Tackling disadvantage

Today’s Education in the Media looks at what the government is doing to tackle child poverty.

Today, Wednesday 4 September, charity Buttle UK published findings of a poll they conducted of 1,200 child support workers across the UK to gain their insights into how poverty affected a child’s education.

A Department for Education spokesperson said:

Tackling disadvantage will always be a priority for this government. The gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has narrowed since 2011, and 85% of children are now in good or outstanding schools compared to just 66% in 2010.

We have invested an extra £2.4 billion this year alone through the Pupil Premium to ensure schools can give disadvantage pupils the extra support they need.

We are also providing free school meals for 1.3 million of the country’s most disadvantaged children and continuing to spend over £95 billion a year on working-age benefits to support those who need it most.

https://dfemedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/09/04/tackling-disadvantage/