Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Accepted
Set out how the Opportunities Mission will join data and embed cross-government working.
Recommendation
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
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and is working to improve and join-up cross-government data from DWP, HMRC, and ONS, bringing metrics into a single source. Key departments are being integrated into the Mission's governance, and multi-disciplinary teams are forming to support innovation and delivery.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Mission. It has set out a clear priority milestone for this parliament to ensure every child has the Best Start in Life, with 75% of children reaching a good level of development at age 5 by 2028. There is a strong evidence base of the impact of early child development on future outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged children. Delivering this target requires effective joined up working across education, health, local government and beyond. The mission has a particular focus on improving outcomes for children and young people experiencing economic disadvantage; with experiences of care; and with special educational needs and disabilities. As the report highlights, accurate, consistent and robust cross-government data and performance information is critical to this. Across the Opportunity Mission, the department is working to improve and join-up data to understand and track outcomes. Cross-government data work is underway in a range of key areas, including with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to link parental income data and outcomes for children. Outcome and delivery metrics are being brought together in a single source of data to track progress across all mission areas, including for key groups of disadvantaged children and young people. This will underpin monitoring and assurance on progress, including through Mission Boards. On wider cross-departmental collaboration, key departments are being built into governance for the Mission and its individual pillars. The Spending Review process is bringing together key departmental contributions to the mission. At the same time, multi-disciplinary expert teams have also been formed to support innovation, including Test and Learn approaches, that will help further strengthen cross-government planning and delivery.