Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of top sixth form schools in the Central London area that are available to girls.

Across inner London there are 60 state funded schools with sixth forms and further education colleges which are rated Outstanding by Ofsted. Of these, 45 are accessible to boys and 54 accessible to girls[1].

Local authorities have broad duties to encourage, enable and assist young people to participate in education or training. This includes securing sufficient suitable education and training provision for all young people in their area who are over compulsory school age but under 19, or up to age 25 for learners with an education, health and care plan.

The government’s free schools programme has opened eight 16-19 free schools in inner London with places available to female students and a further 21 mainstream free schools that have 16-19 places. All of these schools that have been inspected to date have been judged Good or Outstanding by Ofsted. This includes the London Academy of Excellence in Newham, a 16-19 free school judged Outstanding by Ofsted, which in the 2020/21 academic year had 57% female students. Proposals for approving further free schools will be set out in due course.

Nationally, capital funding of £83 million has also been made available in the 2021/22 financial year to existing post-16 providers, including sixth form colleges, to enable them to accommodate the demographic increase in 16-19 year olds.

[1] Some single sex schools may have mixed sixth forms. This is not reflected in the figures provided above.