Janet Daby MP: speeches

Speeches

• 12 Jun 2025 · SEND Funding · Hansard source

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  The Government are very much committed to early intervention and prevention work.

• 12 Jun 2025 · SEND Funding · Hansard source

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  I would like to make some progress before I begin to give way. Members from across the House will be aware of the challenges facing the SEND system—a system that is difficult for parents, carers and young people to navigate, and where outcomes for children are often poor. That has been mentioned by many Members. The Education Committee has undertaken its own inquiry aimed at solving the SEND crisis, which underscores the significant challenges we face. Improving the SEND system is a priority for this Government. We want all children to receive the right support to succeed in their education, and to lead happy, healthy and productive adult lives. The hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted (Victoria Collins) quoted Hermione, who said that SEND needs to work for all, and I just wanted to acknowledge that.

• 12 Jun 2025 · SEND Funding · Hansard source

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  As far as I am aware, EHC plans will continue. We know that children’s earliest years make the biggest difference to their life chances. As I have already said, we believe in early intervention and recognise the importance of high-quality early years education and care, which can lead to better outcomes for children. Having access to a formal childcare setting allows children’s needs to be identified at the earliest opportunity, so that the appropriate support and intervention can be put in place to allow children with SEND to thrive. Arrangements are in place to support children with SEND to access Government funding in early education, including funding for disability access and special educational needs inclusion and the high needs NFF allocations to support local authorities. We are reviewing early years SEND funding arrangements to assess how suitable the current arrangements are for supporting the needs of children with SEND. The additional funding for schools of more than £4 billion a year over the next three years announced in the spending review will provide an above real-terms per-pupil increase in the core schools budget, taking per-pupil funding to its highest ever level and enabling us to transform the SEND system. We will improve support for children, stop parents having to fight for support and protect the support that is currently in place. Details of the Government’s intended approach to SEND reform will be set out in the schools White Paper in the autumn. The Government will also set out further details on supporting local authorities as we transition to a reformed system as part of the upcoming local authority funding reform consultation.

