Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to reduce regional variations in standards of education.

We are improving the accountability framework to improve standards across the country. In addition, Ofsted has implemented a more rigorous inspection framework, with performance data being used to target inspections on the weakest schools and a recognition that any school less than ‘good' is not performing well enough.

From 2016 we will introduce new measures that focus on the progress made by every child aged between 4 and 19. By focusing on progress, we will be able to identify high- and low-performing schools more accurately. Primary schools will report pupils' progress between the age of 4 and 11 and the proportion reaching the demanding new standard at age 11. Secondary schools will be judged on pupils' attainment and progress between the age of 11 and 16 across 8 subjects, as well as the proportion of pupils achieving the English Baccalaureate, English and maths qualifications.

Some schools are still not performing well enough. We issued revised statutory guidance[1] to local authorities in May that makes very clear our expectations that they should take swift and robust action when maintained schools are performing poorly. This includes our expectation that their assessment should include the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and that poorly performing schools should become sponsored academies.

Finally, to address the unfair distribution of funding between local authorities, we propose to allocate an additional £350million to the least fairly funded local authorities in 2015-16. This is the biggest step towards fairer schools funding in over a decade, and we will be able to confirm how much each local authority will receive once we publish our final allocations later this summer.

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-causing-concern--2