A new report by the Education Policy Institute (EPI), funded by
Collective Futures, Ethos Foundation and The Henry Charity, highlights significant
variation in the attainment gap between disadvantaged children
and their peers across England. The report identifies local
authorities with consistently small or large disadvantage gaps,
and evaluates progress in closing the disadvantage gap as pupils
progress through primary and secondary school.
We find that:
-
London has the smallest disadvantage gaps across all
phases from early years to post-16.Disadvantaged
children in London outperform those elsewhere, with boroughs
like Newham, Redbridge, and Hackney consistently achieving the
smallest gaps across phases. Five London boroughs have the
smallest gaps at age 5 in recent years, while ten London
boroughs, plus Wokingham, consistently have small gaps in 16-19
education [1]
-
While the disadvantage gap widens as pupils get older,
there are some areas in London which are managing to close the
gap by age 11. Camden, Kensington and Chelsea,
and Tower Hamlets all managed to reduce the gap between age 5
and the end of primary school for their 2023 cohorts, while
Redbridge is the only local authority where the gap between
disadvantaged pupils and their peers had reduced by the end of
secondary school
- By evaluating gap trajectories as pupils progress through
education, areas outside of London also emerge as
attaining well across their disadvantaged cohorts in
2023, such as Birmingham, Luton and Slough
-
‘Catch-up' for disadvantaged pupils appears
increasingly difficult as they move through the education
system. Some local authorities like Wolverhampton,
Bolton, Wigan and Trafford have above-average gaps at age 5 but
achieve below-average gaps by age 11, demonstrating the
potential for disadvantaged pupils to catch up. However, far
fewer areas successfully support disadvantaged pupils to
catch-up during secondary school compared to the primary phase,
emphasising the importance of early intervention before
disadvantaged pupils fall behind their peers
Recommendations:
- The government should prioritise early intervention to
prevent large gaps from emerging during the early years and
primary education.
- However, there are still areas where the gap in the early
years and primary phases is relatively narrow but then widens
amongst older pupils, highlighting that early intervention isn't
enough. The government must combine it with continued
interventions throughout secondary school and beyond to prevent
further widening of the disadvantage gap.
- Further research is needed to understand the specific drivers
of disadvantage gaps at different points in the education
lifecycle and why some areas manage to catch-up, to help support
more local areas to break the link between a child's background
and their future success.
[1] This is based on being in the top 15 local authorities
nationally in each of the years 2019, 2022 and 2023 for those
local authorities in England which exist in all three years
Quotes
Emily Hunt, Associate Director for Social Mobility and
Vulnerable Learners at the Education Policy Institute,
said:
“It is well established that disadvantaged pupils in England
start school behind their peers, and these gaps widen
significantly as pupils progress through the education system.
Nationally, the disadvantage gap grows from around 4 months at
age five to over 19 months by age 16. Yet, this trajectory is not
inevitable.
Our new research shows that areas like Camden and Tower Hamlets
are managing to narrow these gaps. Additionally, places like
Birmingham also stand-out as attaining well across its
disadvantaged cohorts in 2023, showing that success is not
confined to the capital.
Yet our findings also show that it becomes harder for
disadvantaged pupils to catch-up as they progress through school.
While many areas—such as Wolverhampton—manage to support pupils
to catch up during primary school, far fewer areas achieve this
during secondary school, where gaps often widen further.
As the first publication in a wider project, this report lays the
groundwork for understanding the local factors driving these
disparities, with the ultimate aim of helping decision-makers
target resources where they can make the greatest
impact.”
Sam Creme, Director at Collective Futures,
said:
“Our aim is to target support in early childhood for maximum
impact on the life chances of children, so that all children have
equitable opportunities to thrive.
This new analysis from the EPI to understand the trajectories of
children's educational attainment over time both reinforces the
importance of early intervention and sheds new light on areas
that are consistently able to beat the odds.
The next, and crucially important, part of the research in this
series will be to understand why some areas are able to
catch up, and what we can do to support more local areas to break
the link between a child's background and their future
success.”
Background and methodology
This report aims to take a comprehensive look at disadvantage
gaps at a local level to understand the parts of the country with
the largest and smallest attainment gaps for their disadvantaged
learners across education phases – specifically at ages 5, 11, 16
and in the critical 16-19 phase of education, the final stage of
compulsory education. We focus on 2023 data as the most recent
snapshot of local-level inequalities but also analyse attainment
over the three year period 2019, 2022 and 2023 to consider
year-on-year volatility.
We also consider gap trajectories within the same cohort of
children as they progress through primary and secondary school.
Through this within-cohort analysis, we aim to shine a new light
on geographic inequalities and our understanding of the areas
that face some of the biggest challenges in supporting their
disadvantaged learners and those that stand-out as potential
areas of best practice.
This report is the first in a project – being conducted jointly
by EPI, Isos Partnership and Mime Consulting – which aims to
understand how different local factors influence attainment gaps
across education phases, and to create new tools to support
decisions about where and how to invest to have greatest impact.
