Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) financial support and (b) guidance his Department provides to state schools on the provision and expansion of extra-curricular activities before, during and after school.

The Department is committed to ensuring young people have access to high-quality extra-curricular opportunities.

This is why we support a range of initiatives to expand access to high quality extra-curricular activities through schools, such as:

• working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to offer the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award to all state secondary schools in England
• working in partnership with the Ministry of Defence to help achieve the Government ambition of having 60,000 cadets in school cadet units by 2024
• investing £19 million per year over the next three years to support schools to open their facilities to increase opportunities for sport and physical activity outside of the school day (evenings, weekends and school holidays)
• investing up to £24 million to continue the Department’s national schools breakfast programme for the next two years
• investing over £200 million a year in the Department’s holiday activities and food programme which provides free holiday club places to children on benefits-related free school meals, as well as other vulnerable children, giving them a chance to enjoy extra-curricular activities and healthy meals during the longer school holidays.

To support schools, the Department has produced a new menu of evidence-based approaches which will help schools to make effective decisions about pupil premium and recovery premium spend. This will help schools to balance their funding across high-quality teaching, targeted academic support, and wider strategies, including those focused on extra-curricular activities such as sports, outdoor activities, arts, culture, and trips.

The Department is looking to build on this foundation, going further to improve access to high-quality extra-curricular activities. The Department is exploring whether it can provide further guidance that will be helpful to schools, ensuring they can navigate the resources available to develop their extra-curricular offer and make these activities a success. We are also working with DCMS to help schools ensure their pupils are getting the most out of the National Youth Guarantee, ensuring that children and young people have offers available both inside and outside of school.