Written questions by Collins.

What steps her Department is taking to help tackle the disparities in educational outcomes for children in care.

Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve.We are committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. Every local authority must appoint a Virtual School Head, who has a statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of all children in their care, wherever they live or are educated. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll.Looked-after children have highest priority in school admissions and attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,630 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s Personal Education Plan (PEP). The PEP should set out the support needed to help realise the short and long-term academic outcomes for each child, and should focus on the child’s strengths, weaknesses, and outcomes they want to achieve, including attaining a higher education (HE) placement.The government recognises 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 allocated social worker should do everything possible to minimise disruption to their education. School changes should be minimised, and any necessary transitions well planned and supported. Where a change to a looked-after child’s educational arrangements is unavoidable, their PEP should set out arrangements to minimise disruption to education and training, especially during exam periods and other critical periods in their education.The government is committed to ensuring that looked-after children and care leavers are given the skills they need to succeed in life and recognises the important role that HE has in this. To ensure care experienced students are supported to gain the qualifications needed to access HE, the department provided £14 million of funding in 2024/25 to extend Pupil Premium Plus nationally to children in care and care leavers at post-16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head and can be used on a range of measures to raise attainment and engagement in education, employment, and training such as mentoring, tuition, and targeted careers advice. We will be continuing this funding to local authorities in 2025/26. We are also making the Virtual School Head role for children with a social worker statutory through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, enabling earlier intervention to address the educational barriers these children can face.Care leavers who enter HE are entitled to a statutory bursary of £2,000 from their local authority and many universities offer additional support within their access and participation regimes. This includes things like additional financial support, pastoral support and 365 days per year housing whilst they are at university.

What steps her Department is taking to improve educational outcomes for children in care.

Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve.We are committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. Every local authority must appoint a Virtual School Head, who has a statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of all children in their care, wherever they live or are educated. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll.Looked-after children have highest priority in school admissions and attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,630 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s Personal Education Plan (PEP). The PEP should set out the support needed to help realise the short and long-term academic outcomes for each child, and should focus on the child’s strengths, weaknesses, and outcomes they want to achieve, including attaining a higher education (HE) placement.The government recognises 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 allocated social worker should do everything possible to minimise disruption to their education. School changes should be minimised, and any necessary transitions well planned and supported. Where a change to a looked-after child’s educational arrangements is unavoidable, their PEP should set out arrangements to minimise disruption to education and training, especially during exam periods and other critical periods in their education.The government is committed to ensuring that looked-after children and care leavers are given the skills they need to succeed in life and recognises the important role that HE has in this. To ensure care experienced students are supported to gain the qualifications needed to access HE, the department provided £14 million of funding in 2024/25 to extend Pupil Premium Plus nationally to children in care and care leavers at post-16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head and can be used on a range of measures to raise attainment and engagement in education, employment, and training such as mentoring, tuition, and targeted careers advice. We will be continuing this funding to local authorities in 2025/26. We are also making the Virtual School Head role for children with a social worker statutory through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, enabling earlier intervention to address the educational barriers these children can face.Care leavers who enter HE are entitled to a statutory bursary of £2,000 from their local authority and many universities offer additional support within their access and participation regimes. This includes things like additional financial support, pastoral support and 365 days per year housing whilst they are at university.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure children in care are not moved during (a) exam periods and (b) other critical periods in their education.

Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve.We are committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. Every local authority must appoint a Virtual School Head, who has a statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of all children in their care, wherever they live or are educated. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll.Looked-after children have highest priority in school admissions and attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,630 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s Personal Education Plan (PEP). The PEP should set out the support needed to help realise the short and long-term academic outcomes for each child, and should focus on the child’s strengths, weaknesses, and outcomes they want to achieve, including attaining a higher education (HE) placement.The government recognises 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 allocated social worker should do everything possible to minimise disruption to their education. School changes should be minimised, and any necessary transitions well planned and supported. Where a change to a looked-after child’s educational arrangements is unavoidable, their PEP should set out arrangements to minimise disruption to education and training, especially during exam periods and other critical periods in their education.The government is committed to ensuring that looked-after children and care leavers are given the skills they need to succeed in life and recognises the important role that HE has in this. To ensure care experienced students are supported to gain the qualifications needed to access HE, the department provided £14 million of funding in 2024/25 to extend Pupil Premium Plus nationally to children in care and care leavers at post-16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head and can be used on a range of measures to raise attainment and engagement in education, employment, and training such as mentoring, tuition, and targeted careers advice. We will be continuing this funding to local authorities in 2025/26. We are also making the Virtual School Head role for children with a social worker statutory through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, enabling earlier intervention to address the educational barriers these children can face.Care leavers who enter HE are entitled to a statutory bursary of £2,000 from their local authority and many universities offer additional support within their access and participation regimes. This includes things like additional financial support, pastoral support and 365 days per year housing whilst they are at university.

What steps her Department is taking to reduce the attainment gap between children in care and their peers.

Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve.We are committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. Every local authority must appoint a Virtual School Head, who has a statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of all children in their care, wherever they live or are educated. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to act as a source of advice and expertise about the needs of the looked-after children on the school’s roll.Looked-after children have highest priority in school admissions and attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,630 per child, up to age 16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head, who works with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in the child’s Personal Education Plan (PEP). The PEP should set out the support needed to help realise the short and long-term academic outcomes for each child, and should focus on the child’s strengths, weaknesses, and outcomes they want to achieve, including attaining a higher education (HE) placement.The government recognises 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 allocated social worker should do everything possible to minimise disruption to their education. School changes should be minimised, and any necessary transitions well planned and supported. Where a change to a looked-after child’s educational arrangements is unavoidable, their PEP should set out arrangements to minimise disruption to education and training, especially during exam periods and other critical periods in their education.The government is committed to ensuring that looked-after children and care leavers are given the skills they need to succeed in life and recognises the important role that HE has in this. To ensure care experienced students are supported to gain the qualifications needed to access HE, the department provided £14 million of funding in 2024/25 to extend Pupil Premium Plus nationally to children in care and care leavers at post-16. This is managed by the Virtual School Head and can be used on a range of measures to raise attainment and engagement in education, employment, and training such as mentoring, tuition, and targeted careers advice. We will be continuing this funding to local authorities in 2025/26. We are also making the Virtual School Head role for children with a social worker statutory through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, enabling earlier intervention to address the educational barriers these children can face.Care leavers who enter HE are entitled to a statutory bursary of £2,000 from their local authority and many universities offer additional support within their access and participation regimes. This includes things like additional financial support, pastoral support and 365 days per year housing whilst they are at university.

What estimate her Department has made of the number of care leavers who are Not in Education, Employment or Training.

The number of care leavers who are not in education, employment or training is published annually in the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions’.Figures on the activity of care leavers aged 17-21 years old, including those not in education, employment or training, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/33baf96c-f652-408a-d969-08dd800922cb.Figures on the activity of care leavers aged 22-25 years old, including those not in education, employment or training, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/9213a0ea-4d47-4ebc-7d40-08dd7ece5be0. To note, information for care leavers aged 22-25 years old is only collected for those who contact their local authority and receive support.

What eligibility criteria her Department is using to choose successful schools for Great British Energy's rooftop solar panels project.

The department recently announced, in partnership with Great British (GB) Energy, an £80 million (£40 million from the department and £40 million from GB Energy) initiative to install solar and other technologies such as electric vehicle chargers in 200 schools and colleges, prioritising those in areas of deprivation, to start in 2025/26.This programme is targeting 200 schools and colleges in this first year 2025/26, so the department is not proposing a bidding round to select the schools and colleges to avoid burden on the system.There will be a cluster of about 45 schools in each of the North West, North East and West Midlands, selected based on deprivation levels and other factors such as roof capacity. These schools have not yet been selected. Each cluster will also include a further education college which will work with the contractors appointed to promote careers in renewables to support growth in the construction and clean energy workforce. There will also be a minimum of 10 schools in each of the 9 government office regions to ensure regional spread.Once we have appointed delivery partners, they will work through a department-supplied list of possible schools. The list will be based on specific criteria including deprivation, roof condition and location and this data set, combined with local data sets, will ultimately determine a long list of possible projects. Only once feasibility studies have been undertaken on each of the possible schools, will we be able to confirm which schools have been selected and what interventions have been determined as appropriate.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure disabled children can access social care support.

