The press release issued by the Department for Education on 19 September 2011.

The government today announced a trial to offer vouchers for parenting classes to mothers and fathers of children under five. This is part of plans to increase support for parents to help them communicate better with their children, encourage good behaviour, and prevent problems developing later on.

The trial is likely to run in three or four areas of the country. The Government hopes to encourage demand for parenting classes and reduce the stigma of asking for information, advice and help with parenting.

Around three-quarters of parents say they want more information and support to help their parenting. The vouchers will potentially benefit parents from a wide range of backgrounds, not just those who may have significant problems, like drug or alcohol abuse. Many good and able parents still need information and advice in the early years of their child’s life.

Most parents will have accessed antenatal classes during pregnancy, which provide useful guidance and support. The trial will give parents similar access to parenting classes in the first five years of their child’s life, so that support does not stop when their baby is born but is available right through to when their child starts school.

Children’s Minister Sarah Teather said:

The Government should do all it can, without interfering in family life, to support parents to be the best they possibly can be.

The first few years of a child’s life can be the toughest period for parents’ relationships. And these early years are also the most crucial for healthy child development.

Parenting classes can be life-changing because they give parents the skills to manage challenging situations, give their children clear and firm boundaries and help them learn the consequences of their actions. This strengthens families and means children are better behaved, more respectful and can achieve more at school.

Increasing help, advice and support before a child reaches school age also reduces the likelihood of families needing more expensive support later on. It makes moral, social and economic sense.

The Government wants to make asking for parenting support the norm rather than the exception. The Government will work with organisations with an existing track record to test the supply and demand for universal parenting classes, as well as other products and services that support families in the earliest years of a child’s life.

Evidence shows that parents are the single most important influence on their child’s development. They can have a lasting and positive impact on their children’s emotional, physical and intellectual development.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 16 September 2011.

Study finds the short check is popular with pupils

Thousands of children will receive the extra support they need to become confident, fluent readers thanks to the Department for Education’s new phonics check, an independent study today reveals.

In a pilot, 43% of teachers said they had been able to pinpoint 6-year-old pupils with reading problems of which they were not previously aware.

Those children will now be given additional support to improve. The study of the pilot also found that:

• the majority of teachers found most aspects of the check appropriate;
• most pupils found the check to be a positive experience;
• it took on average between four and nine minutes for each pupil to complete.

The check, supported by three-quarters of parents in a survey by the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, was piloted in 300 schools this summer and will be rolled out across England next year. All Year 1 pupils will be screened between 18 and 22 June 2012. The check involves teachers taking pupils through a booklet of 40 words on a one-to-one basis.

If the pilot’s success rate is replicated when it is rolled out, thousands more teachers will be able to identify children who need extra reading help.

In this year’s tests for pupils leaving primary school:

• 1-in-6 11-year-olds did not reach the reading standard expected.
• 1-in-10 boys aged 11 can read no better than a 7-year-old.

England has also slipped down the international table for reading in primary schools. The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 10-year-olds saw England fall from third out of 35 countries in 2001 to 15th out of 40 countries in 2006.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:

Ensuring that every child leaves primary school as a fluent and confident reader is key to raising academic standards overall and is important in closing the attainment gap between those from poorer and wealthier backgrounds. It is unacceptable that 10% of boys aged 11 can read no better than a 7-year-old.

The new check is based on a method that is internationally proven to help children learn to read and the evidence from the pilot is clear – thousands of 6-year-olds, who would otherwise slip through the net, will get the extra reading help they need to become good readers, to flourish at secondary school and to enjoy a lifetime’s love of reading.

This study finds that the check will be of real benefit to pupils but takes just a few minutes to carry out and is a positive experience for most children.

High-quality academic research from across the world shows that the systematic teaching of synthetic phonics is the best way to teach children to read, especially those aged 5 to 7.

