Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is planning to take to improve the (a) quality and (b) availability of data on the educational (i) outcomes and (ii) experiences of armed forces children; and if he will make it his policy to develop a national dataset to help inform evidence-based (A) policy and (B) practice in this area.

We are committed with counterparts in Government to maintaining robust data around the educational outcomes of all children to inform future strategic and policy development. It is important to remember that education is a devolved matter, and caution should be applied in considering the feasibility of a UK-wide dataset, where very different education systems would be compared. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) recognises the importance of the devolved administrations maintaining their own datasets to inform where their resources should be targeted.

The Department for Education (DfE) continues to provide the MOD updated datasets on how Service children perform in state schools in England across key measures of academic attainment; this information is published in the Armed Forces Covenant Annual Report. The DfE and the MOD have also recently published joint guidance to schools and local authorities on how best to support Service children in education.

In Scotland, the Additional Support for Learning (ASL) Act places duties on education authorities, who retain the statutory responsibility for the delivery of education in Scotland. These duties require Scottish authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of pupils. This includes Service children and young people, who may require extra support, short or long term and for whatever the reason. Delivery of ASL is a joint endeavour between the Scottish Government and Scottish Local Authorities.

The Welsh Government are currently exploring the potential to broaden the definition of Service children in Wales to ensure the maximum number of children can benefit from the support available. Linked to this they are considering how they collect data on Service children in Welsh schools to ensure that policy and support is based on robust evidence.