The department currently has the highest number of teachers on record. There are now over 468,000 full time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000, or 6%, since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.

Last year, the department accepted in full the School Teacher Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award, which is the highest pay award for teachers in over thirty years. This means that over two years, teacher pay is increasing by more than 12% on average and means the department has delivered its manifesto commitment of a minimum £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions of the country.

The department has put in place a range of measures, including increased bursaries worth up to £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth up to £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.

The department is also offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 after-tax for eligible mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their career who work in disadvantaged schools. For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is doubling the rates of the Levelling Up Premium. Six schools in Wellingborough are eligible for payments of up to £5,000 after-tax under this scheme.

The department has also established three Teaching School Hubs near Wellingborough: the Northamptonshire Teaching School Hub, the Chiltern Teaching School Hub and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Teaching School Hub. More information can be found at the following web addresses: https://www.northamptonshireteachingschoolhub.org/, https://www.teaching-school.co.uk/, and https://www.cptshn.co.uk/. More information can be found at the following web addresses: https://www.northamptonshireteachingschoolhub.org/, https://www.teaching-school.co.uk/,

These school-based centres of excellence deliver Initial Teacher Training (ITT), the Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications and provide Appropriate Body services for the induction of early career teachers. More information on the induction of early career teachers can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/induction-for-early-career-teachers-england . Together, these ensure that new teachers in Wellingborough will benefit from at least three years of evidence-based training, across ITT and into their induction.

The department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing and support schools to introduce flexible working practices.

On flexible working in particular, the department has established a series of Flexible Working Ambassador Multi-Academy Trusts and Schools (FWAMSs) throughout the country which support school leaders to implement and embed flexible working in their schools. Wellingborough’s named FWAMS is Lapal School of Hales Valley Trust. Further information can be found on the ‘Flexible Working in Education’ website, here: https://www.flexibleworkingineducation.co.uk/about-fwams.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

​​​​The department recognises the importance of oracy, which is why spoken language is part of the national curriculum for English for 5 to 16 year olds.

In early years, the department is investing up to £17 million in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention, improving the language skills of reception age children who need it most following the pandemic. In addition, the department have secured over £28 million to support the speech and language of young children worst affected by the pandemic, today’s 3 and 4 year olds, delivered through the new Family Hubs network.

In secondary schools, the GCSE English Language qualification ensures that students are able to listen to and understand spoken language and use spoken Standard English effectively. 2023 data published by Ofqual shows that overall entries to GCSE English Language increased by 4.9% in summer 2023, compared to summer 2022. This data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/provisional-entries-for-gcse-as-and-a-level-summer-2023-exam-series/provisional-entries-for-gcse-as-and-a-level-summer-2023-exam-series#gcse-entries.

The department funds the National Poetry Recitation Competition, which encourages both primary and secondary schools to participate to improve pupils’ knowledge and enjoyment of poetry and to improve oracy through poetry recitation and recall. The competition provides an opportunity for pupils to enjoy sharing poems aloud.

The £67 million English Hubs Programme, launched in 2018, is dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, with a focus on phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. Since its launch, the English Hubs Programme has provided appropriate and targeted support to several thousands of schools across England.

Wellingborough’s local English Hub, Roade English Hub, is working hard to engage and support primary schools across the region. Currently, 45 schools are receiving intensive partner school support from Roade English Hub. This is in addition to the 32 schools that have already graduated from the programme.

Arts Council England is responsible for collecting and publishing information about each of the Music Hubs. This information is about the music education activity the Hubs provide or support and does not include information on what schools provide without the support of the hub.

The Wellingborough constituency is served by Northamptonshire and Rutland Music Education Hub, including providing opportunities to learn an instrument, including through whole class ensemble teaching.

In 2022/23, 59.4% of schools were supported with whole class ensemble teaching and the Hub delivered or supported lessons to 8,205 pupils in small group tuition, 568 pupils in individual lessons, and 710 pupils as part of large group lessons. In addition, 2,367 pupils participated in Hub-led or Hub-supported ensembles and group activity, and instruments were loaned to 219 schools during 2022/23.

The 2022/23 data was published on Monday 20 May and can be accessed on their website. The link to the website is: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/MusicEducationHubs/music-education-hubs-survey-and-data#t-in-page-nav-2.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The department publishes annual statistics on the number of pupils at state-funded schools in England who are eligible for free school meals (FSM). The most recent figures are for January 2023, available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2022-23.

21.7% of pupils at state-funded primary schools and 19.0% of pupils at state-funded secondary schools in Wellingborough were eligible for FSM as of January 2023.

The latest available Pension Credit take-up statistics cover the financial year 2021 to 2022 and are available at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year ending 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). However, these statistics are only available at Great Britain level and cannot be broken down to smaller geographical areas.

The information requested is not available.

The Government is committed to tackling waste crime, which is a blight on our local communities and the environment and damages legitimate businesses. We have strengthened regulators' powers, are tightening the law and have increased the Environment Agency's budget by £10 million per year to make it harder for rogue operators to find work in the sector and easier for regulators to take action against criminals. We are also providing grants to councils across the country to help them purchase equipment to tackle fly-tipping. North Northamptonshire council has been awarded £25,176 in the recently announced third round of the Fly-tipping Intervention Grant scheme.

Waste crime in the constituency is addressed at several partnerships, the Northants Waste Enforcement Group, North Northamptonshire Community Safety Partnership and the Acquisitive and Rural Crime Group. All partnerships are linked on serious waste crime and fly-tipping by attendance of the same Environment Agency officer. This ensures information and intelligence is shared effectively.

