I would like to wish you, the House and everyone working in our education sector a happy new year. This month, along with the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, we will announce our comprehensive plan to reform children's social care. Soon after, we will bring forward our transformational improvement plans to support children with special educational needs. In February, Members are invited to join me in celebrating National Apprenticeship Week. Schools will receive their funding by April, which includes the £2 billion uplift announced at the autumn statement, bringing overall funding up by 15% in two years.

I take special educational needs very seriously, as does the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing. The hon. Member will be delighted with the improvement plan we are publishing very early in the new year, and it will be published soon.

I commend Hayley for her work. We are funding an additional 600 educational psychologists—200 in 2023 and 400 in 2024—to ensure access to early diagnosis.

Our spending on capital funding since 2015 has been £13 billion. We take school safety seriously and have asked schools to complete a questionnaire regarding reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. Summary findings from the condition data collection have already been published, with more detailed data planned for release shortly.

When Labour was in power for 13 years it did nothing on this issue. The Conservative Government expanded offers for two, three and four-year-olds. However, we are committed to increasing flexibility and affordability of childcare for parents.

Not only have we increased overall SEND funding by about 50% since 2019 but the number of specialist school places is also increasing. In reforms, we will set out national standards to improve their educational experience.

I always believe in constructive dialogue. The very first meeting I took as we welcomed in the new year was with all four main teaching unions, and I will be meeting them again later this week.

The initial teacher training reforms are a key part of the Government's commitment to levelling up. Following an expert review, a robust accreditation process was undertaken to approve 179 providers, including those in the north-east. I would be happy to meet with Peter Gibson to discuss his concerns.

High needs funding for Barnsley has increased by 12% year on year for 7 million for high needs provision capital from 2023-25.

The Under-Secretary of State has been working hard in partnership with the national implementation board and the wider sector to design a plan for reform. The group is small but I will ask my hon. Friend to take a look at ensuring it is representative.

We have met the target for PE teacher recruitment for most of the past 10 years. We have the school sport and activity action plan in place, with a new plan being worked on.

I am exercised about this issue; I speak to parents of children with SEND all the time. We are setting out more details in the implementation strategy shortly.

We are spending £30 million between 2021 and 2024 on the school breakfast programme, which offers free breakfast to children in disadvantaged areas.

Absolutely, early identification is key. We have been looking carefully at this in the implementation plan that I will be setting out shortly.

I pay tribute to Ian's work. I would love to look at that in more detail and speak to Emma Lewell further about what we can take forward.

I understand and agree with my hon. Friend about the importance of certainty over funding. The dedicated school grant allocations for 2023-24 were published in December 2022, including indicative allocations for the mainstream schools' additional grant, which will distribute the additional £2 billion of funding that was announced in the autumn statement.

Of course I would be delighted to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss the £276 million, along with other measures the Government have introduced, including the energy rebate and other support that we try to give students who are facing cost of living challenges.

I could not agree more with my right hon. Friend, and I share her passion, so I would be delighted to come and see the scheme in place in her constituency. We take reading very seriously; we have risen from joint 10th to joint eighth in the progress in international reading literacy study league tables, and in those surveys it is the least able children who are improving fastest.

As I said, we are spending £1.6 billion each year on free school meals, which is targeted at the most disadvantaged children, but schools are able to use their pupil premium funding, which is worth £2.5 billion a year to schools, if they wish to extend the coverage of free school meals to more pupils. As I said earlier, we extended free school meals to all pupils in infant schools in an early decision of the Conservative-led coalition Government.[Official Report, 23 January 2023, Vol. 726, c. 8MC.]

I do indeed congratulate that team; that is quite a hard thing to do and it is brilliant that they have been able to get that recommendation.

The hon. Lady will know that there is revised guidance; the new buildings bulletin has been issued after wide consultation and makes some changes to requirements for when sprinklers are to be installed in schools, particularly when the risk factor of the students in the school is high—for example, for children with special educational needs or residential schools.

I have been shocked and sobered by reading that report that the NUS was in essence a hostile place for Jewish students. That is not acceptable. The National Union of Students, the main body for students, should be a place that is not just safe but welcoming for Jewish students. The proof of the pudding with this report will be in the eating; I expect to see the changes and the recommendations implemented in full, and once that has occurred I will re-engage with the National Union of Students.