The latest January 2026 statistics on funded early education and childcare were published on 2 July and can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare/2026.

These statistics show an estimated 85% of eligible children aged 9 months to 4 years were registered for the working parent entitlement. However, as stated on the methodology page, it is not possible to calculate sub-national estimates for this measure due to data/sample size limitations.

This Government has supported the West Midlands Combined Authority to develop the West Midlands Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS), which covers Royal Sutton Coldfield. This brought local stakeholders together to agree priorities to help nature recover and support locally and nationally important species. The West Midlands LNRS will help groups and individuals target action with the most impact for biodiversity.

Discussions with Birmingham City Council regarding agri-environment schemes and developer-funded support to improve Sutton Park’s facilities and management, are helping restore biodiversity while managing increased recreational pressure from new housing developments.

The department recognises the incredible work and commitment of emergency and short-term foster carers in providing stability and support for children.

Foster carers play an essential role in children’s lives, and the department remains committed to strengthening support for them.

To achieve this, the department has launched a consultation on updated national standards and guidance for fostering. These standards apply across all fostering arrangements, including emergency, short-term, long-term, short-break and parent-and-child placements.

The standards set clearer expectations for fostering services to provide foster carers with high-quality training, support, multidisciplinary expertise and early intervention, helping to prevent placement breakdown and improve carer retention. They reinforce these expectations for short-break care, emphasising effective information-sharing and supporting relationships between carers, children and families to provide continuity across repeated stays.

Alongside this, the department is investing in the Mockingbird Family Model to expand access to enhanced support and peer networks for foster carers.

We want people in all corners and nations of the UK to feel the benefits of economic growth so we can raise living standards and ensure opportunities are felt everywhere. We have the right economic plan to do exactly that, particularly through devolution, investment and reform.

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act has put Mayoral Strategic Authorities on a statutory footing for the first time, cementing a base of devolved powers through the devolution framework. Royal Sutton Coldfield falls within West Midlands Combined Authority, which benefits from government funding. WMCA will receive at least £2.5 billion in funding for 26-27 to 29-30 through their integrated settlement.

They will also receive investment through the Transport for City Regions Fund, improving transport to the city hubs, investment in HS2, the £3 bus fare cap and investment from the British Business Bank, all of which will support growth in the area.

Royal Sutton Coldfield will also benefit from the Pride in Place programme, which will provide up to £20m over 10 years. The fund will target investment to communities that need it most, addressing the visible decline on high streets and the wider public realm. Local areas will be able to decide where to invest, including things like youth clubs, libraries, community grocers, cultural venues, and health and wellbeing services.

The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, including older people, should have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities to stay fit and healthy.

The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through DCMS’s Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding. Their ten-year Uniting the Movement strategy reinforces their commitment to increasing participation in sport and physical activity for those from under-represented groups, including older people.

Sport England also provides support for grassroots sport through the Movement Fund, which offers crowdfunding pledges, grants and resources to improve physical activity opportunities for the people and communities who need it the most, including older people.

As of 1 April 2026, there were 102 public EV chargers in Sutton Coldfield. To build on this, the West Midlands Combined Authority has received over £18 million to deliver additional local charging infrastructure through the Local EV Infrastructure Fund.

The Government recognises hospitality as a vital foundation sector, supporting millions of jobs, driving local economies (including in Royal Sutton Coldfield) and sustaining high streets and communities across the UK.

The Government has taken a number of fair and necessary decisions to fix the public finances, including the changes to employer NICs. A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy, including on businesses.

The Government has also published an impact assessment on the 2026 National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates.

The Government continues to engage with businesses and representative bodies, including from the hospitality sector. Later this year we will bring forward a new High Streets Strategy.

The department has published the Schools’ Costs Technical Note, outlining its national-level affordability forecasts and including data on non-staff expenditure, such as energy. This year’s publication and historical editions are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-costs-technical-note.

Schools can access government support with their non-staff costs through the Maximising Value for Pupils programme, which provides tangible support such as the department’s Energy for Schools service and our free Banking Comparison Tool.

Energy is one of schools’ largest non-staff costs. Through the Energy for Schools service, our benchmarking report shows that a typical primary school could save around £2,500 on electricity and £2,400 on gas each year. For secondary schools, those figures rise to around £12,600 on electricity and £10,600 on gas.

Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) are a successful employment support offer through which participants gain the skills and experience needed to move into work. Nearly 100,000 SWAPs were delivered in 2025/26, an increase of almost 15,000 on the previous year. We are expanding placements further as part of the Youth Guarantee, with an ambitious target of 115,000 SWAP starts in 2026/27.

