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 \u2013 including those from economically deprived backgrounds, with special educational needs, or who are in need of help and protection from children\u2019s social care \u2013 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>
To help school leaders support the most disadvantaged children, we have spent over £13 billion since 2011 \u2013 almost £2.4 billion this year alone \u2013 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\u2019 outcomes.<\/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>
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>
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. \u2018Putting Children First\u2019 sets out our reform programme to improve the quality of leadership and of the workforce in children\u2019s social care. As part of these reforms, we have established the Children\u2019s 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\u2019s educational outcomes at a national and a local level through the Children in Need review.<\/p>
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The department only collects the numbers of child and family social workers employed by local authorities in England. Data on the gender of social workers was only collected on a mandatory basis for the first time in 2017. Therefore, there is only one year of data available on the gender of child and family social workers.<\/p>