Improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 31 Oct 2024 Closed: 16 May 2025 Parliament page
The attainment gap sees disadvantaged children, on average, perform less well than their peers, affecting their future life chances. Government has a strategic objective to narrow the gap. The Department for Education (DfE) defines 2.1 million, or 27%, of children in state-funded schools as disadvantaged, based on registered eligibility for … Read more
8 Recommendations
21 Conclusions
1 Report
1 Oral session
1 Letter
1 Event
Activity timeline 4 events
16 May
2025
Report published
7 Mar
2025
Report published
4 Feb
2025
Correspondence
13 Jan
2025
Oral evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1 session
13 Jan 2025
View on parliament.uk
Improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children
Juliet Chua CB · Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Susan Acland-Hood · The Department for Education Tony Foot · Department for Education
Recommendations & Conclusions
29 results
2 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Re-assess evidence base for funding decisions and set out future funding priorities, including pupil premium.
DfE continues to improve its evidence base for what works, but the rationale for certain funding decisions, in particular increasing core funding, does not always follow the evidence. The Department has assessed its evidence base for pupil premium effectively supporting … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
3 Recommendation
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Prioritise expanding evidence on early years interventions and update on pupil premium impact.
Early Years funding and support remains critical for disadvantaged children to have the best start in life; it will be essential that DfE builds its evidence of what works. The value of intervening as early as possible in a child’s … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
4 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Introduce stronger mechanisms to understand how schools spend disadvantaged-focused funding effectively.
The Department relies on schools to spend funding in line with its intended purposes but has limited understanding of whether they do so. The Department’s policy is to allow schools and early years providers flexibility to use funding according to … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
5 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Provide greater clarity on supporting schools to make effective evidence-based funding decisions.
The Department supports schools in making effective local decisions, but there remains variability in practice, performance and how schools use evidence. The Department provides support to schools and other providers to help them effectively target their funding for disadvantaged children. … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
6 Recommendation
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Set out how the Opportunities Mission will join data and embed cross-government working.
The Department is relying on the ‘Opportunities Mission’ to bring together its own, and wider government’s, work to support disadvantaged children but it remains unclear how this will work in practice. The Department must work with other areas of government … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
1 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Committee took evidence on improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children in England.
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Education (the Department) on improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children in England.2
HM Treasury
View details
7 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
England demonstrates strong relative performance in disadvantaged children's educational attainment internationally.
The Department told us that, compared to other countries, England performs relatively well in terms of disadvantaged children’s attainment.13 The OECD recently cited the UK as one of 10 highly equitable countries, meaning that the difference in maths, science and … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
8 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Disadvantage gap index marginally narrowing, but not fast enough and lacks granular detail
The Department compares the attainment of disadvantaged pupils against their peers nationally through the disadvantage gap index, its main measure of progress.17 The Department explained that its most recent data shows this gap narrowed marginally in the last two years … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
9 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Imperfect free school meals measure limits data and analysis on wider pupil outcomes
Registration for free school meals is not automatic and some low– income pupils will be missed due to eligibility criteria. This means it is imperfect as a measure of disadvantage. The Department stressed the importance of using wider measures beyond … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
10 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Pupil Premium funding declined in real terms despite its stronger evidence base
The Department considers it has better evidence of pupil premium effectively supporting disadvantaged children, assessing this evidence as strong, compared to that available for the disadvantage and deprivation elements of the national funding formula.27 Despite this, there has been a … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
11 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
National funding formula's disadvantage elements increased due to rising SEND complexity
The Department committed to keeping the balance of funding across different interventions under review.32 It told us that pupil premium and the disadvantage elements of the national funding formula should be considered together–with pupil premium being specifically directed towards disadvantaged … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
12 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Department prioritises funding towards disadvantage and early years, considering wider outcomes
The Department stressed that, without an unlimited budget, it would always need to make trade–offs in its funding decisions.35 It told us it is firstly aiming to increase the proportion of funding targeted towards disadvantage, as it believes this has … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
13 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Department plans to strengthen evidence base for early years and wider pupil outcomes
While the Department is confident in its evidence base for pupil premium it recognised the need to continue building evidence in other areas, for example early years, and on wider outcomes beyond academic attainment such as attendance and home learning.39 … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
14 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Early years provision is critical as attainment gap emerges and widens early
Research shows the value of early years provision in supporting the attainment of disadvantaged children. From the age of three, there is a gap in cognitive outcomes between disadvantaged children and their peers, and in 2018 the Education Policy Institute … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
15 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Early years pupil premium remains significantly lower than primary and secondary rates
Despite the recognised value, in 2024–25 the maximum pupil premium annual rate per pupil in the early years (age 3–4) was £388, compared to £1,480 for primary school pupils and £1,050 for those at secondary school. The Department has not … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
16 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
New early years entitlements focus on working families, but Department denies disadvantage for others
The Department is currently extending early years entitlements so that, by September 2025, eligible working parents with a child aged nine months and above will be entitled to 30 hours of early years childcare a week.48 The Department acknowledged the … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
17 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Family hubs show early impact, but comparative effectiveness with Sure Start remains unclear
The Department told us that its childcare policy aimed to support child development and school readiness, alongside enabling parents to work, with supporting parents at home an important element.51 ‘Family hubs’, funded jointly with the Department for Health and Social … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
18 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Department lacks systemic understanding of how schools spend unringfenced disadvantage funding.