• 5 Jun 2025 · Maths: Contribution to the UK · Hansard source

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  It is a real pleasure to speak under your chairship, Mr Vickers. I thank the many hon. Members for participating in this debate on an important subject. I am sure that you would agree with me, Mr Vickers, that their enthusiasm and passion means we can rest assured that this all adds up and that there is a level of agreement. I thank the hon. Member for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire (Ian Sollom) for securing this important debate and for his optimistic thoughts on mathematics and its being a significant part of our present and future society, especially for our young people, teachers and institutions, as well as economically. I want to acknowledge what my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) said about maths being a beautiful thing—it is indeed. I enjoyed maths when I was at school and I still do it with my children, helping them through their own education; it is with us everywhere. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) for her contribution and wish her daughter every success with her results. I agree that we need to celebrate, encourage and have a love for learning maths. I will of course attempt to respond to the many areas of the subject that Members have mentioned so far. I thank the hon. Member for Thornbury and Yate (Claire Young) for speaking so eloquently about the significance of number-based information and how relevant that is for our life in general and for life skills. I congratulate the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted (Victoria Collins) on being a maths champion and on the many points that she raised. I thank all those involved in maths and the teachers in our schools, colleges and universities for doing such an excellent job in teaching our children, our young people and adults about this most important subject. I do not perceive the debate as contentious. Nobody here today would say that maths is not important, because it absolutely is. We all agree on that. I loved maths when I was at school. It was one of my favourite subjects and it remains so. But why is it so important? It has a critical role to play in the future of the UK economy. Higher levels of achievement are usually associated with higher earnings and productivity, which are a key determining factor of economic growth. There is a strong demand for mathematical skills in the labour market. Such skills can increase individual productivity, earnings and employment opportunities and are important in everyday life and activities. Many careers require maths skills, which change over time. I think it is safe to say that for most of us in this Chamber, the need for maths when we were starting out was different to the needs for maths today. We only need to mention the words artificial intelligence—it has already been mentioned—to recognise that. Excellence in maths is one of the many skills needed to drive growth in the AI industry, and we want to ensure that all children and young people have the foundational maths knowledge and equal opportunities to progress in their careers. Advanced mathematics underpins the development of cutting edge AI, which the Prime Minister has set out as a key driver in the plan for change, helping to turbocharge growth and boost living standards. In schools, all key stages play an essential part in maths knowledge. Under the current curriculum, in key stage 1 pupils are taught a basic underpinning of mathematics, ensuring they develop confidence and mental fluency with whole numbers, counting and place value. The principal focus of mathematics teaching in key stage 2 is to ensure that pupils become increasingly fluent with whole numbers and the four operations, including number facts. The percentage of pupils meeting the key stage 2 expected standards in maths in the 2023-24 academic year was 73%. The programme of study for key stage 3 is organised into apparently distinct domains, but pupils should build on key stage 2 and connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competency in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. The mathematical content set out in the key stage 3 and key stage 4 programmes of study covers a full range of material contained in the GCSE mathematics qualifications. In 2024, 72% of pupils achieved a GCSE grade 9 to 4 in mathematics by the end of key stage 4. I should point out that that is based on the current national curriculum, but there is an ongoing independent curriculum assessment review, as has been mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood. I welcome the Education Committee’s keen interest in this topic, and I am sure there are many other views as well. Maths does not stop when someone leaves school. The study of maths post-16 is important to ensure the future workforce is skilled, competitive and productive. Skills developed while studying maths help adults with everyday life. There is an expectation that students will continue to study maths if they need to and, of course, if they choose to. From what I have heard from Members in this room, I am sure we all encourage those students who have an aptitude for maths to continue at A-level and Higher maths. It is good to know that last year almost 100,000 students took A-level maths, and there was a 20% increase in students of A-level further maths. A-level maths remains the most popular A-level subject, as it has been since 2014. But there will also be those young people who did not get the grades they needed at school. Any young person who has not yet attained GCSE grade 4 in maths must continue to study maths under the maths and English condition of funding. We support young people who are aged 16 to18 at the start of their apprenticeships to continue to develop vital maths and English skills during their apprenticeships, either through GCSE or functional skills qualifications. Gaining level 2 skills in these areas is important, giving young people the opportunity to progress in life, in learning and in work. We do not stop with young people either. There are many adults who missed out earlier in life for whatever reason and need the right maths skills or qualifications to get on. Unfortunately, the numbers do not make good reading. Some 8.5 million adults have low maths or English skills, or both. That is why we fund adults aged 19 and above to study maths for free through our essential skills legal entitlements. This allows adults without level 2 maths skills to study high-quality qualifications such as GCSEs and functional skills qualifications and to gain the skills they need to succeed in life. In 2023-24, we funded more than 100,000 adults to study maths through the legal entitlement. However, the number of adults studying maths has declined in recent years, so it is important to turn that around. Adults undertaking apprenticeships continue to benefit from the job-specific maths and English skills they need to do the job. Although A-level maths is the single most popular A-level, we are not taking that for granted in our plan for change. We are investing £8.2 million to improve participation in and the teaching of advanced maths. The funding for the advanced maths support programme will support teacher career progression development and student enrichment, with a focus on girls and students from disadvantaged backgrounds, breaking down the barriers to success, so that all young people have the chance to progress to STEM and AI careers in the future. The hon. Member for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire spoke about long-term investment in mathematics and mathematical science. I would like to talk briefly about the importance of undergraduate-level maths and the significant growth in demand for jobs requiring undergraduate maths skills. We fully recognise the critical importance of sustaining a strong pipeline of mathematics graduates to meet the evolving need of the economy, research and innovation sectors. Maths underpins a wide range of disciplines and industries. Ensuring a steady flow of skilled graduates is essential to maintaining the UK’s global competitiveness, as was mentioned by the hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston (Neil O'Brien). It is encouraging to see that in 2023-24, 9,105 undergraduates qualified in maths, which is up 2.2% from the previous year, despite that figure being lower than in earlier years. It is also good to note that in 2024 there were more than 55,000 applications to main scheme full-time undergraduate courses in mathematics, an increase of 5.5% from 2023 and 10% from 2019. Internationally, England has performed well in recent studies. However, there is still work to do and there is a significant difference in performance between different pupil groups, including a gap associated with disadvantage. In 2022, pupils in England achieved a mean PISA mathematics score of 492, which is significantly higher than the OECD average of 472. In 2023, pupils in England performed on average significantly above the TIMSS centre point in mathematics and science in both year 5 and year 9. They also performed significantly above the 2023 international mean in both subjects and in both year groups. Many Members have talked today about teaching, teaching recruitment and our focus on that area. I will just reassure Members that we remain extremely focused on recruiting teachers, including maths teachers. We have a series of bursaries and scholarships, and we are also focusing on how we retain teachers. We will continue to focus on that, because we recognise that we need to meet that target of 6,500 teachers. I also reassure Members that we have had an increase in the number of teachers of maths at secondary schools and in SEND. I am grateful to the hon. Member for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire for securing the debate and for speaking about the importance of maths. I am also grateful to all the other Members who participated in the debate for the significant points that they made. Everyone has made very valuable points about the importance of maths, so I hope that Members are happy that the Government share their views and the concerns they have raised. It is always good to find common ground and consensus across the House on important matters. The steps we have taken underline the importance of maths to individuals, to employers and indeed to the country.

