Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Education Recovery in Schools

Status: Closed Opened: 20 Jan 2023 Closed: 24 Sep 2023 6 recommendations 23 conclusions 1 report

The disruption to schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic led to learning loss, particularly in certain parts of the country and among children with special educational needs and disabilities, and disadvantaged children. In response to the loss of learning the Department for Education (DfE) developed various catch-up learning initiatives for the 2020/21 school year, which it …

Clear

Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery in schools in Engla… HC 998 7 Jun 2023 29 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

7 items
7 Conclusion Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery… Rejected

Disadvantage gap in pupil attainment widened significantly following the COVID-19 pandemic

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 …

Government response. 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 …
HM Treasury
8 Conclusion Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery… Rejected

Department affirms relentless focus on closing attainment disadvantage gap through recovery programmes

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 …

Government response. 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 …
HM Treasury
9 Conclusion Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery… Rejected

Department expects disadvantage gap to narrow from summer 2023 with current measures

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 …

Government response. 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.
HM Treasury
10 Conclusion Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery… Rejected

Department's strategy risks a decade to return disadvantage gap to pre-pandemic levels.

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 …

Government response. 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.
HM Treasury
27 Recommendation Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery… Rejected

Set clear metrics and specific targets for education recovery programme impact.

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 …

Government response. 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 …
HM Treasury
28 Recommendation Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery… Rejected

Department set long-term attainment ambitions but lacks interim progress milestones.

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 …

Government response. 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.
HM Treasury
29 Conclusion Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery… Rejected

Department relies on outdated Outcome Delivery Plan metrics for tracking progress and accountability.

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 …

Government response. 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.
HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
9 Mar 2023 Andrew McCully · Department for Education, Graham Archer · Department for Education, Susan Acland-Hood · The Department for Education View ↗

Correspondence

1 letter
DateDirectionTitle
17 Apr 2023 Correspondence from Susan Acland-Hood, Permanent Secretary, Department for Educ…