Stephen Gilbert
Main Page: Stephen Gilbert (Liberal Democrat - St Austell and Newquay)Department Debates - View all Stephen Gilbert's debates with the Department for Education
(13 years, 1 month ago)
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Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)
As someone who benefited from free school meals, I welcome the focus that my right hon. Friend places on encouraging pupils from poorer backgrounds to stay in education. Does he recognise, however, that free school meals are not always taken up in rural areas and will he therefore ensure that it is eligibility, rather than take-up, that counts for access to the bursary?
Michael Gove
That is a really good point and I want to deal with this issue. It is not only in rural areas that take-up of free school meals is lower than eligibility: that is also the case among some black and minority ethnic groups. We want to ensure that such eligibility is increasingly used as a means of targeting disadvantage and we think that the introduction of the pupil premium, which I know my hon. Friend helped to design in opposition, will ensure that more students take up their entitlements.