Recommendations & Conclusions
7 items
7
Conclusion
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery…
Rejected
Disadvantaged pupils have, on average, lower attainment than other pupils, and results from the Key Stage 1, 2 and 4 tests taken in 2022 showed that this disadvantage gap had grown.12 The Department told us that it had been successfully closing the disadvantage gap before the COVID-19 pandemic, and that …
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Disadvantaged pupils have, on average, lower attainment than other pupils, and results from the Key Stage 1, 2 and 4 tests taken in 2022 showed that this disadvantage gap had grown.12 The Department told us that it had been successfully closing the disadvantage gap before the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the subsequent widening of the gap had been one of the worst and most dispiriting effects of the pandemic. It explained that it used a metric called the disadvantage gap index to measure the difference in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. A value of zero would indicate there was no disadvantage gap. The disadvantage gap index at Key Stage 2 (the end of primary school) was 3.34 in 2011, and the index fell steadily to 2.90 in 2018. In 2022, it had risen to 3.23, not quite as high as in 2011 but going significantly backwards.13 Written evidence we received from NASUWT, Action Tutoring and The Tutor Trust also highlighted that the growth in the attainment gap between disadvantaged and other pupils during the COVID-19 pandemic was a particular concern.14
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Government response AI summary
The government rejects the implied recommendation, stating that narrowing the disadvantage gap is central to all existing departmental programmes rather than requiring a separate plan. It highlights ongoing £5 billion recovery programmes, the Schools White Paper, and a commitment to continue reviewing progress.
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HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery…
Rejected
We asked the Department when we would see the disadvantage gap start to close. The Department insisted that closing the gap in attainment had been the relentless focus of its education recovery work, and that almost every element of the recovery programme, including the National Tutoring Programme and the recovery …
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We asked the Department when we would see the disadvantage gap start to close. The Department insisted that closing the gap in attainment had been the relentless focus of its education recovery work, and that almost every element of the recovery programme, including the National Tutoring Programme and the recovery premium, had been tilted towards disadvantaged pupils. It also said that while another important part of the recovery programme, investment in teacher education and training, benefited every pupil, good-quality teaching benefited disadvantaged pupils the most.15
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Government response AI summary
The government rejects the implied recommendation, stating that narrowing the disadvantage gap is central to all existing departmental programmes rather than requiring a separate plan. It highlights ongoing £5 billion recovery programmes, the Schools White Paper, and a commitment to continue reviewing progress.
Read full response →
HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery…
Rejected
The Department told us that it hoped to see the disadvantage gap narrowing again from summer 2023.16 It accepted that one could always do more, but believed it now had a strong package of measures in place. The measures included things that were most likely to drive engagement from all …
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The Department told us that it hoped to see the disadvantage gap narrowing again from summer 2023.16 It accepted that one could always do more, but believed it now had a strong package of measures in place. The measures included things that were most likely to drive engagement from all pupils and particularly disadvantaged pupils. The Department also said that the way it had incentivised teachers to work in the most disadvantaged places was an important part of its efforts to close the disadvantage gap.17
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Government response AI summary
The government disagrees with the committee's conclusion (which they perceived as a recommendation) about the Department's hopes for narrowing the disadvantage gap, reaffirming its commitment to doing so as quickly as possible through current programmes.
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HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery…
Rejected
We pressed the Department on when it hoped to eliminate the disadvantage gap completely. It told us that no country in the world had completely eliminated its 10 ERS0003 The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition page 1; ERS0005 Young Minds pages 1–3; ERS0006 Adoption UK pages 2 and …
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We pressed the Department on when it hoped to eliminate the disadvantage gap completely. It told us that no country in the world had completely eliminated its 10 ERS0003 The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition page 1; ERS0005 Young Minds pages 1–3; ERS0006 Adoption UK pages 2 and 4 11 Qq 60, 62 12 C&AG’s Report, para 3.16 13 Q 28 14 ERS0001 NASUWT, the Teacher’s Union, pages 2–3; ERS0002 Action Tutoring, pages 2–3; ERS0007 The Tutor Trust, pages 2–3 15 Q 28 16 Q 28 17 Qq 29–30 Education recovery in schools in England 9 disadvantage gap so it was reluctant to commit to a date. However, the Department said that it should be able to reduce the disadvantage gap at least as quickly as it had done in the 10 years before the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it ought to set itself the challenge of going as fast, or faster, in closing the gap as it had done previously.18 We note, however, that this would mean potentially taking as much as another decade to get back to the position before the pandemic. Pupils’ absence from school
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Government response AI summary
The government disagrees with the committee's implied challenge to reduce the disadvantage gap faster, stating its commitment to narrowing the gap as quickly as possible through existing programmes and the Schools White Paper, rather than a separate plan.
