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Written question asked by Catherine McKinnell (Labour) on Thursday, 23 October 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 October 2025. It was answered by Josh MacAlister (Labour) on Monday, 3 November 2025 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Turing Scheme: Schools

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support schools in disadvantaged areas with applications to the Turing scheme; and what assessment she has made of the trends in the level of concern that the current design of the application process incentivises schools to outsource applications to profit-making enterprises.

Answer

In order to support schools, especially those in disadvantaged areas, the department provided guidance and webinars to enable potential applicants to find out more about the Turing Scheme, what it could offer their students and how to make their application. Since bringing management of the Turing service in-house for the 2024/25 academic year, in response to feedback from the education sector, the department introduced a streamlined digital application service that was co-designed. The service also includes simplified and shorter guidance and a grant calculator tool to help providers work out how much funding to apply for.

It is up to schools to decide whether they choose to use a third party to support them with an application or scheme administration. However, they cannot use Turing Scheme funding towards the cost of appointing an external organisation to write their application.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
84598
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Disadvantaged Applications Schools Turing scheme
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk