Written question WQ85483

I believe it is unacceptable for children’s success to be determined by their social or economic circumstances. Underpinning all of our work is a belief that educational outcomes should not be determined by where a child or young person lives, what their background is or what the income of their parents is. Breaking the cycle of poverty and disadvantage remains a clear commitment of this Welsh Government.

We now spend £130m per annum on the Pupil Development Grant (PDG). As well as being available for all pupils eligible for free school meals it also covers looked after children, children and young people in pupil referral units and EOTAS learners.

Ultimately it will be for schools to decide on how to use PDG and to report on that as part of school self-evaluation. However, we continue to work closely with PDG regional representatives to identify the areas where funding can have most impact, particularly in the context of the recommendations from the ‘Review of School Spending in Wales’ report; in particular prioritising additional funding for more deprived schools and working with local authorities’ on ensuring more consistent and transparent school funding formulae.

In addition, PDG Access provides support for families on the cost of the school day. This grant has made a huge difference to many families across Wales, helping to remove the worry surrounding the purchase of school uniform and equipment, enabling children to attend school and take part in activities at the same level as their peers.

In 2021/22 the grant was extended to eligible children and young people in all compulsory school years, meaning that even more families can now benefit from this support.

In recognition of the pressures facing families, on 14 March I announced an additional one-off payment of £100 to every child or young person eligible for PDG Access for the upcoming school year; taking funding up to over £23m for 2022/23.

In my Oral Statement to the Senedd on 22 March 2022 and in a keynote speech I gave to the Bevan Foundation on 16 June 2022, I have set out what we will be doing to tackle the impact of poverty on attainment, raising standards and aspirations for all. We will develop a sustained, whole-system, approach to bring about a step-change in the attainment of learners experiencing poverty. This will be set out in an action plan that we will publish in due course. Local authorities will be key partners in implementing this action plan and in contextualizing it to their contexts. We would expect, therefore, that local authorities facing the greatest challenges with poverty-related low attainment will progress this action plan at the fastest rate.

Further to this, we want all schools in Wales to be Community Focused Schools - responding to the needs of their community, building a strong partnership with families/ carers and collaborating effectively with other services. By working collaboratively across school, home and the community we can support our children and young people more effectively.

Over the coming months we will invest £3.84m in increasing the number of family engagement officers employed by schools. A family engagement officer can ensure that positive partnerships with families are developed, and that bespoke support and services are offered. A large focus of their role is on supporting attendance and working with families to encourage better levels of attendance and re-engagement with learning after the pandemic. We know that these additional staff can be a highly effective resource for schools in reaching out to parents and carers and engaging them in their children’s learning.

The funding for family engagement officers will allow local authorities to target schools which require additional capacity in this area. In addition, as part of our policy development we will be advising schools on the effective practice of family engagement officers and the wider professional learning required.

We are also providing £660k for a trial of Community Focused School Manager positions in Wales. These roles will help develop better engagement between schools and their communities. The evaluation of these roles will help inform future policy making.