Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish their evaluation of their pilot education funding programme for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children and proposed next steps; and what assessment they have made of the connection between (1) the adequacy of educational provision and funding for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children, and (2) their statistics for children missing education for the academic year 2022─23, which show that 10 per cent of children missing from education are from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families.

The £1 million Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) Gypsy Roma and Traveller (GRT) Education Areas programme enabled five local authorities and a Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise organisation to deliver tailored support to improve GRT attendance and attainment. Whilst the programme was a one year pilot, the delivery of some of the targeted support carried on beyond that timeline. The close monitoring of the projects helped DLUHC to pick up issues quickly, facilitated the setting up of a buddying system, and improved cross agency relationships and knowledge sharing.

The department has no plans to commission a government evaluation of the programme. The department’s expectation is that participant local authorities will carry out their own evaluation of their projects, build lessons learnt into wider services, and share learning with other local authorities.

The government is committed to ensuring that all children are safe and have access to an excellent education. The department is currently running a call for evidence on ‘Improving support for children missing education’ to seek views on challenges in identifying and supporting children missing from education and how to address those challenges. The call for evidence is open until 20 July and will be used to inform policy future policy thinking. The open consultation is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/improving-support-for-children-missing-education.