Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the findings in the Education Endowment Foundations report on the socio-economic attainment gap; and if she will make a statement.

The Department welcomes the Education Endowment Foundation’s report and the contributions it has made to the Department’s understanding of key issues around pupil wellbeing and attainment following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Extended restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic meant that many children and young people missed out on large amounts of face to face education.

Helping children recover from the consequences of the pandemic is a key priority. The Department has made almost £5 billion available for a comprehensive recovery package to support children and young people to make up for education lost during the pandemic.

The Department is providing a package of training, qualifications, expert guidance, and targeted support for the early years sector to support child development and recovery from the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the youngest and most disadvantaged children.

The Department has funded the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI), which improves the language skills of Reception age children following the pandemic. The programme targets children needing extra support with their speech and language development, and is proven to help them make around three months of additional progress.

In February 2021, the Department announced a £22 million Accelerator Fund, which aims to scale up and spread effective literacy and numeracy programmes to ensure pupils have the best chance of catching up following the pandemic. The Department announced a £66 million extension to the fund for another 3 years. This will continue to develop and scale up the best-evidenced literacy and numeracy interventions.

In addition, the Department’s ongoing investment in English and mathematics curriculum hub programmes will support children to benefit from high quality teaching in early reading and maths respectively, including through phonics and Teaching for Mastery interventions.

This year, schools funding is £4 billion higher than last year and it will rise by another £3.5 billion, on top of that, next year. This is an increase of over 15% in two years. These increases will enable head teachers to continue to concentrate funding in the areas that positively impact educational attainment, including high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most, including those who are disadvantaged.

Schools continue to receive the pupil premium, worth over £2.6 billion this 2022/23 financial year, to enable them to provide extra support and improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.