This NFER report looks at the long-standing gap in education outcomes between pupils from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers in England.
While it is crucial that there are well-targeted and effective strategies to help those who need it most, an unintended consequence of the Government’s roll-out of Universal Credit (UC) is that it will become increasingly difficult to understand how the performance of disadvantaged pupils is evolving over the next decade.
Transitional arrangements introduced to ease the roll out of the new Universal Credit system could significantly change the number and types of pupils considered to be disadvantaged and the composition of the group from 2023/24 onwards.
It will be increasingly difficult to tell whether trends in the size of the disadvantaged pupils’ attainment gap are being driven by changes in the composition of the disadvantaged group, economic conditions or real changes in attainment.
This is crucial as it will be impossible to identify whether there is any genuine progress in reducing the gap. It will also affect the targeting of funding (e.g. the Pupil Premium) to schools.