Government aims to halve attainment gap for disadvantaged students

The government says it plans to halve the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers in England by the time children born in this Parliament finish secondary school.

The measure is expected to be part of a new Schools White Paper, which will be published in full on Monday morning.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the reforms will help end the "one-size-fits-all system" which she says has "denied" children from disadvantaged backgrounds the same success as their peers.

But there are expected to be radical and potentially controversial changes to support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) which would require backing from Labour MPs.

The government plans to end the achievement gap between England's richest and poorest school pupils by reforming how schools target funding for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Phillipson has said: "These reforms are a golden opportunity to cut the link between background and success - one that we must seize."

She added: "Our Schools White Paper presents the blueprint for opportunity for the next generation, with an education system that truly serves every child, whatever their needs and wherever in the country they grow up."

Leaks also suggest one part of the plan due to be announced on Monday will see children with SEND in England have their right to support reviewed as they move through the school system.

Children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) - which are legal documents outlining their extra support entitlement - will be reassessed after primary school from 2029 as part of a wider system overhaul.

The BBC understands this will sit alongside an extension of legal rights to include all children with SEND through school-led Individual Support Plans (ISP).

Every child with identified special educational needs, including those who do not currently have an EHCP, will have an ISP drawn up by the school, which will have some kind of legal status.

For Hannah Luxford, whose teenage son has anxiety, it took 18 months to get him an EHCP.

"It's an unhelpful, adversarial, complex system that is designed to make you give up," Luxford told the BBC.

Now, Luxford says her son is thriving at a funded virtual school. But she worries about his legal rights under the new reforms.

"I want to hear that for those of us already with EHCPs that we are protected," she said noting how her son's is getting the "education he deserves" at the school he currently attends.

"If that's taken away, it will take us back to where we were five years ago."

Luke Sibieta, from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the situation is "worst of all worlds" with rising numbers of EHCPs and increasing costs but no better quality for children.

"Unfortunately we still have a system that is characterised by conflict, by fight, but also by really patchy levels of quality."

The latest GCSE results show the disadvantage gap index for year 11s stood at 3.92, according to the Department for Education (DfE).

It had previously dropped to a low of 3.66 in 2019/20 with some small fluctuations in between, but it began widening in the post-pandemic years.

In the 2022/2023, it reached the highest it had been in a decade at 3.94.