Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that children from ethnic minority and working class backgrounds have equal access to education and future work opportunities.

The department is committed to doing more to improve the life changes of all children, including children from ethnic minority and working class backgrounds.

Our approach is comprehensive: rebuilding early family support, developing a new model for targeting disadvantage funding so it better reflects need, strengthening teaching quality and ensuring high-quality curricula are embedded across the system.

We are also launching two place-based missions, Mission North East and Mission Coastal, to drive sustained improvement in areas where outcomes remain stubbornly low. These missions will bring together schools, families and local partners at place level to tackle entrenched disadvantage and raise attainment.