The main findings of the study, carried out by the Centre for Education and Inclusion Research (CEIR) at Sheffield Hallam University for the Department for Education, are that:

• 43% of pilot schools were able to identify pupils with phonics problems of which they were not already aware.
• all aspects of the check were seen as appropriate by at least 74% of teachers.
• Three-quarters of pilot schools said the check assessed phonic decoding ability accurately. Most schools interviewed in the pilot also plan to use the results to inform their teaching and planning.
• Most teachers and pupils understood the purpose of the check correctly.
• More than 90% of teachers said the content of the check was suitable on most levels.
• 83% of teachers said the number of words was suitable; 80% said the type of vocabulary was suitable; and 74% thought the non-words used were suitable.
• The check took on average three hours for schools to prepare for the check, and 12-and-a-half hours to administer it.
• 65% of schools found the resources used to administer the check “straightforward” or “very straightforward” to manage.
• 89% of pilot schools said the guidance provided to them by the Department for Education was ‘useful’ or ‘very useful’.
• Pilot schools wanted detailed results of the check. Almost all 97% wanted pupil-level results and 88% wanted commentary on national-level results. Some 90% of schools wanted benchmarking data to help them set appropriate expectations for their pupils.
• The experience of the check was positive for most pupils. Some 62% of pilot schools felt the experience had been positive for all pupils, while 31% said it was neither positive nor negative.
• The check took on average between 4 and 9 minutes to complete per pupil.

Nick Gibb added:

Overall the report provides sufficient evidence to roll out the check nationally next year. There are also some helpful suggestions from teachers, and we will consider making some amendments to the check when it is introduced for all Year 1 pupils next summer.

The Department for Education is also launching a catalogue of approved phonics resources for teaching pupils and training teachers. Primary schools with Key Stage 1 pupils will be able to claim up to £3,000, if they match that funding, to spend on these approved materials.

Schools will decide which of the resources will help them to deliver high-quality phonics teaching for their pupils and will be able to buy products and training with the match-funding any time up to March 2013.

How phonics works

Phonics focuses on sounds rather than, for example, having children try to recognise whole words.

In analytic phonics, words are broken down into their beginning and end parts, such as ‘str-‘ and ‘eet’, with an emphasis on ‘seeing’ the words and analogy with other words. In synthetic phonics, children start by sequencing the individual sounds in words – for example, ‘s-t-r-ee-t’, with an emphasis on blending them together. Once they have learned all these, they progress to reading books.

The ‘synthetic’ part comes from the word ‘synthesise’, meaning to assemble or blend together. Children who learn using synthetic phonics are able to try new words working from sound alone, whereas those using analytic phonics are more dependent on having prior knowledge of families of words.

High-quality research evidence

In Clackmannanshire, Scotland, a seven-year study of the teaching of synthetic phonics to 300 children found they made more progress in reading and spelling than other children their age.

A 2005 Australian report, Teaching Reading, said:

The incontrovertible finding from the extensive body of local and international evidence-based literacy research is that for children during the early years of schooling (and subsequently if needed) to be able to link their knowledge of spoken language to their knowledge of written language, they must first master the alphabetic code – the system of grapheme-phoneme correspondences that link written words to their pronunciations. Because these are both foundational and essential skills for the development of competence in reading, writing and spelling, they must be taught explicitly, systematically, early and well.

The US National Reading Panel report of 2006 said:

Systematic synthetic phonics instruction had a positive and significant effect on disabled readers’ reading skills. These children improved substantially in their ability to read words and showed significant, albeit small, gains in their ability to process text as a result of systematic synthetic phonics instruction. This type of phonics instruction benefits both students with learning disabilities and low-achieving students who are not disabled. Moreover, systematic synthetic phonics instruction was significantly more effective in improving low socio-economic status (SES) children’s alphabetic knowledge and word reading skills than instructional approaches that were less focused on these initial reading skills… across all grade levels, systematic phonics instruction improved the ability of good readers to spell.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 15 September 2011.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:

I am today announcing that the Standards and Testing Agency (STA), a new executive agency of the Department for Education, will commence operating on Monday 3rd October. The STA will be responsible for the development and delivery of all statutory assessments from early years to the end of Key Stage 3.

This work was previously carried out by the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency, which – subject to the will of Parliament – will cease its final remaining functions in March 2012.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 12 September 2011.

All schools are now able to vary their school day to benefit their pupils.

Up until this September, if a local authority maintained school wanted to change its lunchtime, for example, by five minutes or extend its school hours, it had to go through a bureaucratic process which in some cases took up to three months. Foundation, foundation special, voluntary aided schools and academies were free from these restrictive regulations and so could already vary their school day.

Under the changes, which came into effect on 1 September 2011, the same freedoms are now extended to local authority maintained schools.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:

We want to give teachers and heads more power over how they run their schools. It shouldn’t be central government or detailed regulation that determines the time a school day starts or the length of the school lunch break. Academies have already benefited from this freedom and used it to help their pupils with catch up lessons or extra-curricular activities. We want all schools to benefit from this freedom if they choose to do so.