Engagement and information sharing directs where collaboration is most needed at any time in the county. Wellingborough is also covered by the Northants Project Plutus Partnership, the first in England to identify waste crime as a priority for cash-based money laundering. Project Plutus information sharing led directly to an Environment Agency-led intervention with Police and North Northants Council stopping a large-scale illegal waste operation that had potential to impact neighbouring Wellingborough. This is a significant investigation due to go to trial.

The highly effective Operation Clean Sweep multi-agency days of action have been taking place in the Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire Environment Agency area. The intention is for the Environment Agency to extend this into North Northamptonshire and, when required, into Wellingborough.

Information on the school workforce, including subjects taught in state-funded secondary schools, is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

The total number of hours taught for each subject are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/e2daf3ac-54a6-4b06-16e6-08dc75fe4005.

The proportion of those hours that were taught by teachers without a relevant post A level or higher level qualification are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/53228608-dd97-4fc0-0b82-08dc74c3bb80.

Timetabled teaching is reported for a typical week in November, as determined by the school. It does not cover an entire year of teaching. If there are variations in timetabling across the year, this is not covered in the data available to the department.

Subject taught is only collected from secondary schools that use electronic timetabling software that can produce data in the format required. Data is then weighted to provide national totals. Breakdowns by local authority and parliamentary constituency are not available.

Information on the school workforce, including the pupil to adult and pupil to teacher ratios at national, regional, local authority and individual school level, is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

As of November 2022, which is the latest data available, there were record numbers of full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England at over 468,000. This is an increase of 27,000, equivalent to 6%, since 2010. This makes the highest number of FTE teachers since the School Workforce Census began.

The table below provides the pupil to adult ratio and the pupil to teacher ratio for state-funded secondary schools in Wellingborough constituency and England for the 2019/20 to 2022/23 academic years.

Pupil to adult and pupil to teacher ratios for state-funded secondary schools in Wellingborough constituency and England, by year
2019/20 and 2022/23¹

Source: School Workforce Census.

1. Workforce data as at November and pupil data as at the following January. For instance, 2019/20 relates to November 2019 workforce and January 2020 pupils.

2. There are 6 secondary schools in Wellingborough constituency.

3. Pupil to adult ratio includes teachers and support staff (excluding auxiliary staff).

4. Pupil to teacher ratio includes all teachers.

5. The ratios are calculated using pupil numbers taken from the publication, Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.

In recognition that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK, including those in vulnerable circumstances, the government legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to establish a new legislative framework to protect access to cash. This establishes the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash and provides it with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities. As part of this responsibility, the FCA must also seek to ensure that there is reasonable provision of free withdrawal and deposit facilities in relation to personal current accounts.

Following this legislation, the government published a Cash Access Policy Statement. This set out that the vast majority of people should be no further than 1 mile from access to cash deposit and withdrawal services in predominately urban areas, and no further than 3 miles in predominately rural areas. The FCA is required to have regard to this statement when exercising its access to cash powers.

The FCA recently held a consultation on its proposed regulatory approach: FCA Access to Cash Consultation. The FCA is currently considering feedback and expects to publish its final rules in the third quarter of this year.

Decisions to open or close a branch are commercial and the Government does not make assessments of these closure decisions. Nonetheless, it is imperative that banks and building societies recognise the needs of all their customers, including those who need to use cash or in-person services. The Government is monitoring the wider situation closely.

The Government legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to introduce a new legislative framework to protect access to cash. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must seek to ensure that there is reasonable provision of free withdrawal and deposit facilities in relation to personal current accounts. Upon the closure of a core cash service such as a bank branch, LINK assesses the community’s access to cash needs. If additional cash services are needed, industry will provide a shared solution such as a Banking Hub.

Guidance from the FCA sets out its expectation of firms when they are deciding to reduce their physical branches or the number of free-to-use ATMs. The FCA’s guidance is clear that firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs, and put in place alternatives, where this is reasonable. Alternative options to access everyday banking services can be via telephone banking, through digital means such as mobile or online banking and via the Post Office or Banking Hubs.

UK Finance have recently confirmed 225 Banking Hubs will be announced by the end of 2024, up from the 130 locations currently confirmed. Furthermore, following my recent discussions with the UK high street banks, participating firms have also committed to improving Hubs by standardising the services available between firms, ensuring that customers will not require their own digital device to bank, trialling a ‘customer liaison service’ and trialling Saturday openings.

Over the previous two years, the government has provided support to help households with the cost of living totalling over £90 billion.

To help those on the lowest incomes with debt, at Spring Budget 2024 the government also removed Debt Relief Order fees and doubled the Budgeting Advance Loan repayment period.

The government continues to pursue an ambitious policy agenda to increase growth and productivity across the economy. This includes cuts to National Insurance, a business rates package worth £4.3bn over five years supporting small businesses and the high street, and wider measures supporting SMEs such as actions to encourage prompt payments. The government continues to go further in supporting small businesses, and at Spring Budget announced the raising of the VAT registration threshold to £90,000.

Over the previous two years, this government has provided support to help households with the cost of living totalling over £90 billion.

For the coming year, the government has increased working age benefits by 6.7%; maintained the triple lock; raised Local Housing Allowance rates with an average gain of £800, extended the Household Support Fund and increased the National Living Wage by 9.8%. Further actions taken by the government in 2024-25 include: a rise in the National Living Wage (NLW) by 9.8% - ending low hourly pay for workers on the NLW, raising Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of market rents, uprating working-age benefits by 6.7%, freezing fuel duty, removing Debt Relief Order fees, and doubling the Budgeting Advance Loan repayment period.

In rural parts of constituencies like Wellingborough, the government is also providing support through the £110m Rural England Prosperity Fund. This is being invested in projects which boost productivity and create rural job opportunities. This includes farm businesses looking to diversify by opening a farm shop, a wedding venue or tourism facilities or improvements to village halls, pubs and other rural hubs for community uses.