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 to support disadvantaged children, such as with the Department for Work and Pensions as part of the Child Poverty Task Force. However, cross–government working has previously been challenging, in part because other parts of government may not place as high a priority on disadvantage as the Department. The Department is developing its strategy for narrowing the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers around the government’s mission “Breaking down the barriers to opportunity”, which also provides a chance to revisit how it works with others across government, particularly though shared data which is where the Department sees most scope for improvement. The Government’s Plan for Change, setting out details of its missions, was published in December 2024, meaning it is still too early to see any changes to ways of working. recommendation The Department should set out how it will use the opportunities mission to further join–up data and performance information, and embed the cultural changes needed for effective cross–government working. 6 1 Understanding of progress, impact and decision–making Introduction