Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of students with Turing grants who are eligible for free school meals attend an independent school.

The Turing Scheme is the UK Government’s global programme for students to study and work abroad. The Turing Scheme provides additional funding to students from disadvantaged backgrounds to help them to participate in international placements. All students from disadvantaged backgrounds can get funding for travel-related costs. This includes visa application fees, vaccines, medical certificates, passports, and related travel insurance. Students with special educational needs and disabilities can also get funding for their support needs.

Schools identify students from a disadvantaged background using the following criteria:

• Someone with an annual household income of £25,000 or less.
• Someone who has been entitled to free school meals (FSM) at any point in the past six years because of being in a low-income household.
• Someone with experience of being in care or who is a care leaver, including anyone who is or has been in care or from a looked after background at any stage of their life.
• A refugee or an asylum seeker.
• Someone who is receiving Universal Credit or income related benefits themselves, or lives with someone who does.

Receiving FSM in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England or primary 1 to 5 in Scotland does not automatically meet the criteria for funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This list is not exhaustive. If a school identifies pupils who do not precisely meet these criteria but share similar characteristics which justify extra support, they may include them in their application.

As the department does not gather data on which criteria students meet to be considered as being from a disadvantaged background, the department is not able to provide a breakdown of the number of participants in the Turing Scheme who are in receipt of FSM.