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 for children leaving primary school at key stage 2 (from 3.23 in 2021/22 to 3.13 in 2023/24) and in the last year for those leaving secondary at key stage 4 (3.94 in 2022/23 to 3.92 in 2023/24). This is starting to reverse the significant widening of the gap seen during the COVID–19 pandemic.18 The Department sees the recent narrowing as a success but acknowledges that the gap is not closing as quickly as it would like, with some way to go to return to the pre–pandemic position.19 However, the Department has not set out the specific progress it wants to make and by when. The Department acknowledged that the index can be difficult to understand, but considered this the best measure as, being relative, it was resilient to changes in testing methods, standards, and pupil numbers.20 It also acknowledged that the index did not help understand 12 Q 5 13 Q 11 14 OECD, PISA 2022 Results: The State of Learning and Equity in Education, 5 December 2023 15 Q 11 16 Q 20 17 C&AG’s Report, para 3, 10. 18 Q5 19 Qq 5, 6 20 C&AG’s Report, para 11; Qq 8 and 10 9 performance variation across disadvantaged children, for example by local area, ethnicity or gender.21 The National Foundation of Educational Research identified that it is increasingly difficult to tell whether trends were driven by improving attainment or wider factors, with changes to the eligibility of free school meals impacting the numbers assessed as disadvantaged.22