Supporting the changes Russell Hobby, general secretary of the NAHT, said:

Longer school days can be one of the most powerful ways of bringing about school improvement. Carefully planned changes will be fine; heads are very aware of the needs of parents and their working lives.

Many academies have taken advantage of this freedom to vary their school day to provide extra-curricular activities or additional learning.

• ARK Academies across England have a longer school day both at primary and secondary level. At secondary level, this provides 31 hours of teaching per week, which allows for targeted catch up where needed as well as wider enrichment, extension and ‘masterclass’ activity – for example achieving the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) as an on-line course in the extended day flexible time.
• At the Milton Keynes Academy, students have a 30-hour week, with lessons from 8.30am – 3.20pm each day. This gives them five hours of extra learning per week and allows for all students to receive the equivalent of an hour of both literacy and numeracy every day.
• The West London Academy has extended the school day with an additional four hours teaching time per week.
• The Harefield Academy in Hillingdon, London, has used the freedom to structure the school day differently to accommodate its day boarders – young people who arrive very early and don’t go home sometimes until seven or eight at night. These are youngsters who have a particular talent in their sporting activity. During the day they have extra coaching and after school they catch up with their lessons; they do their homework, have their tea, and then they do more training.
• The JCB Academy in Staffordshire has hours that are more like business hours than normal schools and sixth form colleges. The curriculum encourages a structured and effective use of time, meaning that there should be very little – if any – homework in years 10 and 11 (sixth formers will have some homework, but probably less than other schools).
• Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation of Academies across London maximise learning and teaching time by extending the length of the school day.

Schools will still be expected to consult and to take account of the views of all interested parties before they implement any changes to the school day. They will be advised to consult and serve reasonable notice on their local authority, parents, pupils and staff, but free from national regulation being imposed on them.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 8 September 2011.

Free schools, the cynics say, are cuckoos in the nest. They’re greedy interlopers, swallowing up the resources which should properly go to the existing family of schools.

The only children who’ll benefit, they say, are the rich. Because it’s the sharp-elbowed middle classes who’ve barged their way into these schools.

It’s a powerful argument. Which, nevertheless, has nothing to do with the facts. Free schools have been created to save children from being poorly served by other local schools, whether through poor standards or a desperate lack of places.

And the people behind them are crusaders for social justice who deserve all our thanks. Their principal opponents – like Tony Benn’s daughter, the Hon Melissa Benn, or Alastair Campbell’s partner Fiona Millar – tend to be well-connected media types from London’s most privileged circles.

But the free school I’m opening today in Enfield serves children from some of our least privileged neighbourhoods. Woodpecker Hall has been set up by a modest but inspirational headteacher who has devoted her life to helping children in need.

Patricia Sowter took over her first school, Cuckoo Hall, when it was in special measures and risked closure because it was so bad. Now it is one of England’s best, doing far better than the national average.

Two-thirds of pupils leave at age 11 performing as well as most 14-year-olds, though the school has twice as many pupils from poor homes as the national average.

Patricia has already helped turn round schools elsewhere in London and in Cambridgeshire. Now, under the Coalition, she is launching a new primary. So 450 more children can benefit from her traditional teaching, strong discipline and wonderful, loving, pastoral care.

Patricia’s is just one of 24 free schools opening this week, many set up by inspirational teachers like her. Sajjid Husain Raza, the son of a bus driver from Bradford who read science at Oxford, has gone back to his home town to open one for underprivileged children ambitious to follow in his footsteps.

In Norwich, a group led by another great teacher, Tania Sidney-Roberts, is launching one that will open from 8:15am to 5:45pm, 51 weeks a year, to give hard-pressed working parents a better deal.

By allowing teachers, not bureaucrats, to run schools, we have given the people who know most about education the chance to make an even bigger difference.

And by opening superb schools that bring smaller class sizes, longer hours and inspirational teaching, we force complacent local authorities to raise their game and improve all schools.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 5 September 2011.

• Two thirds of schools oversubscribed for their first year
• Demand for some schools three times more than places available

Thousands of parents have applied to send their children to the first 24 Free Schools that are aiming to open in next month. This comes as latest analysis by the Department for Education shows that Free Schools are targeting deprivation, with half of the schools located in the 30 per cent most deprived communities.

