PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Topical Questions - 16 June 2025 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

Last week’s spending review was about investing in Britain’s renewal and investing in excellence for every child, so that background will not determine what they can go on to achieve. Through our settlement, we will continue to make high-quality early years education more accessible and affordable. We will rebuild our crumbling schools estate, and we will improve outcomes for children with special educational needs and disabilities with our support-first approach. We will also continue our overhaul of children’s social care, opening up training opportunities for young people to get great jobs in growing industries. Crucially, we will lift 100,000 children out of poverty through an historic expansion of free school meals to cover all families in receipt of universal credit. It will save parents nearly £500 per child per year. That is the difference that a Labour Government makes.

I recently met young people from the West Yorkshire Youth Collective. They told me that funding for work experience opportunities for those aged between 16 and 19 has reduced in recent years, particularly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and the arts. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that young people, particularly those from low-income backgrounds, can access the opportunities that they need to succeed?

My hon. Friend is right to highlight this important area. As she will know, our manifesto committed us to expanding work experience and careers guidance so that we can support young people into fulfilling jobs, create opportunities and drive growth. Our wider skills reform will also create 120,000 training opportunities over the course of this Parliament. If my hon. Friend would like to share more details of the discussion she mentions, I would look carefully at them.

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

It is a pleasure to welcome my old primary school teacher Mrs Case to the Chamber today—I hope we all remain on our best behaviour. My question is very simple: does the Education Secretary believe that primary school teachers are indeed teachers?

I join the right hon. Lady in paying tribute to her teacher who joins us today. We all know that a brilliant teacher and the contribution that they make can always stay with us. I am slightly perplexed by the right hon. Lady’s question. She is obviously right, but after 14 years of Tory failure many of our teachers are sadly having to pick up the pieces of wider societal challenges—whether that is too many families being in temporary accommodation or the growing number of children in poverty. We are determined as a Government to turn that around.

I am grateful for the confirmation that the Education Secretary does accept that primary school teachers are indeed teachers, but why is she then saying that they no longer count towards her manifesto pledge to recruit 6,500 more teachers? Is it because, contrary to the Department’s social media posts, teacher numbers are in fact going down, not up?

I do not know where the right hon. Lady has been, but she certainly has not been paying attention. We have been clear that we will make sure that we have 6,500 more teachers in secondary and specialist education and in further education colleges. This year alone we have 60,000 fewer children in primary schools, and that is why we are focusing our recruitment efforts in areas where we are seeing growth. It is common sense. It is this Labour Government who have delivered two pay rises for teachers, because we, the Labour party, value our brilliant teachers.

I agree with my hon. Friend that it is time for a new direction for Scotland with Scottish Labour. In England, we are making over £1 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028-29 to support young people into the industries of the future. That is because we are unlocking opportunity and driving growth through our plan for change.

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

Philip Augar, the chair of the previous review into post-18 education funding, stated recently in the Financial Times that “a handful” of universities are receiving “secret bailouts”. Will the Secretary of State confirm what emergency financial support the Government have already provided to struggling institutions and commit to informing Parliament of any future emergency financial support for individual institutions?

It was this Labour Government’s priority to ensure that our world-leading universities were put on a much more sustainable footing. That is why we took the difficult but necessary decision to increase student fees, and it is why we are reforming the Office for Students to have a much sharper focus on financial regulation and sustainability. We, together with the Office for Students, continue to keep under review any institutions that may face difficulty, but the hon. Member will appreciate that these sensitive issues are best dealt with properly and seriously through the Office for Students.

Labour is delivering a new era of high and rising school standards, because we know that when standards slip it is disadvantaged children who suffer, and we will not let that happen. That is why Labour’s regional improvement for standards and excellence teams are spearheading a stronger, faster system, prioritising stuck schools, sending in advisers with a proven track record of turning schools around, and backing that up with up to £20 million—

Order.

I assure the hon. Gentleman that we will ensure that we have the right numbers of specialist placements in the parts of the country where they are needed. Our capital budget in the spending review will allow us to do that. But alongside that, we need to ensure that we have more specialist provision in mainstream, including partnership with the specialist sector, to train and support the workforce to make that a reality.

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. Providing over half a million children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds with a free, nutritious lunch every school day will lead to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, including on attendance, meaning that children can get the best possible education and a chance to succeed in life.

In wider reform later this year through the schools White Paper—including to the SEND system—we will look at every way in which we can improve outcomes for children, including those with SEND. That will include looking at the funding mechanisms we inherited from the Conservative party.

We are investing significantly to make mainstream schools more inclusive for SEND students. By strengthening our evidence of effective inclusive practice, we are equipping teachers with proven tools and strategies to deliver excellent inclusive education supported by expert teaching and a world-class curriculum. We will set out more details in our White Paper in the autumn.

It is only through delivering a Labour Government in Scotland next year that we will get the change that the hon. Gentleman is seeking. I agree that Scottish education used to be the envy of the world—I spent many a long day speaking to my grandfather about his experience of the Scottish system—but it is only with a Labour Government in Scotland that we will once again see the focus on standards that our disadvantaged young people badly need.

We know that there are lots of great examples of mainstream schools delivering specialist provision, such as the one my hon. Friend recently opened, enabling children to achieve and thrive in mainstream school and providing excellent support to children with speech and language needs. We have allocated £740 million to support mainstream schools to increase their SEND provision, and we want to reassure his constituent that we will continue to prioritise that in our work.

Around 50 mainstream private schools close each year. The level of fees charged by private schools is not a matter for the Department; it is a contractual matter between private schools and parents.

Just two in five young people recall receiving any financial education at school, and those who did so often received less than an hour per month. While I welcome the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which will require all schools to teach financial literacy, does the Minister agree that the curriculum and assessment review gives us an opportunity to go even further? Will she meet me to discuss how Government, industry and civil society can ensure that children in my constituency get this vital life skill?

I absolutely agree with the importance of financial education. We are looking at the curriculum and assessment system and making sure that we take the advice of the independent review on these matters. I would be more than happy, given my hon. Friend’s enthusiasm—and parents’ enthusiasm—for this subject, to discuss it further with him.

Last week the Chancellor committed £9.6 billion over the next four years to the school rebuilding programme. Hornsea school and language college in my constituency is in dire need of a full rebuild, so can the Secretary of State commit today to including it in the next tranche of rebuilds? If she needs any persuading, I would be delighted to invite her to make a short detour on her way back to Sunderland and to come and have a look for herself.

We have significantly increased investment to improve the condition of schools or rebuild them; ensuring that schools have the resources and buildings that they need is key to our plan for change. If the hon. Member would like to write to me about that school, I would be happy to update him on this matter.

As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on British Sign Language, I know that the thousands of BSL first-language speakers in this country are very supportive of the introduction of a new BSL GCSE. However, I understand that progress on that has slightly stalled, so I would be grateful if the Minister could provide an update on the roll-out.

The British Sign Language GCSE is a key feature of our commitment to enhancing the status of British Sign Language, both in education and in society. Ofqual is currently running a public consultation on its proposed assessment arrangements and expects to confirm its decision on the qualification rules in autumn 2025.

In April, I wrote to the Minister for School Standards about the Angel Hill free school, which will provide 96 desperately needed places for children with SEND in my constituency. I thank her for her response in which she said that we would get an update shortly. I ask again: when does she expect construction of the Angel Hill free school in Rosehill to begin?

I thank the hon. Member for raising this important project. I can confirm that works at Angel Hill free school are expected to commence in September 2025 subject to the contract being awarded in August.