Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of the cost of living crisis on the attainment of children in Denton and Reddish constituency.

The Government recognises the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year and affected pupils and their families, including those in the Denton and Reddish constituency. The Department is working hard to manage the current pressures facing schools and continues to monitor the financial health of schools closely.

The 2022 Autumn Statement has provided an additional net increase in the core schools budget of £2 billion in the 2023/24 financial year and a further £2 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, over and above totals announced at the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021. This brings the core schools budget to a total of £58.8 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. This additional funding will enable head teachers to continue to concentrate funding in areas the Department knows has a positive effect on educational attainment, including high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most.

Alongside this, from October 2022 to 31 March 2023, schools will benefit from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, protecting them from excessively high energy bills over the winter period.

Denton and Reddish is part of the Tameside Education Investment Area (EIA), meaning substantial support is available to drive improvement. This includes priority for trust capacity funding to help trusts grow and improve underperforming schools in the area, which the Department is making up to £86 million available nationally. In EIAs the Department will also provide support for schools’ digital connectivity through £150 million investment in the Connect the Classroom programme. Tameside is also one of 24 Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIAs), and therefore is in receipt of further investment in addition to the significant support available to all EIAs.

Tameside has also benefited from over £160,000 of funding through the Opportunity Areas programme between 2017 and July 2022 helping to drive the attainment of all children across the area.