Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children from low-income families have the same level of access to (a) high-quality education and (b) a range of options for schools as those from higher-income families.

Too often opportunity for children and young people is defined by their background. The Opportunity Mission will break the link between young people’s background and their success, ensuring family security and providing the best start in life, with all children achieving and thriving and building skills for opportunity and growth.

High and rising standards in every school is at the heart of the mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances for every child, no matter their background.

The department has moved quickly to start driving up school standards by beginning work to recruit an additional 6,500 expert teachers and has launched an independent, expert-led curriculum and assessment review to deliver our ambition for every child and young person to study a curriculum which is rich and broad, inclusive and innovative.

From early 2025, our new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams will drive higher standards, supporting all state schools by facilitating networking, sharing best practice and empowering schools to feel they can better access support and learn from one another.

At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs for the 2025/26 financial year. This means that overall core school funding will total almost £63.9 billion in the 2025/26 financial year.

Admission authorities for all mainstream, state-funded schools must comply with the statutory School Admissions Code. The Code is clear that admission authorities must ensure that their admission arrangements are fair, clear and objective, and that they will not disadvantage unfairly, either directly or indirectly, a child from a particular social group. Admission authorities can choose to give priority within their oversubscription criteria to children eligible for pupil premium funding, where this is appropriate in the local circumstances.

The government is proposing to legislate on requiring all schools to cooperate with the local authority on school admissions and place planning. As part of this, the department will also consider any wider changes necessary to ensure fair access to school for all. Any changes to the Code will require a statutory process, including a full public consultation and parliamentary approval.