Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress he has made on reducing the attainment gap between children receiving pupil premium funding and those not receiving it.

Enabling every child, irrespective of their background, to realise their potential at school has been the driving mission of the Department for Education since 2010. To this end, we have introduced a range of reforms to curriculum, teacher training, assessment and accountability, as well creating the pupil premium in 2011. The Department is spending more than £2.5 billion on the pupil premium in the 2021/22 financial year, meaning we will have invested more than £20 billion extra in our schools since its introduction so that they can provide additional support to disadvantaged pupils of all abilities. School leaders use this extra funding to tailor their support, based on the needs of their disadvantaged pupils, and focus on proven practice to improve outcomes, such as resources published by the Education Endowment Foundation.

A disadvantage gap index has been developed, that is unaffected by the Department’s widespread educational reforms. Between 2011 and 2019, the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils narrowed by 13% at age 11 and 9% at age 16, according to the disadvantage gap index, and most disadvantaged pupils now attend good or outstanding schools. The Department’s reforms, and the focus provided by the pupil premium, have supported this improvement.

In addition to protecting the pupil premium, the Department continues to support disadvantaged pupils and address the barriers to success that they face. In June 2020, as part of the £1 billion COVID-19 catch up package, we announced £350 million to fund the National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged students for the academic years 2020/21 and 2021/22. There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate pupil progress, and the Department wants to extend this opportunity to disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils. The programme provides additional, targeted support for those children and young people who have been hardest hit from disruption to their education because of school closures. Teachers and school leaders should exercise professional judgement when identifying which pupils would benefit most from this additional support.

On 24 February, the Department announced a £700 million education recovery package, building on the £1 billion from last year. As well as a range of measures to support all pupils to recover lost education, the package includes significant funding aimed at addressing the needs of disadvantaged pupils. This includes a new one off £302 million Recovery Premium, which includes £22 million to scale up proven approaches, for state funded schools in the 2021/22 academic year. Building on the pupil premium, this grant will further support pupils who need it most. Allocations will reflect disadvantage funding eligibility and will have additional weighting applied to specialist schools, recognising the significantly higher per pupil costs they face.

The Government has also invested over £400 million to support vulnerable children in England to continue their education at home. To date, over 1.3 million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, academy trusts, local authorities and further education colleges.