Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to risk 2 on page 25 of her Department’s annual report and accounts 2022-23, published on 18 July 2023, what steps her Department is taking to mitigate the potential risk of a widening in pupils’ attainment gap as a result of a differential recovery from the pandemic.

Raising attainment for all pupils, particularly the most disadvantaged, is a priority for the Government. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic the attainment gap index narrowed by 9% at secondary school level and by 13% at primary school level between 2011 and 2019.

For over a decade, the Department has consistently taken a range of steps to give priority support and deliver programmes that help disadvantaged pupils, including improving the quality of teaching and curriculum resources, strengthening the school system, and providing targeted support where needed.

As part of the nearly £5 billion recovery package over 4 million children and young people, many of whom are disadvantaged, have benefited from one to one and small group tutoring in schools and colleges.

The pupil premium, worth over £2.9 billion this year, continues to support schools to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.

More widely, funding for Free School Meals ensures 2 million of the most disadvantaged children are receiving a healthy, nutritious meal. On top of almost 1.3 million further infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meals policy, over one third of all pupils receive a free meal in school.

The Department’s National School Breakfast Programme will support up to 2,700 schools in disadvantaged areas, and the Department is providing over £200 million this year for the Holiday Activities and Food programme to support disadvantaged pupils.

Alongside this, the Department is channelling funding into 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs) where outcomes in literacy and numeracy are the poorest, including £86 million in trust capacity funding to help strong trusts to expand into areas most in need of improvement. 24 Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIAs), which have particularly low attainment and high rates of disadvantage, will receive more intensive support in addition to the significant help available to all EIAs.