The Government believes that music is an important subject and that all pupils should receive a high-quality music education. The subject is compulsory in the national curriculum up to age 14.

To support schools to deliver high quality music education for all their pupils, the Government has provided funding of over £300 million for music education hubs across England between 2016 and 2020, including £76 million in 2019-20, and further funding to support hubs with the additional costs under the teachers’ pension scheme. This is a significant increase over the £58 million we gave hubs in 2014.

The Government recently announced a further year’s funding for music hubs, to help thousands more children learn to play musical instruments, as well as continued support for a range of smaller music and arts programmes, totalling £85 million. We will also be offering an ‘arts premium’ of £90 million each year for secondary schools in England from 2021 to fund enriching activities for all pupils.

The North West region is served by ten individual music education hubs, which in the coming year will receive between them over £9.6 million in funding.

Merseyside is served by the Merseyside Music Education Hub Alliance, a conglomerate of music hubs based in Warrington and Halton, Sefton and Knowsley, Liverpool and St Helens. In the 2020-21, we will be providing these hubs with over £2 million of funding to continue to support the region’s schools to deliver high-quality music education. In 2016-17, the last year data for which data is available, these hubs provided individual lessons to over 2,400 pupils, small group lessons for over 5,800 pupils and whole class ensemble teaching to over 26,000 pupils. The hubs also supported or delivered 125 ensembles.

Wirral is served by the Musical Routes Music Education Hub. In 2020-21, the Government will be providing the hub with over £470,000 of funding. In 2016-17, the hub provided individual lessons to 850 pupils, small group lessons for over 1,200 pupils and whole class ensemble teaching to over 6,000 pupils. The hub also supported or delivered 25 ensembles.

The Government trusts that with the announced funding, the music education hubs in the North West will be able to continue their important work in supporting the schools in the region to deliver a high-quality music education for all their pupils.

The National Funding Formula commits extra funding for pupils with additional needs, based on levels of deprivation, low prior attainment, English as an additional language and mobility. This is because evidence shows that pupils with these characteristics are more likely to fall behind, and need extra support to reach their full potential. In 2020-21, £6.3 billion will be allocated in the National Funding Formula for 5-16-year olds with additional needs in England. Areas with high levels of additional needs will attract more funding.

Next year, primary schools and secondary schools in Wallasey will, on average, attract £4,328 and £5,813 per pupil respectively. This reflects a 4.1% increase in per pupil funding when compared to this year.

In Wirral, primary and secondary schools will, on average, attract £4,146 and £5,439 per pupil respectively next year. This reflects a 3.9% increase in per pupil funding compared to this year.

For the local authorities that make up the Merseyside area (Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral), this totals to a cash increase of £43.6 million in additional schools funding when compared to last year, which is a 4.3% increase in their total cash funding.

For the North West region, primary and secondary schools will, on average, attract £4,281 and £5,459 per pupil respectively. This reflects a 4.0% increase in per pupil funding compared to last year.

This information is not held centrally.

On 30 September, the Government announced a package worth £220 million to transform bus services.

We will shortly be seeking expressions of interest from local authorities and bus operators in developing an all-electric bus town or city. Up to £50 million will be invested to contribute to new buses and the supporting infrastructure.

We will also be seeking expressions of interest for the new £20 million fund for trialling on-demand services in rural and suburban areas.

The Government will also pay an extra £30 million directly to local authorities in 2020/21 to enable them to improve current bus services or to restore lost services.

The Government will fund a 4 year ‘Superbus’ pilot in Cornwall to bring down fares. We are also exploring whether a further pilot could be developed to decrease fares and improve frequencies in an urban area through the local authority and bus operators entering into a partnership to deliver a Superbus network. The local authority would provide capital investment in bus lanes and other bus priority measures, in exchange for the bus operators delivering high frequency services.

Further details of the package can be found online with the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-better-deal-for-bus-users/a-better-deal-for-bus-users

This data is not available. Services for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis are commissioned by local clinical commissioning groups. It is the responsibility of the local National Health Service commissioners to ensure NHS services are commissioned to meet local need and that they address any shortfalls in provision.

On 31 January, we announced a further eight Strategic Partnerships between Homes England and housing associations which will deliver an additional 11,676 affordable homes for £496.7 million of grant.

This takes our total to 23 Strategic Partnerships, which will deliver almost 40,000 additional affordable housing starts by March 2022.

In total, just over 6,000 affordable homes will be delivered across the North West through Strategic Partnerships. Given the flexibility on delivery we provide Strategic Partners, we are not able to break these down below regional areas.

All funding for Strategic Partnerships is from our £9 billion Affordable Homes Programme.

