Contributions
462 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Kinship Care StrategyVery briefly, because I do not have much time to get through everybody’s points.06 Mar 2024HANSARD Kinship Care StrategyIt is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I cannot possibly do justice to the debate and all the points that were raised, and certainly not to the fantastic…06 Mar 2024HANSARD Kinship Care StrategyWe have not announced the local authorities, so let us do that bit first. Members asked why we are starting with the particular subset of children who have special guardianship…06 Mar 2024HANSARD Kinship Care StrategyI will write to the hon. Lady about that because it is a longer answer than the 30 seconds I have before the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire winds up. We are proud of the…06 Mar 2024HANSARDEducational Attainment of BoysIt is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Paisley. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Nick Fletcher) on securing a debate on this important…05 Mar 2024HANSARDEducational Attainment of BoysUnfortunately, I was not, although the plans were indicated to me. Attendance is obviously fundamental. Ensuring children reach their potential requires them to be in school,…05 Mar 2024HANSARDEducational Attainment of BoysI thank my hon. Friend for that intervention; I was not aware of that statistic. I absolutely agree with him about the importance of libraries and of children reading. When I…05 Mar 2024HANSARDEducationMy right hon. Friend is absolutely right. This is a highly competitive training scheme. Between 2017 and 2019 the Department filled all 160 of its funded training places per year,…08 Feb 2024HANSARDEducationMy right hon. Friend is absolutely right. This is a highly competitive training scheme. In 2018 and 2019 the Department filled all 160 of its funded training places per year, and…08 Feb 2024HANSARDSEND Provision: Uxbridge and South RuislipIt is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Steve Tuckwell) on securing the debate. The…07 Feb 2024HANSARD Nursery Provision: South-west EnglandIt is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Sharma. I congratulate the hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport (Luke Pollard) on securing a debate on this…06 Feb 2024HANSARDEducationOf course, mental health challenges underpin some of the absence—something raised by the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Emma Hardy), among others. That is why…31 Jan 2024HANSARDEducationThere were 380,000 fewer pupils persistently absent or not attending in the past academic year, and in the last academic term overall absence was down to 6.8%, from 7.5% in the…31 Jan 2024HANSARDEducationThere were 380,000 fewer persistently absent pupils in the past academic year, and in the last academic term overall absence was down to 6.8%, from 7.5% in the autumn term the…31 Jan 2024HANSARDEducationOf course, mental health challenges underpin some of the absence—something raised by the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Emma Hardy), among others. That is why…31 Jan 2024HANSARDEducationAs my right hon. Friend the Schools Minister said, the motion conflates two separate things: the issue of persistent absence, which is when pupils miss 10% or more of their…31 Jan 2024HANSARDEducationAs my right hon. Friend the Schools Minister said, the motion conflates two separate things: the issue of persistent absence, which is when pupils miss 10% or more of their…31 Jan 2024HANSARDEducationI set out in my statement the additional money that we had given to the sector in the last financial year and this one to help it to meet those cost pressures—that was anchored to…30 Jan 2024HANSARDEducationWe set our rates by conducting a survey of 9,000 providers, in order to understand the costs they face and set the rates accordingly.30 Jan 2024HANSARDEducationThe hon. Gentleman raises an important point about the increased cost pressures that everybody has to face. That is why we gave an additional £204 million in the last financial…30 Jan 2024