Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve education outcomes in the east Midlands.

The Schools White Paper, published in March 2022, set out a long-term vision for a school system that helps every child to fulfil their potential by ensuring that they receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time, founded on achieving world-class literacy and numeracy. The Department’s ambition remains that by 2030, 90% of all primary school children will achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics, and the percentage of children meeting the expected standard in the worst performing areas will have increased by a third. In secondary schools, the national GCSE average grade in both English language and in mathematics will increase from 4.5 in 2019 to 5.

The White Paper was clear regarding the areas the Department needs to drive improvement in to realise this ambition, to ensure an excellent teacher for every child, high standards of curriculum, behaviour and attendance, targeted support for every child who needs it, and a stronger and fairer schools system.

Significant support is also being provided for 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs), to improve outcomes in those parts of the country where literacy and numeracy are the poorest including, six Local Authorities in the East Midlands region. These are Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, North Northamptonshire, and Lincolnshire.

Over the next three years, up to £86 million in trust capacity funding and £150 million for extending the Connect the Classroom programme are being prioritised in EIAs. The Department is also offering higher payments of Levelling Up Premium tax-free annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers working in EIAs.

Nottingham and Derby are Priority Education Investment Areas, 24 areas across the country with the highest rates of disadvantage where the Department is providing significant additional investment, including a share of around £40 million to address local needs and improve outcomes.