Struggling kids across three city region boroughs will be supported after the Government announced extra investment to drive up education standards.
Knowsley, Liverpool and Halton have been included among 24 priority investment areas which will receive “intensive, bespoke support from the government to rapidly raise standards”, according to the Department for Education.
The interventions are part of the Government’s first Schools White Paper in six years which aims to ensure 90% of children across the country reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at age 11 by 2030. In 2019, only 65% of children achieved this standard, with the Government suggesting that the pandemic will have exacerbated the challenges despite the work parents and teachers in difficult circumstances.
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The plans will be launched today by Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, who will pledge that any child who falls behind in maths or English will get the support they need to get back on track. According to the Department of Education, £86 million will be made available to grow and strengthen multi-academy trusts over the next three years with a particular focus on ‘Education Investment Areas’, those of which include Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.
Announcing the plans, education minister, Robin Walker MP said: "Liverpool is set to receive an additional £26m of capital funding to support them deliver school places needed for September 2024 and for September 2025. Per pupil funding is also expected to increase by around 5.6%, bringing total core mainstream revenue school funding to around £378.7m in Liverpool in 2022-23, including the additional supplementary grant for schools that was secured in the Spending Review last autumn."
He added: "From north to south, east to west, we are working harder and better than ever to help all children and young people fulfil their potential."
Knowsley, Liverpool, Halton are included in the Government's ‘priority investment areas’ and will receive a portion of a further £40 million of additional funding. This, according to the Government, will be used for bespoke interventions to “address local needs, such as high absence rates.”
Liverpool already had higher than average rates of school absence before Covid-19 hit with four days lost per pupil in autumn 2019, compared to three days nationally. However the gap has been widened by the pandemic as 683,602 days of school were missed by pupils in Liverpool in the autumn term of 2020 alone, as analysis of figures from the Department for Education (DfE) revealed.
In 2017, Liverpool was also ranked as the fifth worst place in the country for children to progress through secondary school . The city council area was ranked 147 out of 151 local authorities using the government’s measure of how children progress from the end of primary school to the end of secondary school.
In 2020, Liverpool came 150th out 151 English local authorities for the proportion of kids achieving a Good Level of Development (GLD). This measurement tests primary aged children's abilities in maths and literacy as well as personal, social and emotional development.
Knowsley, one of the poorest and most deprived boroughs in the UK, will also be the centre of targeted support. In 2021, GCSE attainment across the borough was below the national average with its results being some of the lowest in the country just under a decade ago.
Additionally, the borough has controversially not offered any further education opportunities for studying A-Levels after the closure of Halewood Academy sixth form in 2017. Students wishing to pursue further education have to travel to either St Helen or Liverpool. Knowsley Council’s chief executive, Mike Harding, said earlier this month that the borough needs “to do better”. He added: “What do we offer 15 or 16 year olds? An opportunity to get on a bus. We need to do better than that.”