15 of the 24 schools are oversubscribed for their first year, with some seeing more than three applications for one school place.

For example:

• Moorlands School, Luton, received 420 applications for 115 places.
• The West London Free School, Hammersmith and Fulham, received over 500 applications for 120 places.
• Sandbach School, Cheshire, received 340 applications for 210 places.
• St Luke’s Church of England Primary School, Camden, received 54 applications for 15 places.

Department for Education analysis published today also shows that Free Schools are targeting deprivation. Based on Super Output Areas – the most accurate reflection of a school’s local community – the analysis finds that of the 24 Free Schools opening in the next two weeks:

• Over a third (9 schools) are located in the 20% most deprived communities.
• Half the schools (12 schools) are located in the 30% most deprived communities.

The figures clearly show that the Free Schools policy has already been a success in creating schools in disadvantaged areas and where there is a need for new places. Many of the Free Schools opening this September have been set up because passionate teachers and charities want to support the very poorest pupils who live in communities where results and aspiration have been low for generations.

Free Schools will be good, local schools funded by the Government, but have greater freedoms than local authority run schools. They are run by teachers – not local councils or Westminster politicians – and have freedom over things like the length of the school day, the curriculum, and how they spend their money. These schools are opening because of real, local demand from parents for a new or different type of education to benefit local children and their families. They will meet parents’ simple desire for good, local, state funded schools that have strong discipline and – in many cases – small class sizes.

The teachers running the outstanding Cuckoo Hall Academy, for example, have decided to set up a Free School – Woodpecker Hall Primary Academy – so they can reach more children in a part of North London that needs good new school places, and where the number of pupils on Free Schools Meals is high.

Patricia Sowter, executive principal of Woodpecker Hall Primary Academy, talking about her previous experience before setting up a Free School said:

It would break my heart. I couldn’t give places to half of the children in the nursery class because of local authority admission rules. I remember one Asian family whose mother had tears in her eyes as she pleaded with me to take her daughter. I knew I had to do more to help these parents get what was best for their children. I knew these children could succeed, despite the deprivation and despite what seemed to be a mindset of low expectations at the local authority.

Under the Coalition Government’s new plans, Free Schools will also be able to prioritise the most disadvantaged children (eligible for Free School Meals) in their school admissions arrangements. With the Pupil Premium – worth £430 per pupil this year – there will be an even greater incentive for Free Schools to attract pupils that are most in need of high-quality education.

From initial proposal to opening, the first Free Schools will have taken between ten and 15 months to set up from submitting initial application forms. In the past, it took between three and five years to set up a maintained school, with parent-promoted schools taking up to nine years. It also took five years to open the first 50 Academies. The Government is shaving years off this to respond to the urgent demand from parents, and to drive up standards more quickly – especially for the poorest pupils.

Schools Minister Lord Hill said:

What parents want is the chance to send their children to a good local school with high standards. These new free schools are designed to achieve exactly that and we are committed to opening many more in the next few years.

For too long, politicians in Westminster have assumed they know best and that more political control means better results. The opposite is true. Good schools know better than politicians how to run their own affairs and that’s why we’re confident these free schools – which give them real independence – will offer local children a great education. It’s not surprising many are oversubscribed.

Notes to editors

1. As of 1 September, the Free Schools that are oversubscribed this year are:

• Aldborough E-ACT Free School, Redbridge
• ARK Conway Primary Academy, Hammersmith & Fulham
• Batley Grammar School, Kirklees
• Bradford Science Academy, Bradford
• Canary Wharf College, Tower Hamlets
• Discovery New School, West Sussex
• Eden Primary School, Haringey
• Langley Hall Primary Academy, Slough
• Maharish School, Lancashire
• Moorlands School, Luton
• Sandbach School, Cheshire
• St Luke’s Church of England Primary School, Camden
• The Free School Norwich, Norfolk
• West London Free School, Hammersmith & Fulham
• Woodpecker Hall Academy, Enfield

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 5 September 2011.

• 1,000 new academies have opened in the last year

More children will have the opportunity of a great education as record numbers of weak schools are turned into academies this year.

Forty-five sponsored academies will open in September, with a further forty-nine due to open during this academic year. This is the highest ever number of new sponsored academies to open in one year.

