Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress her Department has made on implementing the policies in the Schools White Paper.

The Department remains committed to raising the attainment of all pupils. The Department is committed to its ambitions that by 2030, 90% of children will achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of primary school. Additionally, in secondary schools, the national GCSE average grade in both English language and in mathematics will increase from 4.5 in 2019 to 5.

In the 2022 Autumn Statement, the Government announced an extra £2 billion of funding for schools over each of the next two financial years (2023/24 and 2024/25), over and above totals announced at the Autumn and Budget Spending Review 2021.The additional funding will enable headteachers to continue to concentrate funding in the areas that encourage educational attainment.

Progress to date on implementing the White Paper includes establishing Oak National Academy as an arm’s length body in September 2022 to provide high quality, adaptable and optional support. Oak reduces workload for teachers and enables pupils to access a high quality curriculum. The Department has introduced a fully funded new suite of National Professional Qualifications to support teacher development, based on the best available research and evidence. The Department is also delivering support to the 55 Education Investment Areas and 24 Priority Education Investment Areas.

The White Paper was clear about delivering a vision for a school system that delivers results for pupils, especially for the most vulnerable young people. The pupil premium helps fund evidence based, targeted interventions, as well as broader improvements that will benefit these pupils and help to raise their attainment. Pupil premium rates will increase by 5% for 2023/24, a £180 million increase from 2022/23, taking total pupil premium funding to £2.9 billion. The Department has made almost £5 billion available to support recovery for children and young people, including nearly £2.5 billion in targeted funding towards the most disadvantaged. This funding includes the Recovery Premium and the creation of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP). As of 6 October 2022, nearly 3 million tutoring courses had started through the NTP since November 2020.