guidance about responsibilities for all children who go missing. When a child is found, they must be offered an independent Return Home Interview and local authorities, police and voluntary services should also work together to understand why the child went missing and what support they may need, including with their mental health, in the future to prevent them from going missing again.The department has announced a £7 million funding boost to early support hubs across England providing drop-in mental health support for young people aged 11 to 25. Alongside this, we are investing an extra £688 million in mental health services this year and are recruiting 8,500 additional mental health workers across children’s and adult services.Measures from the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and Crime and Policing Bill, reforms being delivered through the Families First Partnership Programme, supported by £2.4 billion, updates to the Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance, and oversight from the Keeping Children Safe ministerial board will ensure that we better respond when children go missing and intervene earlier to tackle the underlying drivers.Measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill aim to put an end to misconceptions about legal barriers to sharing information, through introducing an Information Sharing Duty and making provision for a Single Unique Identifier to improve information sharing between agencies.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of support available to schools who wish to decarbonise their buildings but who currently do not have the means to do so.

The department recognises that decarbonising the school estate is an important part of meeting the government’s net zero commitments.The Great British Energy Solar Partnership (GBESP) programme is supporting 250 schools and colleges to decarbonise by investing £100 million on solar panels and other energy efficiency and net zero interventions including LED lighting and electric vehicle chargers.We are providing support for all schools and colleges to start on their journey towards net zero through our Sustainability Support Programme, which includes an online platform of guidance, tools and resources to help schools plan and deliver climate action available here: https://www.sustainabilitysupportforeducation.org.uk/.The publicly available Department for Energy Security and Net Zero commissioned schools decarbonisation guidance, along with tools and checklists developed by Energy Systems Catapult can be found here: https://es.catapult.org.uk/tools-and-labs/public-sector-decarbonisation-guidance/developing-your-strategy/schools-resource-hub/. We will be issuing guidance to school settings in spring 2026 to help schools plan future retrofit and adaptation strategies to support decarbonisation and good education outcomes using their estates effectively.

What steps her Department is taking to help ensure adequate external scrutiny of the Child Poverty Strategy.

The Child Poverty Taskforce, of which my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education is co-chair, has undertaken an extensive programme of engagement with families, charities, campaigners and leading organisations across the UK to shape and inform the development of an ambitious child poverty strategy.The Taskforce is also supported by an Analytical Expert Reference Group which brings together independent external expertise from leading universities, think tanks, and organisations to provide advice and scrutiny.External partners, including devolved governments, local leaders, academia, business and civil society, all have a role to play in tackling child poverty, and the department will set out the importance of these continuing partnerships when the strategy is published in the autumn.

Whether children with complex needs who are home educated are eligible to receive free school meals.

Free meals are available to registered pupils of state-funded schools meeting the eligibility criteria, either on school premises or at any place where education is provided.The department also expects local authorities to consider free meal provision for children and young people receiving education otherwise than at school, commonly referred to as EOTAS, in accordance with Section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014. This is set out in our published guidance.In addition to this, all schools have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people. As this relates to school food provision, schools are required to make reasonable adjustment for disabled pupils to ensure they aren’t put at substantial disadvantage. Further information is available in our published guidance.

What progress phase 2 of the Schools Rebuilding Programme has made on Tiverton High School.

The department will begin working with Tiverton High School this quarter as it enters delivery. We will work closely with the Responsible Body to determine how best to proceed.

If her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a duty of care on universities in relation to extra-curricular activities carried out by affiliated student groups.

The department’s position is that a duty of care in higher education (HE) may arise in certain circumstances. Such circumstances would be a matter for the courts to decide, based on the specific facts and context of the case being considered and will be dependent on the courts’ application of accepted common law principles.The department would expect HE providers and their affiliated student groups to comply with relevant existing legislation and any other guidance. For example, that published by the provider and/or the National Union of Students on matters such as health and safety.

If she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the level of funding for state secondary schools.