In addition, 185 good schools will become academies this month – on top of the 796 who have already converted. These schools can now take charge of their own affairs and enjoy the professional freedom and control that academy status brings.

Since September 2010, 1,097 schools have become academies (116 sponsored academies, 981 converter academies), meaning that 1300 academies are now open, compared to 203 opened before the Academies Act of July 2011. This is more than a six-fold increase.

This means that more than 40 per cent of all secondary schools are now open or in the process of opening as academies.

As of this September:

• there are 1,300 Academies open across the country
• in 29 local authorities, the majority of secondary schools are academies
• in addition to the open academies, a further 575 are in the pipeline, with more applications expected in the new school year
• the first 12 special schools have become Academies and we are working with 25 who are interested in doing so over the next year.

Education Secretary, Michael Gove, said today:

Teachers, not politicians or bureaucrats, should run schools. They should be free to innovate in the classroom. That is why thousands of schools are becoming academies.

Every child should be able to attend a good school. But we have inherited one of the most stratified and segregated education systems in the developed world.

Thankfully, record numbers of weak schools are becoming academies this year, so we are giving more and more children opportunities that have historically been the preserve of those from wealthy backgrounds.

Academies benefit from greater freedoms to innovate and raise standards. These include:

• freedom from local and central government control
• the ability to set their own pay and conditions for staff
• freedoms around the delivery of the curriculum
• freedom to change the lengths of terms and school days.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 31 August 2011.

Sir,

It is disappointing that Monday’s article plays down the hard work and achievement of so many passionate teachers, parents and charities that have set up new schools to improve education for children in their area (Pupil numbers are scaled back after failure to fill places, Monday 29 August 2011).

Contrary to the gloomy picture painted, many of the free schools opening for the first time in September report that they are oversubscribed – with some receiving four applications for one place.

The fact that hundreds of families are putting their faith in these brand new schools – schools that do not yet have exam results or Ofsted ratings to prove their worth – is remarkable. It clearly shows that parents want a better choice of local schools – run by teachers, not bureaucrats – which offer strong discipline, excellent teaching and high standards.

Lord Hill of Oareford CBE

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools

 

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 26 August 2011.

The number of disabled children receiving short breaks more than doubled between April 2008 and March 2011, with increases in every area of the country. The findings are published today in a report by Together for Disabled Children (TDC), commissioned by the government.

Short breaks give disabled children and their families the chance of a normal life and opportunities that other children can take for granted such as playing with their friends, learning new hobbies or going on holiday. Short breaks also give parents a well needed rest from their caring responsibilities and a chance to recharge.

The government has now made it statutory for local authorities to provide short breaks, as of April 2011. The new regulations require local authorities to publish information to parents describing what short breaks services are on offer in their area.

The government has committed over £800 million for local authorities to invest in short breaks between April 2011 and March 2015 through the Early Intervention Grant. This compares with £270 million which was made available between 2008 and 2011.

The number of disabled children receiving short breaks rose from 57,383 in 2008-09 to 162,831 in 2010-11 – an increase of over 105,000 children. This has contributed to a decrease in social care interventions and a fall in the number of disabled children entering the looked after system.

The TDC report also analysed the success of parent forums across the country between 2008 and 2011. Over 1,700 parents of disabled children are now actively involved in planning services in their area through parent forums – over three times more than in 2008.

Children’s Minister, Sarah Teather, said:

Disabled children and their parents rely on support and free time to have a normal family life. Weekends away, overnight care and fun activities give parents a valuable break from caring and give disabled children a chance to learn a new skill or make new friends.

The success of the short breaks programme is clearly down to local authorities working in partnership with parents of disabled children, so that services are shaped by their needs. The families involved benefit and services are better value for money so other families get to enjoy more short breaks services.

Short breaks provide families with early help so they can cope better in times of stress, and are less likely to need help from social care services. That’s why it’s vital that local authorities continue to invest in short breaks and make it a priority. We have backed this up with a new duty on local authorities to provide short breaks.

We want to give parents more influence and control over local services. In our green paper on special educational needs (SEN) and disability we have set out a range of ways that parents should be involved in local decision making. Increasing parent participation means more services are being delivered that are more responsive to the needs of local disabled children.

