HM Government

Raising visibility, accountability, and funding

Alongside these improvements in the workforce, we also need to make sure that schools are more clearly accountable for their contribution to excellence and equity. We have up until now tended to focus less on attainment gaps than on overall attainment when we measure schools’ performance. To raise visibility and accountability, from 2009 we will do five things.

• We will consult on a new school report card, to set out clear and simple information on how schools are raising standards, improving, and playing their role in supporting the wider development and wellbeing of children including the most disadvantaged.
• As agreed following consultation in October 2008 local authorities, through the national indicators, will set statutory targets for improving performance of pupils eligible for FSM, within a streamlined and greatly reduced total number of targets focused on significantly underperforming pupil groups.
• We will ensure that variances in attainment at school level rise up the agenda within schools, becoming a standard feature of every discussion between a School Improvement Partner and headteacher; an element considered in each Ofsted inspection; and a key item in the school report card.
• We will disseminate the lessons of The Extra Mile project to raise the aspirations of children in schools with disadvantaged intakes, and extend the project to more secondary schools and also to primary ones.
• We will produce a guidance and best practice document for schools and delivery partners setting out how through practical measures we can further narrow the gap in school results.

To deliver these ambitions, we need to ensure that schools and local authorities have the right funding, delivered in the right way to meet differential costs. We are conducting a full review of the school funding system, which currently provides £35 billion per annum through direct grants to local authorities and schools in order to ensure that it fully reflects and supports schools in meeting the needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils. We will implement any changes from 2011.