This government is taking forward significant reform of children’s social care, with the aim to rebalance the system towards earlier intervention and ensure that all children and families can access the right help at the point of need, rather than needing to meet a particular threshold. This is particularly the case for children with disabilities, whose need is potentially different from others who may require help and support from children’s social care. Disabled children may require support for the entirety of their childhood and sit across children’s social care, education and health, and their support offer should be adjusted to reflect this.To that end, on Thursday 20 March, I announced the launch of the national Families First Partnership Programme, including the publication of the Families First Programme guide. The guide has been produced to support safeguarding partnerships across England implement Family Help and multi-agency child protection reforms and make greater use of Family Group Decision Making. The guide can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/families-first-partnership-programme.The programme is backed by over £500 million of investment in the 2025/26 financial year, made available through England’s final local government finance settlement (LGFS) for the 2025/26 financial year. This doubles direct investment into preventative support, ensuring access to support at the earliest opportunity, which over time, we expect to safely reduce the number of looked after children, keeping more families together. More information on the LGFS can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/final-local-government-finance-settlement-england-2025-to-2026.Programmes delivered by local government over many years have paved the way for these reforms, including evidence from the Supporting Families, and Strengthening Families, Protecting Children programmes. We will also take forward lessons so far from the ten local areas part of the Families First for Children Pathfinder. Best practice for improving the support provided to disabled children includes appointing special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) specialist lead practitioners to lead work with families and recruiting SEND expertise into local authorities’ ‘front doors’ to ensure timely and effective decision making and promote access to services at the earliest opportunity.

What steps her Department is taking to help tackle period poverty for young girls in (a) Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency, (b) Hertfordshire and (c) England.

No-one should have to miss out on education because of their period, which is why the department provides free period products to girls and women in all state-maintained schools and 16 to 19 education organisations in England.Since the launch of the Period Products Scheme in January 2020, 99% of secondary schools and 87% of post-16 organisations in England have placed orders through the scheme. The department publishes statistics regarding the Scheme’s operation, including take up by local authorities, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/period-products-scheme-management-information.

If she will make it her policy to fund the Adoption and Special Guardianship fund after 2025/26.

The department remains committed to supporting adoptive and kinship families, who play an essential role in providing stable and loving homes for children in need. On 1 April, it was announced that the adoption and special guardianship support fund would continue into 2025/26, with a budget of £50 million. This funding will enable eligible families to receive support in the coming year. All decisions regarding the future of the fund past March 2026 will be made as part of the next spending review.

What steps her Department is taking to help reduce inequalities in SEND funding between local authorities.

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 increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year. This brings total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to over £12 billion. Of that total, Hertfordshire County Council is being allocated over £207 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), an increase of £17.6 million on the 2024/25 DSG high needs block, calculated using the high needs national funding formula (NFF). The structure of the NFF is largely unchanged for 2025/26, as the government takes the time needed to consider what changes are necessary, both to make sure that we establish an equitable education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed, and to enable improved support for children with SEND.

What steps her Department is taking to help improve the mental health of (a) teachers and (b) support staff.

High-quality teaching is the biggest in-school factor that makes a difference to a child’s education. Being taught by a good teacher can add almost half a GCSE grade per subject to a given pupil’s results. That is why, as well as working to recruit additional teachers, the department is working hard to retain our experienced teachers.The department is working in partnership with the sector and mental health experts to improve staff mental health and wellbeing. Steps taken include continued promotion of the education staff wellbeing charter, which sets out shared commitments to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff in schools and colleges. More than 4,000 schools and colleges have signed up to the charter so far, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter.The department has also funded mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders, which includes professional supervision and counselling. More than 2,600 leaders have benefitted from this support so far. This support can be accessed at: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/get-help/help-for-your-staff/wellbeing-services/professional-supervision/.Furthermore, a range of resources have been made available to help schools prioritise staff wellbeing. For example, the department’s ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, developed alongside school leaders, provides tools to support schools to identify opportunities to cut excessive workload and improve staff wellbeing. This service can be accessed at: https://improve-workload-and-wellbeing-for-school-staff.education.gov.uk/.Finally, guidance is available to support school leaders and staff to help manage behaviour in schools, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/behaviour-in-schools--2.

