First, I want to say a few words about Amendment 171J in the name of my noble friends Lord Watson of Invergowrie and Lady Blower. It is such an important amendment because it highlights the need for the Government to report on the level of spoken language and communication ability in academies, independent schools and maintained schools. I do not know whether I need to declare an interest but my husband is a former director of campaigns at the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, so I am very familiar with some of the issues.
My noble friend Lord Watson did a fantastic job of explaining why this issue matters. I pay tribute to his work, not just on this amendment but in this area more generally. He made the case very powerfully and both his amendments raise a vital issue. We would like to see it properly considered by the Government and look forward to the Minister’s response. We are hopeful that she can say something positive.
Amendments 171N, 171O and 171Q, in the names of my noble friend Lady Whitaker and the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, would require the reporting and recording of bullying based on protected characteristics, the provision of information to parents and the sharing of that information in the interests of the welfare of the child. We support my noble friend and the noble Baroness in their amendments and feel that they would assist us in tracking what is going on and enabling us to do something about it. Their amendments would go a long way to help address and prevent bullying, especially that directed against minority groups and particularly, as they said, the GRT community. That is probably now the least well recognised form of racism that we see, sadly, in schools.
Our Amendment 171L would require the Government to consult on and launch a children’s recovery plan, including breakfast clubs, music and drama, small group tutoring and other measures that I will not bore the Committee by reading out; they are all there in the amendment. So far, the catch-up measures that the Government have introduced have either not worked in the places where they are needed most, such as the tutoring programme in the north of England, or have been so far short of the scale of intervention needed that they have resulted, as my noble friend Lord Watson said, in the resignation of the expert brought in to advise the Government.
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If I could highlight just one set of measures in our amendment, it would be paragraph (f), which is on how the pupil premium should be used to target support at the pupils most severely affected by loss of education, especially the very youngest children. I pay tribute to and thank Teach First, the IFS and others for the substantial and impressive work they have
done on this in recent months. We would like the Government to raise the current premium rate by 10%, increase the early years pupil premium to match the premium rates for primary school pupils, expand the secondary age pupil premium to pupils aged 16 to 18 and expand the secondary age pupil premium to include children with child protection plans.
We know the Government have not been great at targeting resources at schools serving the most disadvantaged pupils in recent years. Unless the Government act quickly, the increased inequality in education that we have seen since Covid is going to scar a whole generation of children for the rest of their lives. Sadly, without this additional support, we will be failing to do what is necessary to support children who need it the very most.
The amendments in the name of my noble friend Lord Watson and my amendments work very well together because we know that early spoken language skills are the most significant predictor of literacy levels at age 16. Children with language difficulties fall behind their typically developing peers in academic attainment at every stage of education. It is well understood that children with poor vocabulary skills at age five are more likely to have reading difficulties as an adult.
Lockdowns have hit the very youngest children the hardest. Ofsted has provided evidence that young children are increasingly unable to recognise and respond appropriately even to facial expressions, with potentially lifelong consequences for their learning and development. We think that early years pupil premium, currently worth £302 per year per pupil, should be increased to match the amount each pupil would receive once they reach primary school. The reason we think this is that investing that money earlier would allow the maximum benefit to children at the point at which they need it most. Waiting until they start primary school is too late.
It is very concerning that the number of children aged under four with an EHCP or SEN support with a primary reason of speech, language and communication needs has risen since 2019 by 7%. It is also concerning that the survey data collected both in a study conducted by the Education Endowment Foundation and Ofsted suggests that parents and nursery school leaders share important concerns that whole cohorts of children starting school during the pandemic were far less ready for school than previous cohorts.
The Government have a goal of 90% of children leaving primary school reaching expected standards in reading, writing and maths. That is an excellent goal; we absolutely support it. It is great that the Government have that aspiration for our children. But in 2019, that figure was just 65%. Given what we now know about the disproportionate harm that has been done to the youngest children during lockdown, this pupil premium is a really good, targeted way to get that support where it is needed most and quickly.
Our amendment does everything the Bill does not do, and I urge the Government to engage with us positively on this so that we can find areas of agreement.