Underachievement in Education by White Working Class Children

Published 15 September 2014.

The government welcomes the Committee's inquiry and agrees with much of its analysis of white working class underachievement, while setting out reforms, research and data commitments rather than accepting every recommendation in full.

• On defining disadvantage, it agrees that such terms are "complex matters" and says it "will consider a range of options for allocating funding according to economic disadvantage", including greater data sharing across departments.
• On data, it commits to including combined ethnicity and FSM analysis in the next statistical releases on level 2 and 3 attainment by age 19, attendance and exclusion, and is "investigating ways" of transferring school-level FSM data to colleges.
• On school funding, it agrees allocations "are not sufficiently aligned with need" and points to £390 million of additional funding for the least fairly funded areas, while remaining committed to further steps "once long-term spending plans are in place after the next spending review".
• On a published analysis of incentives affecting where teachers choose to work, it says it is "mindful that it is extremely difficult to isolate the drivers" and believes targeting additional money to disadvantaged schools alongside freedom to recruit is "the best way forward at this time".

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