The overall core schools budget is increasing by £3.7 billion in 2025/26, meaning that it will total £65.3 billion, compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25. This is a 6% overall increase which, against the backdrop of a challenging fiscal picture, demonstrates the government’s commitment to enabling every child to achieve and thrive through delivery of the Opportunity Mission.Secondary pupils are attracting £7,316 per pupil on average through the dedicated schools grant in 2025/26. The additional funding to support schools and high needs settings with staff pay awards announced on 22 May, as well as funding in respect of the increases to National Insurance contributions, will be paid on top of that.

If she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the level of pay for non-teaching staff in further education.

This government recognises the vital role non-teaching staff play within the further education (FE) sector, helping colleges to provide support to young people at a critical stage in their education.FE colleges, rather than government, are responsible for setting and negotiating pay within colleges. FE colleges were incorporated under the terms of the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act, which gives them autonomy over the pay and contractual terms and conditions of their workforce, including support staff.On 22 May, the department announced an investment of £160 million for colleges and other 16-19 providers in the 2025/2026 financial year. This funding will boost opportunities for learners across the country and drive forward delivery of the critical skills needed to grow our economy.Additional funding of over £30 million will be provided specifically for 16-19 provision in schools. This funding forms part of the overall £615 million funding envelope for 2025/26, which was announced alongside the 2025/26 school teachers’ pay award. Together, this means that a total additional sum of over £190 million will be available for 16-19 funding in the 2025/26 financial year.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the decision to cap the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund on children in adoptive and kinship care.

I refer the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead to the answer of 13 May 2025 to Question 49523.

Whether she made an assessment of the potential impact of removing the match-funding provision through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund on children in adoptive and kinship care before announcing those changes.

I refer the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead to the answer of 13 May 2025 to Question 49523.

What steps her Department is taking to help support rural (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools and (c) further education colleges to recruit (i) sustainable and (ii) adequate levels of staff.

High-quality teaching is the in-school factor that has the biggest positive impact on a child and young person’s outcome in schools and colleges. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert 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 department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new teachers across secondary and special schools and in our colleges over the course of this Parliament.The government is announcing a 4% pay award to school teachers and leaders, accepting in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s pay recommendation and doing so earlier than at any point in the last 10 years. This comes on top of the 5.5% pay award that we announced last July which has resulted in early improvements in recruitment and retention and has put us on course to meet the pledge. Over 2,000 more people are training to become secondary school teachers this year and recruitment is on track to improve even further for the cohort set to start training in 2025/26, with 1,070 more acceptances to postgraduate and teacher degree apprenticeship initial teacher training courses in secondary subjects by the end of April 2025, compared to the same time last year. Additionally, over 2,500 more teachers are expected to stay in the profession over the next three years.The department is doing more to continue to improve recruitment and retention. We have increased funding for training bursaries to £233 million in 2025/26, worth up to £29,000 tax-free, and initial teacher education apprenticeships to attract trainees in key subjects such as maths, physics and equivalent subjects in further education (FE) such as construction. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department is also offering a targeted retention incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools and technical subjects in all FE colleges, including rural and coastal areas.As part of our recruitment and retention strategy, it is vital that we improve the day to day experience of teachers and ensure that teaching is once again a respected and attractive profession that teachers remain and thrive in. We are supporting teachers to reduce their workload and improve their wellbeing, and enabling greater opportunities for greater flexible working.To provide targeted regional support, including for rural areas, the department has established a network of 87 Teaching School Hubs across the country. The Hubs provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers and play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the Early Career Framework and National Professional Qualifications.We want to empower FE colleges to recruit the right teachers and subject specialists for their local areas. Our national FE recruitment campaign is targeted to raise awareness, improve perceptions and understanding, and increase consideration of a career in FE amongst industry professionals, and supports professionals to find FE jobs in their area.We have specific programmes to support these industry experts start their careers in FE. Taking Teaching Further (TTF) is a two-year programme that supports FE providers to recruit and provide early career support to those with the relevant knowledge and/or industry experience to retrain as FE teachers, aiming to boost the quality and industry-relevance of teaching.We are also investing over £400 million more in 16-19 education in the 2025/26 financial year and have made approximately £50 million of this funding available to colleges for April to July 2025 to respond to current priorities, such as recruitment and retention.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of restoring the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund in the forthcoming spending review.

