Phil Boswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Phil Boswell on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the conclusions of the Social Market Foundation report, published in January 2016, Educational Inequalities in England and Wales.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The government is determined to deliver educational excellence everywhere so that every child, regardless of background, reaches their potential. Thanks to the hard work of teachers across the country and our ambitious programme of reforms, 1.4 million more pupils are in good or outstanding schools compared to 2010.

We believe that there is more that can be done. That is why we are introducing new measures to transform failing and coasting schools, funding the best academy chains to share excellence in the North and creating a National Teaching Service. This will send some of our best teachers to the areas that need them most, starting in the North West.

We have also protected the pupil premium at current rates for the duration of this Parliament, so that schools receive additional money for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. A review of funding for disadvantaged pupils by the National Audit Office in July 2015 found that the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has narrowed in both primary and secondary schools since the introduction of the pupil premium in 2011.