• 20 May 2025 · Adoption and Kinship Placements · Hansard source

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  I recognise that there are many champions of children and families in Westminster Hall this afternoon. Indeed, there are many passionate Members who really want the right outcomes for children who are adopted and who are in kinship care through special guardianship or child arrangements orders and others. I thank the hon. Member for South West Devon (Rebecca Smith) for securing this important debate. I too want the best support for adopted and kinship children, and I acknowledge her sincere interest in the subject. There have been many interventions, questions and speeches. Because of time I will not refer to each Member by their constituency, but I will do my best to respond to the many questions that have rightly been put. We recognise the particular needs of adopted and kinship children, many of whom have experienced trauma. Some will have experienced in utero damage, which can result in foetal alcohol spectrum disorder and other conditions. That is why the Government have continued to provide funding to support these children through the adoption and special guardianship support fund and other ways. There have been no cuts in the overall budget of the adoption and special guardianship support fund. When that announcement was made, I said that further information would follow. The further announcement was made during recess so that the fund could be opened and therapy could be accessed. We had to announce that so that the new criteria were available and the funding could be opened. Although funding has been confirmed at £50 million this year, we know that it will not be enough to meet the expected demand, and we are therefore making these decisions now to enable us to support the maximum number of children. Families will still receive a good standard of support through the fund: £3,000-worth of therapy each year is a substantial amount of support, and will fund an average of 19 to 20 hours of therapy on current costings. Where needed, local authorities and regional adoption agencies can use their own funding to increase the amount of therapy, if needed. Both multidisciplinary assessments and specialist assessments will be able to continue, but the money for that will have to come from that £3,000. We have decided to stop match funding and the separate funding of special assessments, but, as I said, such assessments can continue out of that £3,000.

• 20 May 2025 · Adoption and Kinship Placements · Hansard source

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  I will give way to the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon) first.

