Written questions by Darling.

Whether she plans to issue guidance to affected schools on managing the planned reduction in funding for the International Baccalaureate.

The department has made very significant investments into 16 to 19 education funding. The base rate of funding per student has increased to £5,105 in 2025/26, up over 5% on last year. We must make this funding work hard, tilting it towards key priorities. That is why we have announced that we will focus large programme uplift funding (LPU), which is on top of the base funding, on those large programmes which include maths, further maths and other high value A levels. We have informed institutions most affected by the change in LPU funding that we will calculate transitional protection funding for one year. This should enable institutions to support students in completing larger programmes that will no longer attract the LPU. 16 to 19 funded institutions have the freedom to decide how they use their funding for the provision they offer, including whether they offer the International Baccalaureate. The impact of the scenarios referred to in the questions will depend on choices made by institutions.

What estimate she has made of the potential number of redundancies as a result of changes in the level of funding for the International Baccalaureate in the state sector.

The department has made very significant investments into 16 to 19 education funding. The base rate of funding per student has increased to £5,105 in 2025/26, up over 5% on last year. We must make this funding work hard, tilting it towards key priorities. That is why we have announced that we will focus large programme uplift funding (LPU), which is on top of the base funding, on those large programmes which include maths, further maths and other high value A levels. We have informed institutions most affected by the change in LPU funding that we will calculate transitional protection funding for one year. This should enable institutions to support students in completing larger programmes that will no longer attract the LPU. 16 to 19 funded institutions have the freedom to decide how they use their funding for the provision they offer, including whether they offer the International Baccalaureate. The impact of the scenarios referred to in the questions will depend on choices made by institutions.

How many full-time equivalent civil servants are working on appointing the new contractor for St Michaels School in Paignton.

St Michael’s School is part of the school rebuilding programme. The project team is made up of a project director, who is a civil servant, and a project manager. A number of technical specialists also support the project at different stages.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of school food guidelines.

This government is committed to raising the healthiest generation ever. It is important that children eat nutritious food at school and the department encourages schools to have a whole school approach to healthy eating. The school food standards define the foods and drinks that must be provided, which are restricted, and those which must not be provided.To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for the future, we are acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance.

What steps she is taking to support teachers' mental health.

I refer the hon. Member for Torbay to the answer of 9 May 2025 to Question 44781​.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of care experienced young people securing employment in the hospitality sector following the cessation of local authority support.

The department is committed to ensuring that young people leaving care have stable homes, access to health services, support to build lifelong loving relationships and are engaged in education, employment and training.The department fully recognises the potential benefits that employment in the hospitality sector offers to care leavers. 27 of the 237 organisations offering employment opportunities under our Care Leaver Covenant are from the hospitality industry. This includes Accor Hotels, Aramark, Birmingham Airport, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, PGL, Marston’s Brewery and Pubs, and Merlin Entertainments.Further, our Care Leaver Ministerial Board, co-chaired by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend, the Deputy Prime Minister, has been established to secure cross-departmental action to improve the outcomes and experiences of care leavers, including in relation to their employment.

What steps her Department is taking to help reduce the educational instability that children in care face.

The department is committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. We recognise the critical importance of continuity and stability throughout a looked-after child’s life.Under the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review guidance and regulations, the child’s social worker should do everything possible to minimise disruption to their education. School changes should be minimised, and any transitions well-planned and supported. Where a change to a child’s educational arrangements is unavoidable, their personal education plan should set out arrangements to minimise disruption to education, especially during exam periods and other critical periods in their education.The government is introducing measures, including through the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, to rebalance the market, improve regulation and commissioning of placements. The department is also investing £2 billion over this parliament to give more children a safe, loving home, including expanding the children’s home estate, delivering more foster care placements and helping keep families together by providing targeted support before problems escalate.These measures will provide greater placement availability, stability and ensure that, where it is in a child's best interests, they are placed closer to home.

