Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are planning to re-establish Education Priority Areas in places where children suffer from very limited ability to speak English or other disadvantages.

The Government is committed to ensuring that all pupils, regardless of ethnicity, background or location, are able to achieve their full potential in education. This includes those pupils who are classed as having English as an additional language (EAL).

It is essential that all pupils are proficient in written and spoken English so that they can access the curriculum effectively and engage fully with school. To help schools develop the English language skills of their EAL pupils, rather than implementing a limited number of area-based programmes we have given all local authorities in England the ability to allocate funding to schools for their EAL pupils. In 2016-17, 136 local authorities used the EAL factor in their school funding formulae, spending £282 million in total. Furthermore, we have proposed that the national funding formula for schools, which will replace local funding formulae from 2018-19 onwards, will include an EAL factor.

Schools may also use their pupil premium funding to support disadvantaged pupils with EAL.

At the same time, we do recognise that in some areas of England schools face entrenched challenges in raising the educational performance of their pupils. That is why we are designating those areas of greatest need as opportunity areas, and are targeting the Department’s improvement programmes in these locations with the aim of improving social mobility. To date twelve areas have been identified as opportunity areas and will share £72 million to improve the quality of education and to provide young people with the advice and skills needed for good jobs.