Educational Opportunities in Semi-rural Areas

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the matter of tackling barriers to educational opportunities in semi-rural areas.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward, and it is a privilege to secure this debate on behalf of young people in Hertford and Stortford, along with our school leaders, teachers and support staff. It is the honour of my life to represent the community where I grew up and where I call home, Hertford and Stortford. Ahead of today’s debate, I reflected on my journey through the education system. I did not follow a traditional route into politics; I left school at 17, dropping out of sixth form to work in Hertford town centre. I felt that traditional education was not for me and wanted to follow a different path, but I was left feeling directionless, struggling to connect with the right opportunity.

For too long, young people in semi-rural communities such as mine have been overlooked and the challenges that we face have been left unaddressed. Since my election, I have visited almost half of the 50 schools in my constituency. I have held two roundtable discussions with secondary headteachers here in Parliament, and I will shortly be hosting similar discussions with heads from local primary schools. There is no end to the ambition of our teachers to deliver a thriving education for our children, but I hear regularly from school leaders about the challenges they face in recruiting and retaining staff.

In semi-rural communities such as Hertford and Stortford, the high cost of living makes it difficult for primary schools to attract early-career teachers. This challenge is reflected across the education sector in our community. Spiralling house prices and a lack of single-person properties or starter homes for young families offer little incentive for early-career teachers to settle in our community and teach in our schools, which presents an acute challenge for communities like ours. Our secondary schools and sixth forms are key to connecting our young people with opportunity, and it has been a privilege to visit many of them and to welcome some of their students here to Parliament.

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. I share his concern about the lack of affordable housing for many school staff and other public sector professionals in southern England. It is a serious issue in my Reading constituency, despite the council working at pace to try to provide more council houses, so I hope we get to discuss this further.

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention; I completely agree that this presents an acute challenge in many semi-rural areas like ours.

Spiralling house prices and a lack of single-person properties are a real challenge, and our sixth forms and secondary schools are key to connecting our young people with opportunity. I have had many conversations with school leaders about the erosion of external services under the previous Government, which decimated services previously provided by the local authority, including mental health and family support services. This has left our teachers picking up the shortfall. They are now on the frontline of providing that essential support, taking on responsibilities well beyond their job description.

I know from my own experience that a traditional path through education is not always the right one, but a lack of post-16 provision in semi-rural communities can also hold young people back. I am proud that my community is home to Hertford regional college’s Ware campus, which I have had the pleasure of visiting a number of times since I was elected. However, it is the only further education college in my constituency, and I understand that Bishop’s Stortford is the largest town in the country without an FE college.

Similarly, limited access to apprenticeships, work experience and industry placement opportunities holds our young people back. That is a particular challenge for T-level students, whose placements have to be subject-specific, but it also applies to subjects such as digital, science and engineering. That lack of provision leaves many young people limited in choice and struggling to connect with the right opportunity for them.

I turn to three specific challenges facing semi-rural communities in Hertford and Stortford. The first is transport and connectivity. In Hertford and Stortford, the cost and frequency of public transport presents an ongoing barrier to our young people’s access to educational opportunities.

The hon. Gentleman is laying out well the challenges that all our young people face in accessing educational opportunities. My constituency, which is on the urban fringe of Greater Manchester, is the bridge between the centre of Stockport and High Peak. Many of my young constituents in the rural bits of Mellor, Marple Bridge and Strines are denied opportunities, particularly of further education, just because there are no bus routes to get them there. Does he agree that when we look at growth in our communities and our economy, we should think about access to education in semi-rural areas, and look at transport as an asset, not just a cost?

I agree. I often talk about public transport in terms of not just getting people to places but connecting people with opportunity. That is absolutely how it should function.

Issues around connectivity diminish the number of opportunities for our young people, making it harder for them to get to school and access work experience opportunities or apprenticeships. For many students, the extra activities outside the school day, such as clubs, trips or sports matches, are out of reach because they cannot get the buses they need to make it home safely. As we all know, those are the activities we remember most from school. They gave us the chance to develop our interests, explore culture, meet other students and expand our horizons. These opportunities should not be available only to those whose families can afford to drive them or pay for taxis.

Secondly, we know that young people are at the sharp end of the mental health crisis. I remember the challenges that my peers faced in accessing appropriate mental health support at school. When I speak to young people and school leaders today, they say that the situation has only got worse.