• 20 May 2025 · Adoption and Kinship Placements · Hansard source

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  I absolutely recognise that the threshold and criteria have changed to enable us to reach as many children as possible under the current funding of £50 million. It is crucial that assessments continue for those children to enable them to have the right types of therapy. If Members allow me to press on, I will be able to respond a bit further to the many things they raised. I turn to the point about adoption and special guardianship support funding not being available to all children living under special guardianship orders. The main reason that the fund is available only to previously looked-after children living under special guardianship or child arrangements orders is that previously looked-after children, such as those who have been in foster care or residential care, may face higher levels of vulnerability and disadvantage than their peers. These funds aim to provide targeted support to address the specific challenges associated with their prior experiences. I was asked many questions about the kinship pilot and kinship funding, and I want to say more about the adoption and special guardianship support fund. On 14 April, the Department announced that the fund would be open to applications with changed criteria and a fair access limit of £3,000 per child per year, and that match funding and the separate funding of specialist assessments would be stopped. When assessed as having a need, families can approach their local authorities and regional adoption agencies. Adoption England is obviously working with regional adoption agencies. We also have specialist centres of excellence—a multidisciplinary approach to ensuring the essential provision that adopted children need.

• 20 May 2025 · Adoption and Kinship Placements · Hansard source

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  The Government are in a challenging situation, but we will continue to ensure that provision is in place for adopted and kinship children. We will always make sure there are certain provisions in place, and we will continue to look at the different types of therapy that are needed. Obviously, I will continue to have conversations with the Treasury about the essential funding that is needed in this area. I am very conscious of time, and the hon. Member for South West Devon needs to respond. On the £40 million package to trial a new kinship allowance from kinship carers, hon. Members across the Chamber have put in bids for their local authorities, but we will make sure that there is a call to all local authorities for expressions of interest. That will be launched this summer, and it will identify which local authorities will be best placed to deliver the pilot from autumn 2025. Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that it will be local authorities that have already put in bids to me. Adopted children and those in kinship care should be supported to obtain good educational outcomes. However, many do not do so, as this cohort has poorer GCSE results than the overall population and higher exclusion rates. Adopted children are entitled to priority school admissions, plus advice and support from designated teachers. Schools also receive £2,630 in pupil premium plus funding for every adopted child in their school. Both adopted children and children in kinship care can receive advice and support from local authority virtual school heads. We will fully update the statutory guidance for virtual school heads, including sections on supporting educational outcomes. Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we are seeking to mandate local authorities to appoint at least one person to promote the educational achievement of children who live in kinship care, regardless of whether they have been in local authority care. These duties will ensure that they receive consistent support to improve their outcomes. There is much more to be said on all this and in response to all the questions. I am grateful to hon. Members for raising the important subject of adoption and kinship care support today, and for such a thoughtful and wide-ranging debate. I will take away many points from today’s debate. On match funding for assessments, match funding applications accounted for less than 2% of all applications in the last financial year. It is important to put it in that wider context. There was wide disparity in the country on match funding but, as I have said, there are other avenues that adoptive parents and kinship carers can pursue to ensure that they get the additional support they need for their children. I have listened carefully to Members’ remarks and I know that many outside this House will be very keen to follow up on what has been said. I am sure there will be opportunities to further question me and this Government on these issues, and a Backbench Business debate has been mentioned. I am sure that hon. Members will agree that the biggest tribute must very much go to the parents and carers of adopted and kinship children. My hon. Friend the Member for Reading West and Mid Berkshire (Olivia Bailey) mentioned the joy that adopted children and kinship children bring to their families. I want to acknowledge that, and to thank all those parents and carers who continue to demonstrate compassion, resilience and dedication.

• 20 May 2025 · Adoption and Kinship Placements · Hansard source

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  We have invested a further £8.8 million in Adoption England, £5 million of which will go towards centres of excellence. On local authorities, Members will be aware of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. They will also be aware that we are investing in early prevention and intervention work in local authorities. In doing so, we are trying to support families through kinship arrangements. Members will also be aware that we have committed £40 million to a pilot for kinship care.