If she will make it her policy to provide financial support to (a) Eat That Frog in Torbay and (b) other community organisations which are support hubs for those who are (i) disabled and (ii) neurodivergent to ensure their long-time viability.

The relationship between the department and Eat that Frog, as with all providers, is through the funding of learners through an agreed, published funding methodology. The department does not fund institutions/providers core costs, as the funding is driven by the learner funding methodology. In this case, as a Specialist Post-16 Institution (SPI), Eat that Frog is funded through the high needs funding methodology which is a combination of funding directly from the department and funding from the learners’ local authority, through their dedicated schools grant.Some of the programmes and support provided through Eat that Frog is outside the scope of departmental funding, for example employment support, and therefore their remit is much wider than that of the department.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on the (a) length and (b) frequency of gaps in education for children in care that are the result of placement moves.

The department recognises the need to improve the data available about children’s social care, including making it more relevant to the experience of children and young people during periods of change.A core part of this work includes understanding the data needs of the children’s social care sector as a whole and scoping ways in which data gaps may be addressed over time. This year the department has published new statistics on stability measures for children looked after, providing further insight on school, placement and social worker stability for these children, here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/stability-measures-for-children-looked-after-in-england/2024.Existing statutory data is collected for children missing education, school attendance, and children in care. However, it is not yet possible to accurately link these datasets to obtain the information requested, as the children missing education data is collected at a local authority level, while data for children looked after, and school attendance is collected at a child level. Addressing data gaps in children’s social care will be a long-term endeavour due to the need to agree data standards and definitions, as well as redesign local authority and departmental systems before rolling out nationally.

What steps her Department took with Torbay Unitary Authority to help ensure the adequacy of consultation to reduce the number of moderate learning disability placements at Combe Pafford School Torquay.

As the relevant local authority, Torbay Council is responsible for keeping provision for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) in their area under review. They are also responsible for determining how many high needs places, funded at £10,000 per place, should be available at special schools in their area.Torbay Council concluded that there is less need for special school places for children with moderate learning difficulties and asked for the number of high needs places in Combe Pafford School to be reduced for the 2025/26 academic year.Local authorities should undertake detailed work to forecast the number of places they and neighbouring authorities will need in the forthcoming academic year. They should consult with their schools and colleges to plan where new placements will be needed, although this is not mandatory. The department understands that such consultations with Combe Pafford School commenced in January 2024.

When she plans to answer Question 58706, tabled on 10 June 2025.

The response to Written Parliamentary Question 58706 was published on 20 June 2025.

Whether her Department consulted with relevant stakeholders on the closure of the hearing units at (a) St Margaret's Primary School and (b) Spires College in Torbay.

There are separate processes for removing special educational needs (SEN) units or resourced provision at academies and maintained schools, which we expect the relevant accountable bodies to follow.In maintained schools, such as Spires College, where a local authority decides to remove a SEN unit or resourced provision at a foundation school, they must follow the statutory prescribed alterations process. The statutory guidance on this topic is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-organisation-maintained-schools.In academies, SEN units and resourced provision are formally recognised in a funding agreement. Closing a SEN unit or resourced provision at an academy would be a significant change and would therefore require the funding agreement between my right hon. Friend, Secretary of State for Education and the academy trust to be amended. More information on significant changes is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-significant-changes-to-an-existing-academy.In this instance, the responsible bodies are St Margeret’s Academy and Torbay local authority.Local authorities are responsible for managing the sufficiency of school places in their area, including the provision for children with SEN. The department expects local authorities to work in collaboration with parents, schools, academy trusts and other local partners to balance the supply and demand of school places to ensure a sustainable and viable educational offer.Where it has been identified that a unit for SEN is no longer needed at a school, the processes set out above and a consultation with local stakeholders are required for removing this provision.

Whether her Department has had discussions with Torbay Unitary Authority on enabling Combe Pafford School Torquay to admit pupils directly from Devon County Council where appropriate.