Specific SWAP opportunities are driven by local labour market need and employer demand. In the Birmingham Local Authority area, which includes Royal Sutton Coldfield, there were over 4,000 SWAP starts last year, supporting recruitment across a broad range of sectors including administration, construction and logistics, among others.

Whilst nationally SWAP participation remains strong, with over 476,000 SWAPs starts across Great Britain up to March 2026, demand for SWAP provision is employer-led and responsive to changing labour market conditions. Therefore, it is difficult to estimate the number of people who will benefit from SWAPs specifically in Royal Sutton Coldfield over the next five years. However, DWP does publish data on the take-up of SWAPs and the movement into employment for individuals who start a SWAP. The number of SWAP starts is published by Local Authority area and by sector on a quarterly basis: Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) Management Information, April 2021 to March 2026 - GOV.UK

Further, evidence published in the Department’s 2025 SWAP Impact Assessment demonstrates the programme delivers positive employment outcomes. The assessment found that, for every 100 people starting a SWAP, around 13 more were in employment after two years compared with a similar group who did not participate. Participants also spent, on average, 90 additional days in employment over a 24‑month period.

DWP and Jobcentre Plus teams continue to work closely with employers across Birmingham and Solihull to maximise opportunities for residents and stand ready to support employers wishing to participate in SWAP provision.

The department is providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs). Rollout is delivered with the NHS through Integrated Care Systems, prioritising areas based on need, disadvantage and inequalities.

Six out of seven state-funded secondary schools in the Sutton Coldfield constituency were supported by an MHST in March 2025. We are going to be rolling out the programme to the 25 state-funded primary schools as part of the programme’s ongoing expansion across all schools and colleges in England by 2029/30.

Further data for 2024/25 can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision.

Latest coverage data as at end 2025/26 will be published in due course, projected to be 60% of pupils and learners nationally.

There is currently no national prostate cancer screening programme. The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is an independent scientific advisory committee which advises ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries on all aspects of population and targeted screening and supports implementation. They recently closed a consultation on their draft recommendation to:

• offer a targeted national prostate cancer screening programme to men with confirmed BRCA1/2 gene variants every two years, from 45 years old to 61 years old;
• not recommend population screening;
• not recommend targeted screening of black men;
• not recommend targeted screening of men with family history; and
• collaborate with the Transform trial team to answer outstanding questions on screening effectiveness for black men and men with a family history as soon as the trial data becomes available, and to await the results of the study to develop and trial a more accurate test than the prostate specific antigen test alone, to improve the balance of benefit and harm of screening.

The evidence that supports this draft recommendation can be found on the UK NSC prostate cancer recommendation page, at the following link:

https://nationalscreening.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/28/uk-nsc-opens-consultation-on-draft-prostate-cancer-screening-recommendation/

The Government is strengthening energy security by reducing dependency on volatile global fossil fuel markets and delivering a diverse, secure and clean energy system based on renewables and nuclear, backed up by a strategic reserve of gas supply to be used only when essential, which will benefit the country and the Hon. Member’s constituency.

For further detail I refer the Rt hon. Member to the answer I gave on 2 March to Question UIN 113858.

The Home Office directly funds a national to local network of specialist officers trained to investigate cyber crime and support local communities. This network includes funding, in partnership with the Police and Crime Commissioner, for a Local Cyber Crime Unit (LCCU) in West Midlands Police force.

The LCCU force PROTECT Officers provide localised support and advice to help individuals to improve their cyber security. Their work involves regularly delivering events for community, charity and faith groups with specific engagement with the elderly, including sessions on raising awareness on cyber crime and fraud, such as how to create strong passwords, how to spot phishing emails and fraudulent calls.

The Home Office also funds the Regional Cyber Crime Units (RCCUs) across England and Wales who are set up tackle cyber crime and the harm it causes citizens in the UK. Officers in the West Midlands RCCU work with local authorities and the NHS to train partners to spot the signs of people who may have been impacted by, or be a victim of, cyber crime.

Additionally, the City of London police and the National Cyber Security Centre co-ordinate campaigns that aim to target vulnerable people on how to protect themselves from both cyber crime and fraud, which has included work with AgeUK to help educate and support older people to stay secure online.

This government takes cyber crime extremely seriously and will continue to take the necessary steps to protect the public and support victims.

Through our National Health Service screening programmes, we can reduce mortality and morbidity from cancer in the population who appear healthy and have no symptoms, by detecting conditions at an earlier, more treatable stage. Each year, over 15 million people are invited for screening, with over 10 million taking up the invitation.

In Birmingham and Solihull, between 2022/23 and 2023/24 there has been an improvement of 4.93% in breast cancer screening uptake in 53 to 70 year old people.

