Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of
the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education of school
children in the most deprived communities.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, pupils were one to three months behind in their
learning in summer 2021; an improvement on spring 2021. Pupil
premium pupils were around half a month further behind in reading
and maths at primary level and 1.7 months further behind in
reading at secondary level. That is why, as well as the universal
offer to all students and staff, we are targeting our £5 billion
of education recovery funding at pupils who most need support to
recover their lost learning.
(LD)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. She will be aware
that the Education Policy Institute has announced that, for the
first time since 2007, pupils have fallen behind. It has also
said that the number of students on the poverty line has grown.
If this so-called £5 billion recovery plan is not successful,
what will the Government do? Will more money or other funding
streams become available? Will the Minister comment on Teach
First’s proposals that we rethink the pupil premium?
(Con)
The noble Lord is right on the principle that we need to keep
close track of the impact of the measures that we have announced
already. I remind the House that the interventions that we are
funding with the £5 billion package are all those that have the
highest evidence base to support them. They are highly targeted,
both geographically and by age, and it is a multiyear
package.
(Lab)
My Lords, will the Minister join me in congratulating the
Traveller movement on its effective and popular project of
post-Covid catch-up for Gypsy, Traveller and Roma school
students? How many of those have been reached with demonstrable
effect by the Government’s £1 million education programme,
particularly in view of the questions raised over the competence
of the Randstad contracts?
(Con)
I do not have the specific data to hand as to the number of
pupils from the Traveller and Roma community, but I am happy to
share that with the noble Baroness if it can be found.
(Con)
My Lords, on my recent trip down memory lane as a Whip, I
remember being briefed about family hubs, which I felt were going
to go a long way in improving the welfare of deprived children
and families, dealing with them from conception to birth. Can my
noble friend tell me how the rollout of these hubs is going?
(Con)
I am sure my noble friend, the Leader of the House, would join me
in saying that that lane is always open for my noble friend,
whenever she wants to go down it.
The Government are investing £82 million to create a network of
family hubs, as part of a wider £300 million package to transform
services for parents, carers, babies and children in half the
council areas across England, making sure that thousands of
families will have access to the support they need. The clear aim
is early identification and an approach which will address the
range of challenges that a family might face.
My Lords, due to the effect of the pandemic on university
experience, greater numbers of young people have deferred their
university places. This particularly affects students leaving
school this year, as university capacity is limited. Will the
Minister say what is being done so that those from deprived
backgrounds seeking university places this year do not become
further disadvantaged in their education and future life choices,
having often been the most affected by two years of a
pandemic?
(Con)
The right reverend Prelate will be aware that we have been
working hard with the Office for Students to ensure that there is
the strongest possible approach to fair access for students from
disadvantaged backgrounds. We will imminently be making more
announcements in that regard and I look forward to debating those
with the House.
(CB)
My Lords, does the Minister accept that the impact on preschool
children of the loss of educational provision in the past two
years is disproportionately affecting their life chances? Will
she therefore ensure that not only early childhood education
provisions but the providers of preschool facilities, which are
probably most impacted in deprived areas, are supported?
(Con)
I partly agree with the noble Baroness about the disproportionate
impact. I absolutely agree with her about the science of early
childhood development and how important it is that we prioritise
children in the first 1,000 days of their life. However, equally,
for those children who have less time remaining in education, it
has been incredibly important that we focus on them—for example,
lengthening the school week for those in 16 to 19 courses.
The Lord Speaker ()
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, is taking part
remotely. I invite her to speak.
(LD) [V]
My Lords, last year, Sir resigned when the Government
allocated only 1/10th of the funds he said were needed to deliver
a real post-pandemic education recovery plan. At £50 per pupil,
he said it was “feeble”. In the light of the shocking delayed
learning figures that the Minister has just outlined, will she
undertake to review and increase the funding?
(Con)
I do not recognise the noble Baroness’s figure of 1/10th, but we
have been highly targeted in our interventions and the early data
is encouraging, particularly for primary school pupils, on the
rate of catch-up in all areas of the country. The greater concern
is about secondary pupils, and that is why we have apportioned a
greater share of the funding to that group.
(Con)
My Lords, is it not the case that Covid-19 and the effects
thereof are little influenced by economic background?
(Con)
I apologise, but I caught only part of my noble friend’s
question. I think I understood him to say that a child’s
background does not have a great impact on their outcome. The
evidence does not support that. We are very pleased that the
disadvantage gap decreased between 2011 and 2019 by 13% at
primary level and 9% at secondary level, but it is clear that
children from disadvantaged backgrounds do less well in
education—hence our emphasis on levelling up.
(CB)
My Lords, can the Minister update the House on what discussions
she is having with the independent school sector about
partnerships with state schools to support less advantaged
students? Does she agree that, while individual collaborations
are always to be welcomed, her department has a role to play in
brokering systemic and sustained programmes that could utilise
online capacity for learning to ensure that support is targeted
on those areas most in need, rather than on schools that are
geographically close?
(Con)
As ever, the noble Baroness makes a good point about the
potential for online collaboration. The department really
supports partnerships with independent schools, and there is some
fantastic work going on, from local collaboration to very
specific support for children in the care system being offered
places at independent schools. We are encouraging that, but I
share her desire that we should ensure it maximises the impact
for children.
(Lab)
My Lords, at his press conference with the Prime Minister on
Monday, the Chief Scientific Adviser said that
“this virus feeds off inequality and it drives inequality and
that needs to be borne in mind at all times.”
Those words should perhaps be framed and placed on the desk of
every Minister—and, for good measure, that of the noble Lord,
. Contrary to the figures that
the Minister gave in her Answer, the Education Policy Institute
said that disadvantaged pupils in England are 18 months of
learning behind their peers by the time they finish their GCSEs.
The Government are not doing enough to reduce that gap. Further
to the point made by the noble Lord, , on the pupil premium, will she
consider the suggestion that it should be extended to those
qualifying 16 to 19 year-olds in full-time education?
(Con)
Time does not permit all the details, and I do not have them to
hand, but I did look at the difference between the data that we
have been using in terms of lost learning and the data to which
the noble Lord refers. There are some important points which
underlie and explain the difference in the two figures. We
genuinely believe that the figures which we are using are the
most reliable and the most robust. In relation to pupil premium,
of course we keep our policy under review, but we recently
published guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation which
helps schools to work through how they spend that premium to best
effect.
