Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his Department’s policies of the Children’s Commissioner's report, Growing Up North, Look North: A generation of children await the powerhouse promise, published on 26 March 2018.

The Children’s Commissioner’s Growing Up North covers a wide range of areas which relate to the education and life experiences of a wide range on children and regions. This is an area which we are already focussing on and we are determined to create an education system that offers opportunity to everyone, at every stage of their lives.

We are taking forward key actions from the ‘Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy’, including the independent review of schools in the north undertaken by Sir Nick Weller, Chief Executive of Dixon’s Academy Trust in Bradford. The strategy commits government to working with the regions and the sector on plans to design, fund, and test a range of approaches to attracting and retaining high-quality teachers in the north, including in Opportunity Areas.

The Opportunity Areas programme will not only create opportunities for young people in social mobility ‘coldspots’ across the country, but will ensure that best practice will be spread wider to more schools to ensure all young people get the opportunities they deserve. Seven of the twelve Opportunity Areas are in the north and the midlands (Blackpool, Bradford, Doncaster, North Yorkshire Coast, Oldham). We are targeting local and national resource in these areas to drive improved outcomes and social mobility for the children and young people who live there.

The government committed £70 million to raise education standards in the north and we have taken forward this strategy through programmes such as £5 million to build multi academy trust and sponsor capacity and £11.5 million of funding on designing, funding, and testing approaches to attract and retain teachers in the north. Through this funding we are supporting our best teacher trainer providers, including top multi academy trusts, to expand their reach in to challenging areas in the north and are providing £12 million to establish a network of English hubs with a specific focus on improving early language and literacy. Our expansion of Maths Hubs will spread excellence in maths teaching and a £5 million investment to trial evidence-based home learning environment support programmes in the north will provide a focus on early language and literacy.