The department’s officials have not had discussions with Torbay Council on enabling Combe Pafford School to admit pupils directly from Devon County Council, but we would be happy to discuss this with the local authority. Funding provided directly by the department to Combe Pafford School is for places and not assigned to specific pupils. The relevant local authority pays top-up funding for individual pupils in excess of the school’s core place funding. As a special academy, Combe Pafford School must admit any child or young person whose education, health and care plan names the school, regardless of the local authority they live in.

When she plans to answer named day Questions (a) 56436 and (b) 56437, tabled on 2 June 2025.

The responses to Written Parliamentary Questions 56436 and 56437 were published on 20 June 2025.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that place funding for special school pupils is increased in line with (a) inflation and (b) special educational requirements.

Special schools receive £10,000 per place, alongside high needs top-up funding, which is paid directly by local authorities to the schools in which their placements are made. It is the top-up funding which is intended to reflect the cost of special educational provision in excess of the place funding, and the department’s guidance to local authorities is that top-up funding levels should be kept under review to reflect changes in costs, such as those incurred through overall levels of inflation and changes in provision.High needs funding for children and young people with complex needs will be £1 billion higher this financial year than last year. This £1 billion increase, and the additional funding for special schools to help with staff-related costs, will bring total high needs funding to well over £12 billion in 2025/26.

What her planned timeline is for the completion of the rebuild of St Michael’s Church of England School in Paignton.

We are aiming to enter contract later this year and are currently on track. The current planned timescale is for pupils to be in the permanent accommodation from September 2026. This is also on track, but we will need to continue to monitor this as normal throughout the build period.

When her Department plans to appoint a contractor to undertake works at St Michael’s Church of England School in Paignton.

We are aiming to enter contract later this year and are currently on track. The current planned timescale is for pupils to be in the permanent accommodation from September 2026. This is also on track, but we will need to continue to monitor this as normal throughout the build period.

What guidance her Department provides to schools on supporting (a) autistic girls (b) girls masking symptoms of autism in educational settings.

The department wants all children and young people to be able to receive the right support to succeed in their education and we recognise that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) often require access to additional support.The department also provides continuing professional development to the school and further education workforce through the Universal SEND Services programme, led by the National Association for Special Educational Needs (NASEN). From April 2025, NASEN are developing a new autism specific online training offer to support the workforce’s understanding of autism, which will include ‘train the trainer' packages and webinars to support teachers and leaders to deliver autism training in their settings.The department has also invested in the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme, which is a national programme backed by £22 million of investment.PINS deploys specialists from both health and education workforces to build teacher and staff capacity to identify and better meet the needs of neurodivergent children including pupils with autism.

What plans her Department has to develop teacher training to recognise (a) autism presentation and (b) masking behaviours in girls.

The department wants all children and young people to be able to receive the right support to succeed in their education and we recognise that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) often require access to additional support.The department also provides continuing professional development to the school and further education workforce through the Universal SEND Services programme, led by the National Association for Special Educational Needs (NASEN). From April 2025, NASEN are developing a new autism specific online training offer to support the workforce’s understanding of autism, which will include ‘train the trainer' packages and webinars to support teachers and leaders to deliver autism training in their settings.The department has also invested in the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme, which is a national programme backed by £22 million of investment.PINS deploys specialists from both health and education workforces to build teacher and staff capacity to identify and better meet the needs of neurodivergent children including pupils with autism.

Whether she plans to take steps to close the pay gap between (a) school teachers and (b) college teachers to achieve equity within the higher education sector.

Further education (FE) colleges, rather than government, are responsible for setting and negotiating pay within colleges. Colleges are not bound by the national pay and conditions framework for school teachers but are free to implement their own pay arrangements in line with their own local circumstances.On 22 May, the department announced an investment of £160 million for colleges and other 16-19 providers in the 2025/26 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 also be included within 16-19 allocations. This funding comes from within the overall funding envelope of £615 million for 2025/26, 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.