On short breaks the report finds that:

• Over eight million additional hours of daytime short breaks were provided to disabled children and their families – the number of daytime hours rose from 6,079,681 hours in 2008 to 14,308,283 hours by March 2011.
• An additional 193,000 nights of care are being provided either in the child’s own home, in hospices, holiday parks or on weekend breaks. The number of nights of care rose from 587,095 nights in 2008 to 780,827 nights by March 2011.
• Local authorities have particularly improved activities and breaks for children with severe challenging behaviour and complex health needs.
• Providing a range of short breaks services has led to greater satisfaction from disabled children and their parents and is more cost effective than only using expensive residential care.
• Greater parental involvement in commissioning short breaks services has led to better value for money, and therefore more services are being delivered to more children.
• There have been particular increases in the number of voluntary and community sector organisations, particularly small local groups, delivering services.

Christine Lenehan, Council for Disabled Children (CDC), said:

Short breaks are essential for families with disabled children. Caring for a disabled child can be a full time job. This often means that parents of disabled children have little time to do day-to-day tasks such as cleaning, taking a shower and sitting down to eat a meal.

Access to regular, reliable, high quality short breaks can be life changing for families, providing time to do day-to-day activities, to rest and to build their relationships. Even more importantly, they give disabled children and young people themselves the opportunity to take part in positive activities, to build friendships and to play an active part in their communities.

CDC warmly welcomes the increase in access to short breaks, particularly for children with the most complex needs. However, this is not the end of the story. It is crucial that the Government continues to monitor local delivery of short breaks under the Early Intervention Grant.

The government today announced that Contact a Family, a charity providing advice and support for the parents of disabled children, has won the contract to strengthen parents’ involvement in local decision making across the country. Contact a Family will carry through the commitments in the SEN and disability green paper to give parents more control over the support their child and family needs, and to fund parent forums in every local area.

Parent forums have been developed in almost all local authorities to help parents have a say in the range and quality of services for disabled children. This includes, for example, the supply and delivery of equipment, therapy services, and the local SEN transport policy.

An increase in parent participation and the active involvement of parents in shaping services has resulted in:

• Lower stress for families, helping them feel in control of their child’s wellbeing.
• An increase in value for money services.
• Better, more coordinated local information for families of disabled children.
• Some parents have personally benefitted and have returned to work as a result of the confidence of being part of a group.
• Three pilot projects in Leicester, Hull and Tower Hamlets successfully increased the number of black and ethnic minority parents by tackling barriers such as lack of information and language differences.

Srabani Sen, Chief Executive of Contact a Family, said:

We are delighted the government has committed to continue funding parent forums which have played a vital role in shaping services to meet the needs of families with disabled children over the last three years.

The results speak for themselves: more and more parents’ voices are being heard, parents feel more in control and this has led to a range of improved outcomes for children, young people and their families.

Strengthening parent participation is at the heart of Contact a Family’s work and we look forward to supporting parent carer forums to continue their excellent work.

Local parent forums share experiences, provide peer support, and get updates on national developments via the regional parent forum networks. A National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF), established in March 2010, supports local and regional forums. This has helped ensure that parents are engaged in shaping national policy, and that their voices are heard.

The NNPCF has worked closely with the government in formulating national policy. Specifically they are involved in the selection of green paper pathfinders that will test the single education, health and care plan and personal budgets.

Anna Gill and Carrie Britton, co-chairs of the NNPCF, said:

We are delighted that the government values the unique and crucial perspective that Parent Carers can bring to strategic decision making at all levels, from national commissioning and policy making through to the local allocation of scarce resources; the ongoing commitment to support the development of all Parent Carer Forums through Contact a Family will help us ensure that the voice of even more families will be heard.

Voluntary and community sector and other organisations have been invited to bid to support local areas, including their ongoing provision of short breaks.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 28 July 2011.

Responding to the Education Select Committee’s report on the English Baccalaureate, Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:

We believe very strongly that all children have the right to a broad and balanced education that includes English, maths, science, a language and a humanity.

These academic subjects reflect the knowledge and skills young people need to progress to further study or to rewarding employment. It cannot be right that children from the poorest backgrounds are significantly less likely to have the opportunity to take GCSEs in these subjects than children from more advantaged areas. Just 8% of children eligible for Free School Meals were entered for the E-Bacc subjects next last year compared to 22% overall.

Closing the attainment gap between children from wealthier and poorer backgrounds is a key objective of the Government and the E-Bacc measure plays an important part in helping to deliver that objective. The E-Bacc is not compulsory but it is about closing the attainment gap between rich and poor and about increasing opportunity.