Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the future prospects of children in the poorest and most deprived areas in England; and what assessment they have made of whether there has been any disproportionate loss of children's services in those areas.

Although children from more disadvantaged areas often do less well on average than their peers from more affluent areas, significant progress has been made in recent years. The national index measuring the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers in key stage 4 narrowed by 10% overall since 2011. For key stage 2, the gap has narrowed by 10.5%. The department recently published plans to improve social mobility and support all children and young people, wherever they live, to fulfil their potential. The report, ‘Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential’ was placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Government reforms aim to create a culture in which skilled staff are able to operate in environments where strong practice is valued and developed to secure services that meet the needs of local children and families. Where children’s services are not of an acceptable standard, the government will intervene to ensure that effective improvement plans are in place and delivered at pace.

Funding for children’s services is un-ring fenced, as part of the wider local government finance settlement. This gives local authorities the flexibility to focus on locally determined priorities and, of course, their statutory responsibilities to children. Local authorities used this flexibility to increase spending on children and young people’s services to around £9.2 billion in 2016/17. The Spending Review 2015 made more than £200 billion available to councils for local services, including children’s social care, up to 2019/20.

A range of measures are available to assess how children are faring in all areas of the country, including the most deprived. These measures include area-based statistics such as the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI), progress and attainment data at key stages 2 and 4, and data on access to and success at university. The IDACI data can be found at this website: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2015.