• 1 May 2025 · Hadlow College · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the right hon. Member for Tonbridge (Tom Tugendhat) on securing this important debate. I, too, wish to pay tribute to all the staff and students at the colleges and the school mentioned in the debate, North Kent College and Hadlow rural community school. In fact, I wish to extend that to all colleges and schools across Kent. I heard very clearly the points he made and I will attempt to address them during the course of my response. Further education colleges are a vital part of the education system. It is important that we continue to support them and provide all the necessary tools to assist with ensuring that they have good financial sustainability. That includes the ability to respond to financial distress and, in its worst case, insolvency. Land-based provision is an important part of the further education system, with strong links to the Government’s mission to kick-start economic growth, support Britain’s ecology and make it a clean energy superpower. Hadlow College, part of the North Kent College group, is the only land-based college in Kent. It has its own beef herd, sheep farm, horticultural production, a large animal management centre, fisheries lakes, a machinery and land-based technology facility, and equine centres. Its curriculum includes courses in agriculture, agricultural engineering, animal management, equine management, fisheries, floristry and horticulture, as well as some non-land-based courses. It has an important place within the Kent skills system. Hadlow College has one main campus, in Hadlow. Prior to being placed into education administration, it was federated with another college, West Kent and Ashford College, a general further education college with campuses in Ashford and Tonbridge. Historically, in 2019, the colleges faced a series of financial challenges, resulting in a request to the Department for Education for exceptional financial support. At this time, the colleges continued to face significant creditor pressure, which was a key factor in the decision to place Hadlow College into education administration. Combined, the colleges owed creditors approximately £100 million prior to education administrators being appointed. Hadlow College was placed into education administration in May 2019, followed by West Kent and Ashford College in August 2019. Following the appointment of education administrators, they, in conjunction with the Department, stabilised the financial position of the college while a solution was sought to ensure that learners were protected without the college needing to remain in education administration. The education administrators also hired an interim principal to run the colleges, with advice from a stakeholder education advisory board during this period. What followed was an intense period of options review, led by the Further Education Commissioner, to determine the best future outcomes for the colleges’ provision. This included inviting interested parties to make proposals to take on the provision. It should be noted that Ofsted visited both colleges during the process and found that they were making reasonable progress with regard to educational performance. This resulted in the recommendation that North Kent College should acquire the Hadlow College’s provision and its respective facilities. The transaction was supported with funding from the Department and was completed in August 2020. At this point, I would also like to say that the protection of learners was achieved, which I will go on to explain further. Alongside the Hadlow College education administration, the education administrators for West Kent and Ashford College also ran an options review in conjunction with the Further Education Commissioner and invited interested parties to take on the college’s provision. This resulted in the recommendation that East Kent College should acquire the college’s provision and its respective facilities at the Ashford site. The transaction was supported with funding from the Department and was completed in March 2020. Combined with the transaction at Hadlow College, together with other smaller, similar sites between both colleges, more than 5,000 learners were protected through the education administration process. An investigation into any mismanagement at the college was undertaken by the education administrators and then joint liquidators. This is a statutory lead investigation that applies not only to education administration, but to other insolvency processes. The outcomes of those investigations are detailed in the joint liquidators’ progress reports—publicly available at Companies House—but, in summary, they reached settlement agreements with the individuals involved. The Department welcomed the conclusion of the joint liquidators’ investigations into the conduct of certain relevant individuals at Hadlow College and West Kent and Ashford College. The Department takes the protection of public funds extremely seriously, and we will continue to support robust action where there are concerns about the safeguarding of taxpayers’ money. As the right hon. Gentleman points out, there have been implications of the education administration of the college for the co-location of Hadlow rural community school. The school was originally established by Hadlow College with a land-based specialism. The two organisations had governance links, and the school accessed the college’s extensive land-based facility to deliver its offer. During the process of the college’s education administration, separate governance arrangements for the school were established and the Department worked with the school to ensure that these arrangements were robust. The price for Hadlow rural community school to access the college’s facilities rose to the extent that it was no longer sustainable within the school’s budget, and the school has requested departmental support to help it develop its own land-based facilities. I appreciate that the school has undertaken extensive work on proposals to the Department over a number of years to inform the officials’ assessment, and I pay tribute to headteacher Paul Boxall, his team and the Hadlow rural community school trust board for all the work they have done and for the passion they have shown in seeking to ensure the very best for their pupils. However, this is a complex case and it is critical that any support the Department may provide offers value for taxpayers’ money. It is, of course, important that the school has clarity so that it can move forward with certainty and thrive. To be clear, Ministers value the school’s land-based specialism and appreciate the challenges this situation has caused for the school, and we remain open to considering ways to support the school to ensure it can continue to offer a high-quality and broad land-based curriculum. The recent decision the right hon. Gentleman refers related not only to the Court Lane land, but to potentially significant capital investment to develop facilities on that land, particularly with high-quality specialist facilities at the neighbouring college. In the context of constrained public finances, Ministers decided that it did not offer good value for money. Given those facilities at Hadlow College, our view is that, rather than replicating such specialist and expensive facilities next door, it is worth exploring whether an agreement can be reached between the college and the school on shared use of the college’s facilities. We understand that there will be complexities to that, and that it will be important to the school for any solution to offer security for the long term. Should the two organisations agree to negotiate, we have offered support from officials to try to help broker that, and, at the moment, this seems very likely. To be clear, we understand the school’s desire for independence, and the Department has no intention of forcing the school to change its governance arrangements. We remain open to considering alternative proposals from the school. Indeed, the school has recently suggested a new option, which officials have agreed to consider. The liquidations of both Hadlow College and West Kent and Ashford College remain open while the liquidators realise the remaining surplus non-educational assets. Again, the details of those assets are in the joint liquidators’ progress reports, available at Companies House, but, in summary, they relate to surplus plots of land in Hadlow. The liquidators’ strategy to realise the surplus land involves planning applications for its inclusion in Tonbridge and Malling borough council’s local plan, which would, if successful, enhance its value. The Department has priority security on all these remaining land assets, and any realisations directly offset the costs of the education administration process and are effectively a return to the Department and the taxpayer. Those assets, which were not surplus and were required by either North Kent College or East Kent College, were transferred to those respective colleges as part of the transactions to take on the learners and provision of Hadlow College and West Kent and Ashford College and achieve the objectives of the education administration to protect those learners. I know that the right hon. Member has requested a meeting, and I understand that that is in progress. I can assure him that we will continue to work with the joint liquidators to ensure the best possible outcome for taxpayers. We will also continue to work with North Kent College to ensure that the land-based and general further education provision in Hadlow continues to succeed for the benefit of its learners and for the right hon. Member’s constituency. Question put and agreed to .

