Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government (1) whether they will publish their analysis of the impact of the introduction of the Sport Premium on promotion of the provision of physical education in primary schools and the details of how they have held primary schools accountable for spending the Sport Premium; (2) how many primary schools have benefited from the Sport Premium; and (3) whether they will list those schools which have failed to meet their guidelines for funding.

Through the primary physical education (PE) and sport premium, the Department for Education is providing over £450 million of ring-fenced funding across three academic years, until academic year 2015/16, to improve PE and sport. The independent research company, NatCen, is evaluating the impact, and assessing schools’ use of the premium. A research brief was published in September 2014, reporting an improvement in PE teaching in over 90% of cases. The interim report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pe-and-sport-premium-an-investigation-in-primary-schools, and the full report will be published in autumn 2015.

Schools are held accountable for the way in which they spend their funding through Ofsted whole-school inspections. They are required to publish online reports detailing their spending plans and the impact of the primary PE and sport premium. Ofsted has strengthened its coverage of PE and sport, to ensure that all primary school inspections report on the extent to which the school is effectively using the premium to improve the quality and breadth of PE and sport provision.

The premium has been allocated to approximately 18,000 schools in academic year 2014/15. Information on the extent to which individual schools meet the conditions of the premium will be made public through Ofsted’s reporting on schools following section five inspections.