In Sutton Coldfield, the breast screening is offered to all eligible cohorts in line with service specifications of the NHS Breast Screening Programme. In this constituency, uptake and coverage are stable and constituents can access screening at both static and mobile facilities. There is a dedicated focus on reducing health inequalities, supporting access, and informing eligible patients to actively take up their screening appointment and offer.

The breast screening service in Sutton Coldfield is currently undertaking a targeted text messaging initiative targeting eligible patients that have not attended their screening invitation. This includes the offer to rebook their screening appointment and a link to bilingual breast screening videos to support education and awareness. A follow-up text message survey is also being used to explore barriers to attendance and motivating factors, with insights informing ongoing service development.

Other initiatives to increase uptake in the area include:

• a dedicated general practice toolkit to support and inform health promotion messaging;

• a breast screening resource pack for care homes to support staff in promoting screening awareness and facilitating uptake amongst eligible residents; and

• a cancer bus initiative promoting a range of services including breast cancer screening.

As part of a broader strategy to improve quality of care and prevent unnecessary hospital admissions, the National Health Service is implementing various preventative services to support older people in maintaining their health and independence. For example, support for frailty through the NHS Toolkit, that helps general practitioners (GPs) identify and manage frailty in patients aged 65 years old and over, and preventative primary care interventions are being evaluated to improve functional ability and self-rated health for older people. The NHS 10 Year Plan aims to move care from hospitals into communities, bringing together health and care professionals to provide proactive care and prevention.

The Community Care Collaborative in Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System (ICS) has rolled out six new neighbourhood health hubs to date. These will bring together multi-disciplinary health and care professionals in each locality across Birmingham to provide easily accessible community-based care for individuals with frailty and long-term conditions.

The neighbourhood health hubs will host 11 new integrated neighbourhood teams (INTs) in Birmingham and Solihull ICS, with an aim to have teams across all 35 of its neighbourhoods by the end of 2026. The INTs provide a holistic response to an individual's care.

A recent evaluation of the first INT pilot teams to go live across the ICS shows a 31% reduction in GP appointments and fewer inpatient stays at acute hospitals.

The NHS offers several vaccinations for older adults to protect them from disease. This includes vaccination for flu, COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), shingles and pneumonia. These are delivered in the community primarily through general practice, with flu and COVID-19 vaccinations also available at community pharmacies across England, and RSV vaccinations available at select community pharmacies in some areas including Sutton Coldfield and the wider Birmingham and Solihull region.

I refer the member to the answer given to UIN 94638 on 26 November 2025.

The Government has not estimated the number of homes in Sutton Coldfield that will be liable for the new HVCTS.

The High Value Council Tax Surcharge (HVCTS) will apply to owners of properties worth £2 million or above, ensuring those with the most valuable properties pay their fair share. The HVCTS will affect fewer than 1% of all properties across England.

We’re committed to helping pensioners with the cost of living and ensuring financial security in retirement. The State Pension is the foundation of income in retirement and will remain so. At Autumn Budget 2025 we announced that, in line with the government’s commitment to the Triple Lock throughout this parliament, over 12 million pensioners will benefit from a 4.8% increase to their basic or new State Pension in April 2026, increasing their income by up to £575 a year. This follows a substantial increase in 2025/26, with those receiving a full new State Pension getting a £360 boost.

The Pension Credit Standard Minimum Guarantee will increase by 4.8% in April 2026, from £227.10 to £238 a week for a single pensioner and from £346.60 to £363.25 a week for a couple, protecting the income of the poorest pensioners. Those in receipt of Pension Credit will also automatically receive the Cold Weather Payment alongside other benefits.

The Winter Fuel Payment will benefit over three quarters of pensioners for the duration of this parliament, targeting help to those on lower and middle incomes while ensuring fairness for pensioners and taxpayers.

To help with ongoing cost of living pressures, the government will remove around £150 on average off household energy bills across Great Britain from April 2026. By ending the Energy Company Obligation, we are taking some of the expensive legacy levies off bills.

We are expanding the Warm Home Discount to around an additional 2.7 million households. This means that from this winter, around 6 million low-income households will receive the £150 support to help with their energy bill costs. The Warm Home Discount regulations expire in 2026, and we will want to consider all options for future bill support beyond this point.

We are also providing support for low-income households through our Warm Homes Plan which will support investment in insulation and low carbon heating – upgrading millions of homes over this Parliament. At the recent Budget, we announced £1.5 billion in new funding to support households facing fuel poverty.

The vast majority of pensioners, around 9 million individuals, will benefit from Winter Fuel Payments this winter.

The Government has been clear that the Winter Fuel Payment should be means-tested on the basis of income. For higher income pensioners, those with an annual income of more than £35,000, the payment will be recovered via the tax system.

Estimates for winter 2025/26 are not available at the Parliamentary Constituency level.