• 28 Apr 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is aware that education is devolved and that the Welsh Government are responsible for education policies in Wales, including those covering universities, but I assure her that the Department for Education engages with the devolved Government at ministerial and official levels on a range of areas covering education and students.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for raising that point. Our youth guarantee will provide tailored support to young people, helping them to access high-quality education, training and employment. We want young people to be earning and learning, and we are wasting no time about that. Youth foundation apprenticeships provide more opportunities for young people, and we want to ensure that we expand access to university for disadvantaged students and that all learning is on an equal footing.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I hear the concerns around the adoption and special guardianship support fund. We have had to make some really difficult decisions, but we have chosen the fairest approach to manage tight resources in the face of increasing demand for support. We will continue to review the situation.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  As my hon. Friend will be aware, we are providing £50 million through the adoption and special guardianship support fund. We are also funding Adoption England with £8.8 million to improve adoption services. This includes new support for the first 12 to 18 months after placement and better support for families in crisis. Adoptive families may also access mainstream family health services, and we are doubling the investment in these services to over £500 million.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The adoption and special guardianship support fund still enables those who are eligible to access a significant package of therapeutic support to meet individual needs. The fund is important, which is why we have continued to fund it, but it is not the only source of adoption and kinship support, responsibility for which lies with local authorities and regional adoption agencies. Our £8.8 million of funding to support Adoption England can assist that.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Higher Education Funding · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for her level of concern. Higher education providers are autonomous and responsible for managing their own budgets. If they were at any risk, we would work with the Office for Students to ensure that students were protected. The Government reserve the right to intervene to protect the interests of students. The strategic priorities grant is also available to support teachers and students in higher education in more expensive subjects.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Higher Education Funding · Hansard source

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  The Tories were more interested in picking ideological fights than ensuring that universities were financially sustainable. They left students and taxpayers to bear the brunt. Labour has taken tough decisions to shore up higher education as we pave the way for reform. We will fix the foundations of higher education to deliver change for students.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Higher Education Funding · Hansard source

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  We are committed to securing the future of our higher education sector and we absolutely recognise its excellent economic value, which is crucial to our future economic growth. We welcome international students, who enrich our campuses, forge networks with domestic students and become global ambassadors. We will set out our plan for reform in the summer.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Apprenticeship Funding · Hansard source

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  We are very excited about what this Government are achieving for young people in our apprenticeship schemes. There are, of course, tough choices to take on how funding should be prioritised to generate opportunities for young people so that they can make a good start in fulfilling careers going forward. The Department has received a wide range of representations regarding level 7 apprenticeships, and we will communicate our decision going forward. We are absolutely committed to making sure that people are on the right apprenticeship courses and that we have a wide range of apprenticeships available.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Apprenticeship Funding · Hansard source

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  Too many young people have been locked out of accessing apprenticeship opportunities, and apprenticeship starts by young people under 25 fell by almost 40% between 2015-16 and 2023-24 under the previous Government. We are developing new foundation apprenticeships to give more young people a foot in the door at the start of their working lives.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Apprenticeship Funding · Hansard source

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  Labour is transforming the Tories’ failed apprenticeship levy into a growth and skills levy. The Government offer a range of support to non-levy-paying employers, including assistance with training costs and payments to take on younger apprentices. New foundation apprenticeships in construction will unlock opportunities for up to 10,000 young people. Apprenticeships, participation, achievement and starts have already increased under Labour, and we are going further and faster for growth.

• 28 Apr 2025 · Apprenticeship Funding · Hansard source

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  As I am sure the hon. Member knows, skills are a devolved matter, and funding in the devolved Administrations remains the responsibility of those Governments. However, we will continue to engage with them as we deliver the levy-funded growth and skills offer for England.

• 3 Apr 2025 · Adoption Breakdown · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon) on securing this important debate. I have indeed listened and heard his many concerns, issues and questions. There have been a great number of interventions from many hon. Members across the Chamber, and I will endeavour to respond to those, too. The stories that the hon. Gentleman mentioned are heartbreaking. On the back of that, I would also like to say that there are many, many positive stories of adopted children and their successes, where things have gone incredibly well. I just want to give a bit of a balance. I know that when an adoptive parent adopts a child, they want to do their very best for them—to bring them into their family, love them, show them security and help them to thrive, grow and develop in every way possible. I know that people across this Chamber share that view, and that we all want the very best for adopted children and adoptive parents. Supporting adoptive families and preventing adoption breakdown is a priority that I know all Members across the House support. As the Minister for Children, it is a significant priority for me, too, so I am pleased to be able to respond to this debate. Supporting children through adoption is a manifesto commitment for this Government. Every child deserves and needs a loving and stable family home, which is exactly what adoption can, should and must provide. Improving support for adopted families is a key part of our plan for change, to ensure that every child has the opportunity to succeed. We inherited a system in which far too many families are missing out on vital post-adoption support services. We recognise that we need to improve our knowledge of adoption breakdown and are taking action to improve the statistics, the data we collect and other forms of research. The number of children who return to the care system who have an adoption order has remained between 170 and 180 in each of the past five years. However, these figures are not as robust as we would like them to be, and we will be challenging local authorities to improve the accuracy of their returns. In particular, we need social workers always to record when a child entering care is living under an adoption order. We do not collect specific information on adoption breakdowns where the child does not return to care. Some adopted young people will go to live with birth relatives, and others to live independently at the age of 16 or 17 without the knowledge of the local authority. Sometimes this is for short periods, and sometimes they return home. We know from previous research that around 3% of adoptions disrupt, but this research is 10 years old. To gain more up-to-date information, the Government have been funding the new research “Family Roots”—I am sure Members will be very interested to know more about that—which is looking at adopted children’s outcomes. This will give us new, up-to-date information on adoption disruption and breakdown, and the results will be published later in the year. High-quality support for adopted children is critical. It can decrease the likelihood of adoption disruptions or breakdowns. Research shows that approximately one third of families are doing well, one third need extra support compared with other families, and one third report that they are in crisis. Adoptive families often complain that they do not get the support they need when they are in crisis. They often experience blame and criticism of their parental approach and there is a lack of understanding about the impact of trauma on their children’s behaviour. I have asked regional adoption agencies to put in place services this year that can respond quickly and effectively to adoptive families in crisis, including trauma-trained professionals who provide evidence-based support. We are also ensuring that all social workers work better to understand the long-term impact of trauma. We recently published new post-qualifying standards for social workers, in which we say that all social workers should be trained “to use evidence and best practice to reduce the impact of any trauma, increase the likelihood of secure relationships and ensure improved outcomes for the future.”