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HM Treasury
27
Recommendation
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery…
Rejected
In 2021, we recommended that the Department should set out clear metrics that it would use to monitor the catch-up programme, and indicate what level of performance would represent success, and the Department agreed with this recommendation.53 However, although the Department recognises that it needs to demonstrate what has been …
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In 2021, we recommended that the Department should set out clear metrics that it would use to monitor the catch-up programme, and indicate what level of performance would represent success, and the Department agreed with this recommendation.53 However, although the Department recognises that it needs to demonstrate what has been achieved for its spending on education recovery, it has not set targets for the impact it wants to achieve from the recovery interventions because it now regards these as part of its overall activity to improve pupils’ attainment.54
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Government response AI summary
The government rejects the recommendation to set clear metrics and targets for the impact of education recovery interventions. It states it already publishes national attainment data, key performance indicators, and outlines ambitions in the Schools White Paper to measure progress across the school system.
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HM Treasury
28
Recommendation
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery…
Rejected
In the March 2022 Schools White Paper, the Department set ambitions that, by 2030, 90% of primary school children would achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, and the percentage of children meeting the expected standard in the worst performing areas would have increased by a third. The …
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In the March 2022 Schools White Paper, the Department set ambitions that, by 2030, 90% of primary school children would achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, and the percentage of children meeting the expected standard in the worst performing areas would have increased by a third. The ambitions for secondary schools were for the national GCSE average grade in both English language and maths to increase from 4.5 in 2019 to 5.0 by 2030.55 The Department has not set milestones between now and 2030 to show progress towards these ambitions.56 We asked the Department how, without milestones, it was going to track progress. The Department agreed that the long- term ambition in the Schools White Paper invited a recognition of the importance of setting progress measures. It had not done that in the White Paper, but expected to be able to make public its plans for primary school pupils in the next couple of months.57
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Government response AI summary
The government disagrees with the recommendation to set explicit milestones for its 2030 ambitions, arguing that existing national attainment data, KPIs, and forthcoming statistics already provide sufficient measures of progress.
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HM Treasury
29
Conclusion
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery…
Rejected
The Department pointed us to the performance metrics that it published every year in its Outcome Delivery Plan. It said that it published a wide range of metrics at Key Stages 2 and 4, and the results of Key Stage 1 tests such as the phonics screening check. The Department …
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The Department pointed us to the performance metrics that it published every year in its Outcome Delivery Plan. It said that it published a wide range of metrics at Key Stages 2 and 4, and the results of Key Stage 1 tests such as the phonics screening check. The Department assured us that it used all of these measures to hold itself to account, and that it expected other people to use them to hold it to account for progress.58 We note, however, that the Department’s most recent Outcome Delivery Plan was published in July 2021, nearly two years ago.59 53 Committee of Public Accounts, COVID-19: Support for children’s education, Third Report of Session 2021–22, HC 240, 26 May 2021; HM Treasury, Treasury Minutes – Government responses to the Committee of Public Accounts on the First to the Sixth reports from Session 2021–22, August 2021 (page 11) 54 C&AG’s Report, para 3.3 55 HM Government, Opportunity for all: strong schools with great teachers for your child, March 2022, page 11 56 C&AG’s Report, para 3.4 57 Q 101 58 Q 102 59 Department for Education, DfE Outcome Delivery Plan: 2021 to 2022, published 15 July 2021 14 Education recovery in schools in England
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Government response AI summary
The government rejects the implicit recommendation concerning its performance metrics, stating it already publishes national attainment data for various key stages and critical programmes. It indicates these, along with ambitions in the Schools White Paper, collectively provide measures for progress.
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HM Treasury