Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the school improvement monitoring and brokering grant.

In June 2019, the Department published research to help understand how Local Authorities were using the School Improvement Monitoring and Brokering (SIMB) grant. Details are available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/808505/Analytical_Associate_Pool_summary_of_projects_June_2019.pdf.

In October 2021, the Department conducted a consultation on ‘Reforming how local authority school improvement functions are funded’, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-how-local-authority-school-improvement-functions-are-funded. In January 2022, the Department published the outcome to this consultation in its Government response, available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1045633/Government_response_-_Reforming_how_LA_SI_functions_are_funded.pdf.

The response announced that the Department would be phasing out the SIMB grant over the 2022/23 financial year and the grant would cease in the 2023/24 financial year. The final payment of the SIMB grant was paid to Local Authorities in April 2023.