• 3 Apr 2025 · Adoption Breakdown · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her comments. Adoption can be quite complex, especially when children reach their teenage years, as they are able to make contact through different social mediums. Contact and how it is managed is under constant review. We need to ensure that, where it is appropriate, where it is right and where it is safe, contact continues for adopted children. Again, I stress that is where it is appropriate, where it is right, and where it is with the agreement of the adoptive parents. Much of that takes place during the assessment process and the adoption order itself. The majority of adopted children will have experienced neglect or abuse, which leads to ongoing and enduring problems. Providing support for families at an earlier stage before needs escalate to crisis point is critical. We are funding Adoption England to develop consistent and high-quality adoption support provision across all regional adoption agencies. This includes implementing a new framework for an early support core offer, which covers the first 12 to 18 months after placement. Adoption England will also be rolling out a new adoption support plan book for all new adoptive families. This year we will fund Adoption England with £3 million to develop more multidisciplinary teams in regional adoption agencies. These are joint teams with local health partners that will enable families to receive holistic, high-quality support.

• 3 Apr 2025 · Adoption Breakdown · Hansard source

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  I appreciate what the hon. Member says. If he was there during the urgent question on Tuesday, he would have heard my regret about the delay. This Government are committed to ensuring that we continue to support adopted children through funding where it is needed. Adopted children should receive support to obtain good educational outcomes. However, many do not do so, with poorer GCSE results than the overall population and higher exclusion rates. The Adoption UK barometer report shows that 58% of adoptive parents in England are parenting one or more adopted children with an education, health and care plan. Adopted children are entitled to priority school admissions as well as advice and support from school-designated teachers and local authority virtual school heads. Schools will also receive £2,630 in pupil premium plus this year for every adopted child in their school, but we do need to go further. We intend to fully update the statutory guidance for virtual school heads, including sections on supporting adopted children’s educational outcomes. We will conduct a public consultation to gain input from stakeholders, ensuring that the latest research and examples of good practice are incorporated. Local authorities deliver adoption services through 33 regional adoption agencies, working in partnership with voluntary adoption agencies. Evaluation of regional adoption agencies shows that they provide a more strategic approach to delivering adoption support, including by early intervention becoming widely embedded. I am enormously grateful to the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough for raising this issue. He has raised some important concerns, many of which I share. Adoption support is currently not good enough, and we must do better. This debate has given me the opportunity to talk about our plans to ensure that all adopted children get the support they need to experience a full and happy childhood. Question put and agreed to .