Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 6 of the Education Policy Institute report, Closing the gap? Trends in educational attainment and disadvantage, published in August 2017, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the findings that at current trends we estimate that it would take around 50 years for the disadvantage gap to close completely by the time pupils take their GCSEs; and if she will make a statement.

We want to make sure all children, regardless of their background, have an excellent education and we know that overall the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers is narrowing. Careful interrogation of the data using the department’s gap index shows that the attainment gap for all disadvantaged pupils has narrowed by 7.0% at key stage 4 and by 9.3% at key stage 2 since 2011, the year the pupil premium was introduced.

But there is more to do. That is why, through the Pupil Premium, we are investing almost £2.5bn of additional funding this year to support schools to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils. Thanks to our reforms there are 1.8 million more children in schools rated good or outstanding than in 2010, and the Education Endowment Foundation is working in hundreds of schools to expand the evidence of what works best to accelerate progress.

On top of this, our £72m Opportunity Areas programme will not only create opportunities for young people in social mobility ‘coldspots’, but will identify and share effective practice across the country to ensure all young people get the opportunities they deserve.