Isolation is a key driver of poor mental health. In a 2021 YoungMinds survey, a staggering 95% of children and young people from semi-rural areas cited feelings of loneliness and isolation. Child and adolescent mental health services in Hertfordshire are under huge pressure, leaving many young people facing long delays when trying to access desperately needed support. Schools are under huge pressure to keep young people safe and in school, but they are not always equipped to deal with mental health challenges such as emotional-based school avoidance, anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Thirdly, compounding the situation further, children living with special educational needs and disabilities face huge challenges, which are all the more acute in Hertfordshire, where only 40% of education, health and care plans were issued by the local authority within the statutory deadline in 2023, compared with 50% across England as a whole. That is largely due to a shortage of educational psychologists and a significant increase in the number of EHCPs and assessment requests. A shortage of specialist places leaves many children and young people waiting years for school places, and many SEND children are out of education for long periods.

This is only an hour-long debate, and lots of people want to speak, so we will have to have a time limit of three minutes on speeches. If we have interventions, not everybody will get in.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward. I congratulate the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean) on setting the scene. I want to give, as I always do, a perspective from Northern Ireland—I know that is not the Minister’s responsibility, but I think it adds to the flavour of the debate.

In Northern Ireland, barriers to education include financial pressures, lack of funding, declining pupil numbers and, as is so often the case, special educational needs. This is similar in other areas, but rural schools tend to be the smaller schools with the big heart—those who try extra hard to make things better. I can understand why education authorities and trusts are tempted to look at numbers as the bottom line, but rural school numbers and rural schools must be looked at differently, as the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford set out. According to the education strategy for 2022 to 2027, some 230 of the 800 primary schools in Northern Ireland have fewer than the recommended number of pupils. One primary school in my area has capacity for 95 pupils, but it could easily house perhaps another 10. We need to ensure that small schools—small by their nature—can survive, because they are vital to rural infrastructure.

In Northern Ireland, there is a further drive for integrated schools. My two eldest granddaughters attend such a school, and I was heartened that it was put in the peninsula. However, as a governor on the board of Glastry high school, I am also cognisant of the difference in funding that exists, when Glastry has long needed a building project and yet Strangford integrated college is in its new campus building already. Additionally, there is no issue if anyone wants to stay after school for sports or music in Newtownards, but if children live in the countryside, some will get a school bus at 7.15 in the morning and then cannot get one until 5.30 in the afternoon to get back home. That underlines the importance of schooling within the community.

It is a pleasure to serve under your esteemed chairmanship, Sir Edward. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean) for securing the debate and particularly for including the phrase “semi-rural” in the debate title. Often in this place we debate the issues facing rural and urban areas, but the specific challenges facing areas such as my constituency—whose towns and villages, although a little too compact and urban to be considered rural, are certainly not major towns or cities—are not always heard. However, they are being heard today, so I thank my hon. Friend for that.

One of the biggest challenges facing families in my constituency is securing a place at a primary school in—or even near—their community. In the Cannock area, 147 primary school applications were refused across 11 primary schools for September 2024—the figure will be even higher this September—and in neighbouring Rugeley, 17 were rejected. That means that over 160 families in my constituency were essentially told that there is no place for their child at a local school.

Similarly, Norton Canes primary academy in Cannock and Poppyfield primary academy in Hednesford each turned away 35 applications, which is more than a full classroom of children. This acute shortage of school places has been going on for at least six years, yet county councillors have not engaged in finding solutions and schools have been left in the dark. These are not just numbers; they represent real families, often with both parents working. Suddenly, they are forced to find alternative arrangements, often miles from home.

Cannock Chase has grown significantly over the last few years, which is certainly something to be proud of. After all, why would people not be drawn to such a fantastic area? But growth without planning leads to pressure, and in this case the pressure is being felt in our school admissions system. It is clear that local capacity has not kept pace with housing developments.

Does my hon. Friend agree that transport in rural and semi-rural areas can often be much more expensive than in urban areas, where it is subsidised to a far greater extent?

I absolutely agree, and my hon. Friend hits the nail on the head. Often, the premium in semi-rural areas is very real.

