| answer text |
<p>The government is committed to ensuring that all children, irrespective of background,
have a fair chance to go as far as their talent and hard work will take them. Every
child – including those from economically deprived backgrounds, with special educational
needs, or who are in need of help and protection from children’s social care – should
have the opportunity to achieve good outcomes. The government is working to ensure
that local leaders are supported to provide these vulnerable children with the services
they need to achieve well in education and, where necessary, to have a safe and stable
home life.</p><p>To help school leaders support the most disadvantaged children, we
have spent over £13 billion since 2011 – almost £2.4 billion this year alone – through
the pupil premium to tackle educational inequality. In 2011 we established the Education
Endowment Foundation with £137 million to research and promote the most effective
ways of using pupil premium, so that schools leaders can improve their disadvantaged
pupils’ outcomes.</p><p>In schools, our system leaders continue to provide support
to help deliver better outcomes for vulnerable children. To ensure that system leaders
can support all students, teaching schools must demonstrate high levels of progress
and attainment for all pupils, and especially disadvantaged pupils, in order to be
designated and funded by the department.</p><p>We know that many disadvantaged pupils
have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and the government has also
provided over £340 million since April 2014, to support local authorities, working
with their partners, including health and schools, to implement the SEND reforms.
We have funded training and a SEND leadership programme to support local authorities
and health services to deliver their SEND services, which included training on joint
commissioning.</p><p>Equally, where children need help and support from social care
to achieve safety and stability in their lives, we know effective leadership is vital
for good practice to thrive. ‘Putting Children First’ sets out our reform programme
to improve the quality of leadership and of the workforce in children’s social care.
As part of these reforms, we have established the Children’s Social Care What Works
Centre, to develop the evidence base for leaders to use in delivering what works to
support vulnerable children and families. We are building further evidence of what
works to improve these children’s educational outcomes at a national and a local level
through the Children in Need review.</p><p> </p>
|
|