What steps she is taking to help support children with special educational needs in the Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency.

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.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. The department is also working closely with experts on reforms 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.The department is providing support and challenge to the Hertfordshire local area partnership. In July 2023, Ofsted’s inspection of local arrangements in Hertfordshire for children with SEND, which was published on 10 November 2023, concluded that there were widespread and/or systemic failings, leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND, which the local area partnership must address urgently.Since then, the department has been using a SEND expert adviser to monitor progress against Hertfordshire’s priority action plan and improvement plan. In January 2025, the department sent the local area partnership a letter following a stocktake into their progress. This letter outlines that improvements are being made at pace, including on governance arrangements and quality assurance. However, there are still areas for the local area to address, for example on the impact and sustainability of improvements. The letter can be accessed here: https://sendnews.hertfordshire.gov.uk/31-january-2025#stocktake.The partnership has also established a SEND Improvement Board, which is independently chaired by Dame Christine Lenehan, to oversee progress and provide appropriate challenge.

What steps she is taking to improve the accountability of SEND support within schools; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the complaint routes for parents.

The department welcomes the publication of the response to the Big Listen, which stated that Ofsted will consult on introducing a new inspection judgement area for inclusion across education settings. The department continues to work with Ofsted to consider how outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), or in alternative provision (AP), are better reflected in the Education Inspection and the Area SEND inspection frameworks going forwards.Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission began a strengthened local inspection framework in January 2023, placing a greater emphasis on the outcomes being achieved for children and young people. This is an important tool to maintain a focus on high standards in the SEND system across all partners.The department works to monitor, support and, where necessary, challenge local authorities, working closely with NHS England to tackle any weaknesses that sit with health partners. Where a local authority does not meet its duties, the department can take action that prioritises children’s needs and supports local areas to bring about rapid improvement.There are several routes of redress for parents or young people who disagree with the decisions or actions of their educational setting or local authority. However, the department understands these processes can be lengthy and difficult for families to navigate. It is in everyone’s interests that routes of redress are set out clearly and that complaints are resolved at the earliest possible stage.The department is working to support inclusive practice in mainstream schools whilst ensuring that specialist provision meets the needs of children and young people who need it.

What steps she is taking to reform the funding formula used to distribute SEND funds.

The department is taking time to consider the various funding formulae that the department and local authorities use to allocate funding for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. It is important that there is a fair education funding system, that directs funding to where it is needed. Budgets for the 2025/26 financial year have not yet been finalised, which means that high needs and schools national funding formula allocations for that year have not been published to the usual timescales. The department will publish information as soon as possible after the Budget announcement on 30 October.

If her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) extending the Holiday Activities and Food Programme beyond March 2025 and (b) introducing other measures to help ensure children from low-income households have access to healthy meals during school holidays.

The future of the Holiday Activities and Food programme beyond 31 March 2025 is subject to the next government Spending Review taking place this autumn and the department will communicate the outcome of that process in due course.

If her Department will take steps to help reduce the potential impact of the introduction of VAT on independent school fees for children at independent schools (a) who need SEND support and (b) do not have an ECHP.

Local authorities fund pupils’ places in private schools where their needs can only be met in a private school. For example, in England, where attendance at a private school is required by a child’s education, health and care plan, local authorities will be able to reclaim the VAT on the fees from HMRC.Where parents have chosen to send their child to private school rather than a local authority deeming it necessary, VAT will apply to fees. The department works to support local authorities to ensure that every local area has sufficient places for children that need them and works to provide appropriate support where pupils with special educational needs (SEN) require a place at a state-funded school. For most pupils with SEN, support is provided within a mainstream school.