Education Investment Areas – LGA responds to Levelling-Up White Paper announcement

"We fully support the investment targeted at ‘cold spot’ areas, to help provide the schooling every child deserves. However, the pandemic has hit the educational attainment of all pupils hard, particularly those from vulnerable backgrounds, and the impact of this will be felt for years to come."

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Responding to the Government’s plans to set out 55 Education Investment Areas as part of the Levelling Up White Paper, Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said:

“Education will be hugely important in levelling up the country, and we fully support the investment targeted at ‘cold spot’ areas, to help provide the schooling every child deserves. However, the pandemic has hit the educational attainment of all pupils hard, particularly those from vulnerable backgrounds, and the impact of this will be felt for years to come.

“This is why it is vital that children are put at the centre of our recovery from COVID-19, and councils and schools are able to work with government towards our shared goal of ensuring pupils make up for lost learning and are able to provide holistic support, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

“In addition, when considering whether to convert schools with three successive ‘requires improvement’ Ofsted judgements into multi-academy trusts (MATs), the Government should utilise the knowledge and expertise of councils in supporting schools to improve, and allow councils to set up their own MATs. Academisation should be a choice for schools to make if they think it will improve their results.”