Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the proportion of students in the North East achieving grades 7 and above at GCSE in line with national averages.

The department remains committed to addressing regional disparities and levelling up education standards. The Schools White Paper, published in March 2022, set out a vision for a school system that helps every child fulfil their potential regardless of where they live.

The north-east and Yorkshire and Humber regions had the joint lowest proportion of entries at grade 7 and above (both 22.4%) in England. By comparison, London (32.6%) and the south-east (29.2%) have had the highest proportion of entries achieving grade 7 and above in England in 2022, which is a historic trend that has continued this year. However, between the north-east and all other regions excluding London and the south-east, there was only a small difference.

There are many issues that contribute to worse outcomes at key stage 4 in the north-east, such as disadvantage and school quality. The department has worked extensively to drive improvement in the north-east and will continue to do so. Opportunity North East (ONE) was a three-year programme from 2019 to 2022 that invested £12 million to improve secondary outcomes in the region. As a result of this investment, there are now more Good Ofsted rated secondary schools in the region. Across the north-east, the proportion of Good and Outstanding secondary schools has increased from 58% in 2018 to 71% this year.

The department is building on this success through further support in its Education Investment Areas (EIAs). 6 of the 12 local authorities in the north-east are EIAs: Darlington, Durham, South Tyneside and Sunderland, with Middlesbrough and Hartlepool also being Priority EIAs eligible for additional investment.