I will finish by saying that children and young people in the semi-rural communities that those of us here represent have just as much potential as those in rural and urban areas. I look forward to working with the Minister and the Government to make sure they finally realise that potential.

It is an honour to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Edward. Nowhere is it plainer that there are barriers to educational opportunity in semi-rural areas than in the part of Devon that I represent. Young people are held back not by any lack of talent or ambition—far from it—but by structural challenges in the recruitment of their teachers, in transport and in broadband access.

Let me start with what matters in every school: the teachers. According to the latest data from the Department for Education, Devon has 5,620 teachers across 372 state-funded schools, which is a drop of nearly 50 teachers in the last year. Last week, I met National Association of Head Teachers representatives in Devon, who talked about a recruitment and retention crisis.

However, there are positives. The University of Exeter is pioneering a new postgraduate certificate in education approach across the south-west. It has set up primary training hubs—rural local hubs—in Exeter, north Devon and Somerset. That model recognises that teachers often stay where they train and where they go to university, so this new approach is really quite positive.

I will turn now to digital connectivity, which is another barrier that disproportionately affects semi-rural areas. The online newspaper DevonLive reported in 2021 that poor internet connection was impacting children’s learning. Four years later, that has not changed. I have had correspondence from constituents in Furley, Kentisbeare and Colyton who have all reported unreliable broadband, slow speeds and frequent outages.

Problems with travel distances are particularly acute in counties such as Devon, which is said to be the third largest county by area. People live scattered many miles from colleges and education hubs, but over the past decade bus routes have been cut, costs have risen and the options for safely cycling and walking to school have become fewer.

Bolsover is one of only 15 constituencies in the whole of England to be without a sixth form. Our incredible and inspiring young people live in small towns and villages, and they have to rely either on parents to give them a lift or on barely existent public transport. One village, Morton, has just had its bus service cancelled, cutting it off entirely. Residents tell me that it is now impossible for young people to get to Chesterfield college.

The lack of a sixth form, combined with poor transport, means that far too many do not attend sixth form at all. In places such as Shirebrook, 7% of young people do A-levels, compared with 52% nationally. Across our constituency, fewer than one in four 18-year-olds go to university, and fewer than one in five have a degree—half the national average. The lack of sixth form provision is undoubtedly one of the main drivers of low aspiration and academic achievement. It sets our young people on a path to deprivation, poverty and poor health. It limits their earning potential and their opportunities in their professional and personal lives.

Bolsover has plans for a new sixth form, which the Department for Education, wonderfully, is considering. Access to further and higher education is essential to removing a preventable barrier to our incredible young people achieving their ambition. I call on the Minister to prioritise our young people, just like the last Labour Government prioritised my education, which meant that I could be here today. I want us to smash down barriers to opportunity and approve Bolsover sixth form.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward. I thank the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean) for securing this important debate.

It should not be controversial to say that children and young people deserve an equal start in life, regardless of whether they grow up in a city, suburb or small rural village, but for those growing up in semi-rural or rural constituencies such as West Dorset, there are persistent and systematic barriers that too often get overlooked in national policy.

Young people in rural areas rely heavily on public transport to reach school, college, apprenticeships or work, yet bus services in rural Dorset are disappearing. Dorset received just £3.8 million in Government funding for the bus service improvement plan—less than a third of what Devon received, and the lowest funding in the south-west. For too many families, that means there is no bus at all.

That matters when we consider that, in 2023, 64% of children in rural villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings had to get to school by car, compared with just 28% in urban towns and cities. The cost of that travel is often unsustainable, particularly at the moment, during a cost of living crisis. For poorer families, in particular, the lack of affordable, reliable transport directly limits access to education.

Young people also need safe options to travel independently, but in rural areas that is often not possible. Although we need active travel and cycle to work and school schemes, we cannot ignore the fact that cycling on rural roads is disproportionately dangerous. Statistics show that cyclists are nearly twice as likely to be killed on rural roads than on urban ones.

Transport is only part of the picture. Children’s mental health matters too. In Dorset, CAMHS provision is centralised in one location—Dorchester. For a family living in Lyme Regis or Beaminster, that can mean travelling between 25 and 35 miles for help. That is not good enough. Poor mental health affects a child’s appetite to learn, make friends and participate in class. It can shape their entire educational experience.