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Written Question
Children: Disadvantaged
Tuesday 1st April 2025

Asked by: Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to address falling school readiness, following the findings of the Kindred Squared School Readiness Survey, published on 30 January.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The government welcomes the focus from the Kindred Squared School Readiness Survey. Preparing children for school should be a partnership between parents, early years settings and schools.

That is why this government has set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. We will measure our progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage profile assessment by 2028.

This is an increase from 67.7% currently and would mean an additional 40,000 to 45,000 children a year hitting developmental goals.

To achieve this milestone, we will:

  • Roll out government-funded childcare entitlements and support 3,000 new and expanded school-based nurseries, increasing the availability of high quality childcare places.
  • Offer sustained professional development and work with providers to help spread evidence-based programmes, such as Maths Champions, as part of comprehensive plans to drive high quality early education and care.
  • Ensure that the reception year sets children up for success, by rolling out evidence-based programmes that boost early literacy and numeracy skills, including the Nuffield Early Language Intervention.
  • Strengthen and join up family services to improve support through pregnancy and early childhood. This includes continuing to invest in and build up Family Hubs and Start for Life programmes to support early child health, parenting and home learning programmes, strengthen health visiting services for all families and improve early identification of special educational needs and disabilities.

We will continue to work closely with parents and teachers as we deliver our ambitious reforms to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.

Written Question
GCE A-level
Monday 8th April 2024

Asked by: Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what are the latest available data on the number and percentage of students who left school after their A-levels to go into work; and what percentage of them received (1) 100 UCAS points or above in their A-levels, and (2) 150 UCAS points or above in their A-levels.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)

The department publishes information on the sustained destinations of students after 16-18 study, broken down by the level at which they studied. The table below gives the latest data on the number and percentage of students who were deemed to be at the end of 16-18 study in 2020/21 (2021 leavers) and their sustained destination in the 2021/22 academic year.


This is for students studying at level 3 and the number and percentage that went on to sustain an employment destination.

The destinations data does not include information on students’ A level results or UCAS points. However, over three quarters of students who studied an approved level 3 qualification completed A Levels.

Sustained employment destinations of level 3 students from state-funded mainstream schools and colleges in England for the 2020/21 cohort of 16-18 leavers.

2021/22 destination year

Number of level 3 students completing 16-18 study

288,726

Number of level 3 students with a sustained employment destination

61,866

Percentage of level 3 students with a sustained employment destination

21.4%

  • Sustained employment destination: in order to count as a sustained destination, the student must have six months of continuous employment activity between October and March in 2021/22.
  • The way the department decides when a student is at the end of 16 to 18 study has changed for the 2020/21 (2021 leavers) and comparisons to previous cohorts should be treated with extreme caution.
  • Total state-funded mainstream schools and colleges covers all state-funded mainstream schools, academies, free schools, city technology colleges, sixth-forms and other further education sector colleges. Excludes alternative provision, special schools, other government department funded colleges and independent schools.