Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Paragraph: 19
Disadvantage is a gradient, not an ‘either-or’ of FSM-eligible or ‘advantaged’.
Recommendation
Disadvantage is a gradient, not an ‘either-or’ of FSM-eligible or ‘advantaged’. To support disadvantaged White pupils the Government must refine its key measures of disadvantage and widen public access to its statistics. This should be done in a way that protects pupil anonymity as a priority, for example by redacting figures where they reflect very small groups of pupils. Particularly importantly, the Department must consistently publish statistics that are as locally targeted as possible, at least at local authority or constituency level. These statistics must underpin the targeting of all interventions to those communities that most need them. In the short term, the Department should learn from the former Children’s Commissioner’s approach to capturing disadvantage by including statistics on the length of time children are FSM- eligible, and how other forms of disadvantage (for example, SEND, care experience, and local levels of deprivation) interact with this status. In the long term, the Department should work with other parts of Government to build a more sophisticated measure of how poverty affects children. This could draw on initial work by the Social Metrics Commission to develop a metric of poverty that provides a better understanding of the nature of poverty by drawing on lived experience and identifying those least able to make ends meet.
Paragraph Reference:
19
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
We recognise that eligibility for Free School Meals (FSM) is an imperfect measure of disadvantage. We are continuously looking at our FSM data and are working closely with DWP to see where improvements can be made. The FSM Universal Credit protections remain in place, meaning that anyone claiming FSM during the period in which Universal Credit continues to roll out will retain their eligibility and access to free meals, even if their circumstances change and their income rises. These protections also apply to Pupil Premium and deprivation funding, meaning access to these funding elements is also retained. FSM statistics are published at national, regional, and local authority level. FSM is also published as a ‘characteristic’ in other releases, including attainment statistics. While we endeavour to publish as much data as possible to meet user needs, FSM is often not split by ethnicity. We have also published the disadvantage gap index at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4, which is a useful way of comparing over time the gap between disadvantaged children, using the same definition as Pupil Premium eligibility, and all other children. Further, we have introduced the Explore Education Statistics dissemination platform, which provides users with easier access to underlying data. The statistics that are published are regularly reviewed to ensure they meet the needs of users. The statistics producers work closely with policy analysis and policy teams to ensure the statistics are aligned with policy developments. We will of course look to build any changes in policy into our suite of official statistics, and at that point we will look at how far our statistics break down disadvantage and whether we could go further, as well as considering whether to commission new research around more sophisticated poverty measures.