Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of private schools on social mobility in the East Midlands.

The Government is committed to levelling up and spreading opportunity throughout the country, including in the East Midlands. There are no plans to undertake this specific assessment. The Department does regularly assess the effects of a range of factors on pupil attainment.

The Department encourages independent schools to work in partnership with state funded schools to deliver activities across the areas of governance and leadership, teaching, curriculum and other targeted activities leading to school improvement. The Department has found that the partnerships that work most effectively tend to be based around the principles of sustainability, mutual benefit, and priority for high impact activities.

The Department has a joint understanding with the Independent Schools Council (ISC) that sets out how the independent sector will work in partnership with state schools to help raise attainment and, in particular, help pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Around 85% of ISC member schools are engaged in almost 7,000 mutually beneficial cross-sector partnerships with state funded schools. These schools share expertise, best practice and facilities to the benefit of children in all the schools involved.

The Department is committed to ensuring that in every area, children are able to attend excellent schools, progress to high quality technical and higher education, and obtain good jobs.

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 delivering 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. These are 24 areas across the country with the highest rates of disadvantage where the Department is providing significant additional funding, including a share of around £40 million to address local needs and improve outcomes.