The Department’s policy is to allow schools and other providers autonomy and flexibility to support disadvantaged children in a way that suits local circumstances and their pupils’ needs. More than 90% of the estimated £9.2 billion funding associated with disadvantage … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
19 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Schools increasingly use Pupil Premium to fill budget gaps and fund whole-school interventions.
We challenged the Department on Sutton Trust research from 2024 which found 47% of senior school leaders surveyed were using pupil premium to plug gaps in their budget, up from 23% in 2019.59 The Department said school leaders could still … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
20 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Department acknowledges schools may divert disadvantage funding but relies on accountability for good choices.
The Department told us that schools valued the freedom to choose how they managed their budgets but said this did not mean a lack of accountability for spending. It described understanding that schools, particularly poorer performers, may divert funding for … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
21 Recommendation
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Many schools fail to publish required Pupil Premium strategy statements, with limited departmental follow-up.
In terms of accountability for pupil premium, the Department described schools needing to clearly report how they used funding so governors could use this to provide challenge.63 All schools must publish an up–to–date pupil premium strategy statement setting out their … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
22 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Department lacks data on school spending on tutoring after National Tutoring Programme concludes.
The Department does not know how much schools spend on tutoring despite having strong evidence of its value, as it no–longer provides specific funding. With the National Tutoring Programme not continuing into 2024/25, schools must decide whether to fund this … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
23 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Department provides expanded guidance and evidence-based recommendations for effective Pupil Premium spending.
The Department stressed to us the importance of schools and other providers being able to spend funding effectively.74 The Department has expanded the support provided to schools to help them decide how to spend pupil premium funding. This includes signposting … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
24 Conclusion
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Significant minority of schools not consistently using evidence-based resources for Pupil Premium spending.
The Department told us it monitors how well school leaders use pupil premium evidence, with 69% of school leaders saying they used EEF resources in its most recent survey.79 It believed this may be understated, as a higher proportion of … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
25 Recommendation
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Department needs to strengthen non-funding support for struggling schools in disadvantaged areas.
The Department recognises there are differences in how schools consider available evidence, and then the approaches they take to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children.83 The Department acknowledged that it needed to strengthen its support, beyond funding, for those schools not … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
26 Recommendation
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Cross-government working for disadvantaged children challenging due to departments lacking shared aims.
The Department recognises the importance of cross–government working to improving outcomes for disadvantaged children, as a wide range of factors outside school influence children’s attainment. This includes housing, health and socio–economic deprivation. It described working across government, including through a … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
27 Recommendation
13th Report - Improving educationa…
New "Opportunities mission" aims to improve cross-government working and holistic support for children.
Looking ahead, the Department explained that its forward plan and strategy for supporting disadvantaged children would be focussed around government’s mission to “Break down barriers to opportunity.” 92 The Department explained that this is summarised in the government’s Plan for … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
28 Recommendation
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Department recognises ongoing challenges in sharing cross-government data across key sectors.
The Department explained how single shared priorities also helped evaluate programmes objectively but acknowledged it would like to go further through joining up data and information, which the Opportunities mission could help give impetus to. It said it had made … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
29 Recommendation
13th Report - Improving educationa…
Mission-led approach enhances Department's strategic planning and resource allocation for early years.
Alongside better cross–government working, the Department believed a mission–led approach would benefit its own strategic thinking, with the opportunities mission now forming the organising principle for its work.96 The Department told us it is already beginning to see an impact … Read more
HM Treasury
View details
Correspondence 1 letter
4 Feb 2025 To committee Letter from the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education relating to the oral evidence session held on 13 January 2025 for the inquiry into Improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children, 27 January 2025
Parliament page