The government is investing an extra £680 million for mental health services, recruiting 8,500 extra mental health workers. Through our Plan for Change, we will tackle the mental health crisis and give every child a healthy start to life.The adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) will continue to complement other important services, including the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and our expanded access to mental health support teams in schools.This year we will be funding Adoption England to develop multi-disciplinary teams in more Regional Adoption Agencies, jointly with health and education partners, so adoptive families can get holistic joined up support.All funding after March 2026 is subject to decisions in the next spending review. However, we recognise and value the positive impact of the ASGSF in supporting adoptive and kinship families and its importance to many.The department was not able to consult organisations before the recent announcement, due to the need to open the fund for applications as soon as possible for the benefit for children. I regularly meet with adoption stakeholders, including recently meeting with the charity Adoption UK and, separately, with the department’s Adopter Reference Group, where we discussed the ASGSF.

With which organisations her Department held discussions on changes to the level of funding provided through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.

The government is investing an extra £680 million for mental health services, recruiting 8,500 extra mental health workers. Through our Plan for Change, we will tackle the mental health crisis and give every child a healthy start to life.The adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) will continue to complement other important services, including the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and our expanded access to mental health support teams in schools.This year we will be funding Adoption England to develop multi-disciplinary teams in more Regional Adoption Agencies, jointly with health and education partners, so adoptive families can get holistic joined up support.All funding after March 2026 is subject to decisions in the next spending review. However, we recognise and value the positive impact of the ASGSF in supporting adoptive and kinship families and its importance to many.The department was not able to consult organisations before the recent announcement, due to the need to open the fund for applications as soon as possible for the benefit for children. I regularly meet with adoption stakeholders, including recently meeting with the charity Adoption UK and, separately, with the department’s Adopter Reference Group, where we discussed the ASGSF.

What assessment her Department has made of the capacity of (a) children and adolescent mental health services and (b) other services to support adopted and kinship cared children, in the context of the reduction of the Adoption and special guardianship support fund.

The government is investing an extra £680 million for mental health services, recruiting 8,500 extra mental health workers. Through our Plan for Change, we will tackle the mental health crisis and give every child a healthy start to life.The adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) will continue to complement other important services, including the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and our expanded access to mental health support teams in schools.This year we will be funding Adoption England to develop multi-disciplinary teams in more Regional Adoption Agencies, jointly with health and education partners, so adoptive families can get holistic joined up support.All funding after March 2026 is subject to decisions in the next spending review. However, we recognise and value the positive impact of the ASGSF in supporting adoptive and kinship families and its importance to many.The department was not able to consult organisations before the recent announcement, due to the need to open the fund for applications as soon as possible for the benefit for children. I regularly meet with adoption stakeholders, including recently meeting with the charity Adoption UK and, separately, with the department’s Adopter Reference Group, where we discussed the ASGSF.

What steps her Department is taking to provide support to parents who have had children removed into the care system; and what support is available to help those parents maintain or develop a relationship with their children where appropriate.

The children’s social care national framework and ‘Working together to safeguard children’ statutory guidance is clear that children should be raised by their families, within their family networks or in family environments wherever possible. The department’s family help reforms will promote a greater emphasis on whole-family working, ensuring the needs of parents and carers and how they impact on children and young people is carefully considered, improving the outcomes for families.The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill also includes measures to ensure that all local authorities must offer family group decision making before bringing about care proceedings. This empowers families by prioritising family-led solutions, and engaging wider family networks throughout decisions made about a child.Where a child enters care, maintaining contact with family is one of the key principles of the Children Act 1989. The local authority must consider the parent's wishes in the child's care plan and any changes to it. Parents should be involved in decisions and review meetings about their child, alongside relevant services. The Fostering national minimum standards ensure support for the child's contact with siblings, especially if placed far from home.

What assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of funding for childminding providers.

It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and this is key to the government’s Plan for Change. That also means ensuring the sector is financially sustainable and confident as it continues to deliver entitlements and high-quality early years provision going forward.In the 2025/26 financial year, this government plans to spend over £8 billion on early years entitlements and the department has increased the early years pupil premium by 45%. On top of this we are providing further supplementary funding of £75 million for the Early Years Expansion Grant.The early years is a diverse market, ranging from chains of nurseries and school-based providers to childminders and the hourly funding rate paid to local authorities for the early years entitlements is designed to recognise the average costs across different provider types and to reflect both staff and non-staff costs. The department knows, from listening to the sector and from our own regular research, that the cost of care is highest for younger children, which the funding rates reflect. However, funding is not ring-fenced by age and we know many childminders often look after children at a range of ages, often below and above the age of three. Where this is the case childminders can use all the funding they receive from their local authority to support with costs across all the children they look after.The department also knows that the funding rates for younger children will often be significantly above previous parent paid rates and the childminding sector will benefit from the expanded entitlements for working parents.

What steps her Department is taking to improve financial support for student parents undergoing teacher training and not earning a salary.

Students attending full-time undergraduate courses and PGCE courses with child dependants qualify for a partially means-tested loan for living costs, a means-tested Childcare Grant, payable towards childcare costs for registered or approved childcare, and a means-tested Parents’ Learning Allowance to help with additional study costs.The government announced in a Written Statement on 20 January 2025 that maximum loans and grants for living costs will increase by 3.1% for the 2025/26 academic year. This Written Statement can be accessed at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-%2001-20/hcws372.A 3.1% increase to loans and grants for living costs in 2025/26 is in line with forecast inflation based on the Retail Price Index Excluding Mortgage Interest (RPIX) inflation index.Maximum loans for living costs for 2025/26 will be £13,762 for students living away from home and studying in London, £10,544, for students living away from home and studying outside London and £8,877 for students living in the parental home.Higher rates of loan for living costs are available for students who are eligible for benefits, such as lone parents.The amount of Childcare Grant payable in 2025/26 will be based on 85% of actual childcare costs, subject to a maximum grant of £199.62 per week for one child only or £342.24 per week for two or more children. The maximum amount of Parents’ Learning Allowance payable in 2025/26 will be £2,024.The government published an Equality Impact Assessment of changes to fees and student support for the 2025/26 academic year on 20 January 2025. This is accessible at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/263/impacts/2025/41.

If she will make an assessment of the adequacy of childcare funding policies for parents in higher education.

Students attending full-time undergraduate courses and PGCE courses with child dependants qualify for a partially means-tested loan for living costs, a means-tested Childcare Grant, payable towards childcare costs for registered or approved childcare, and a means-tested Parents’ Learning Allowance to help with additional study costs.The government announced in a Written Statement on 20 January 2025 that maximum loans and grants for living costs will increase by 3.1% for the 2025/26 academic year. This Written Statement can be accessed at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-%2001-20/hcws372.A 3.1% increase to loans and grants for living costs in 2025/26 is in line with forecast inflation based on the Retail Price Index Excluding Mortgage Interest (RPIX) inflation index.Maximum loans for living costs for 2025/26 will be £13,762 for students living away from home and studying in London, £10,544, for students living away from home and studying outside London and £8,877 for students living in the parental home.Higher rates of loan for living costs are available for students who are eligible for benefits, such as lone parents.The amount of Childcare Grant payable in 2025/26 will be based on 85% of actual childcare costs, subject to a maximum grant of £199.62 per week for one child only or £342.24 per week for two or more children. The maximum amount of Parents’ Learning Allowance payable in 2025/26 will be £2,024.The government published an Equality Impact Assessment of changes to fees and student support for the 2025/26 academic year on 20 January 2025. This is accessible at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/263/impacts/2025/41.

If her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of making the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund a permanent initiative.

I refer the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead to the answer of 29 January 2025 to Question 26025.