£250m of Bus Services Operators Grant (BSOG) payments are made to bus companies and local authorities. BSOG spend figures have been published on Gov.uk annually since the 2010-11 financial year. Details can be found via this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-services-grants-and-funding#bsog-spend

Up until 31 December 2013 Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) was paid directly to bus operators and was not split between commercially run or subsidised bus services. From 1 January 2014 local authorities have received funding equivalent to the level of BSOG which would otherwise have been paid to operators for running subsidised services in 2014. BSOG spend figures are only broken down to upper tier local authority level. It should also be noted that the local authorities listed in the tables are derived from the address given on the BSOG claim form. It does not follow that the services to which the claim relates were necessarily all or partly conducted in that area.

16 to 19 funding for all institutions including those in the North West, Merseyside and the Wirral is shown in the published allocations for each year, and allocations for the last 6 years from the period 2013 to 2014 onwards is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-education-funding-allocations#published-allocations.

Allocations for previous years are also available at the following link:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140107132325/https://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/executiveagencies/efa/funding/fundinga/b00204972/16-19-allocations. However, they cannot be directly compared on a like for like basis with later years as the funding system changed in 2013.

We have protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19 year olds for all types of providers until the end of the current spending review period in 2020. As with other areas of departmental spending, 16 to 19 funding for subsequent years will be agreed as part of the next Spending Review.

All 16 to 19 providers, including those in the North West, have a vital role to play in making sure young people have the skills they need. Our commitment to the 16 to 19 sector across England has contributed to the current record high proportion of 16 and 17 year olds who are participating in education or apprenticeships.

We are currently considering the efficiency and resilience of the further education sector and assessing how far existing funding and regulatory structures meet the costs of delivering quality further education. We will continue to look carefully at funding for the sector in preparation for the next Spending Review.

16 to 19 funding for all institutions including those in the North West, Merseyside and the Wirral is shown in the published allocations for each year, and allocations for the last 6 years from the period 2013 to 2014 onwards is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-education-funding-allocations#published-allocations.

Allocations for previous years are also available at the following link:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140107132325/https://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/executiveagencies/efa/funding/fundinga/b00204972/16-19-allocations. However, they cannot be directly compared on a like for like basis with later years as the funding system changed in 2013.

We have protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19 year olds for all types of providers until the end of the current spending review period in 2020. As with other areas of departmental spending, 16 to 19 funding for subsequent years will be agreed as part of the next Spending Review.

All 16 to 19 providers, including those in the North West, have a vital role to play in making sure young people have the skills they need. Our commitment to the 16 to 19 sector across England has contributed to the current record high proportion of 16 and 17 year olds who are participating in education or apprenticeships.

We are currently considering the efficiency and resilience of the further education sector and assessing how far existing funding and regulatory structures meet the costs of delivering quality further education. We will continue to look carefully at funding for the sector in preparation for the next Spending Review.

No specific assessment has been made of provision or patient population in Wirral or the north west. As with the vast majority of NHS services, the funding and commissioning of palliative and end of life care, is a local matter, over which individual National Health Service commissioners have responsibility. Local commissioners are best placed to understand the needs of local populations and commission services to meet those needs accordingly. The only exception to this are a small number specialist paediatric palliative care inpatient services, commissioned nationally by NHS England from eight centres across England as part of its remit to deliver specialised services.

Much of the routine palliative care patients receive will be provided either in outpatient or community settings, by nurses, community teams or general practitioners as part of general NHS services provision, rather than as an identified palliative care service. In such services, data are either not available or does not identify palliative treatment. In addition, social and voluntary sector organisations can provide additional support to patients at the end of life. Therefore, figures for the total cost of palliative care service for children nationally, or across local areas, is not available. Decisions regarding referral to local palliative care services will be made on the basis of clinical need.

The following table shows information regarding funding provided via the Children’s Hospice Grant to hospices in the North and in Wirral over the last eight years. Nationally, children’s hospices are receiving £11 million in 2018/19 through the Children’s Hospice Grant, which is awarded annually and administered by NHS England.

Notes:

- The children’s hospice grant programme provides a general contribution to the operating costs for hospices. It does not pay for actual services for patients in specified areas. Therefore, it is not possible to reconcile the grant payment to actual activity delivered within any geographical area. Neither does the grant pay specifically for specialised or non-specialised services as it is a general contribution.

- For this analysis for the grant figure for the North West includes Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria based hospices.

- The Wirral figure is for a single hospice.

- Local NHS commissioners also provide funding to children’s hospices which is a mixture of grant funding and activity based payments. Due to the low value of this funding this is not routinely recorded and so is not readily available.

- Local authorities also provide some funding to some hospices, but this information is not held by NHS England.