‘Unseen Children: access and achievement 20 years on’ (Ofsted, 2013) ‘Unseen Children: access and achievement 20 years on’ (Ofsted, 2013) The background Twenty years ago Ofsted published a report that examined educational achievement in seven urban areas with high levels of deprivation; an update was published 10 years later. This report continues and builds upon this theme. It outlines the current patterns of disadvantage and educational success across England, seeks to explore the impact of recent policy initiatives and make proposals for the future. The report acknowledges the improvements that have taken place in recent years but it highlights the extent to which children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are still failed by the system in many areas. It also focuses on the striking variation in performance at regional, local authority and institutional levels. The report was published alongside background papers and detailed attainment data. Accompanying it’s release a speech by HMCI Sir Michael Wilshaw set out a series of recommendations and focused on the influence of the inspectorate in challenging providers to improve the current situation. All these documents are available at The background Twenty years ago Ofsted published a report that examined educational achievement in seven urban areas with high levels of deprivation; an update was published 10 years later. This report continues and builds upon this theme. It outlines the current patterns of disadvantage and educational success across England, seeks to explore the impact of recent policy initiatives and make proposals for the future. The report acknowledges the improvements that have taken place in recent years but it highlights the extent to which children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are still failed by the system in many areas. It also focuses on the striking variation in performance at regional, local authority and institutional levels. The report was published alongside background papers and detailed attainment data. Accompanying it’s release a speech by HMCI Sir Michael Wilshaw set out a series of recommendations and focused on the influence of the inspectorate in challenging providers to improve the current situation. All these documents are available at Attaining a world class education system England can provide a world-class education system but to do so it must overcome two main barriers; the wide variety in regional performance and the long tail of underperformance that primarily affects children and young people from the poorest backgrounds. These two issues are closely related. Children in this position exist across the country, in all regions; it is the collective responsibility of all education professionals, providers, local authorities and national government agencies to work together to improve this situation. The key is to have high expectations for all children and young people at all stages of their education. These expectations should be evident in homes, in educational institutions and in society as a whole. Far too many children fail because they live in families and attend institutions that have low expectations of them. Disadvantage and poor achievement are not necessarily linked to inner cities and urban deprivation. Rural areas and coastal towns have particular problems. Children from low-income families tend to do better in areas where there are lots of children from similar backgrounds; outcomes for these children tend to be worse where low-income families are an invisible minority across areas that are relatively affluent. There is now almost no difference between the GCSE results of children who speak English as an additional language and mother-tongue speakers. Of those children who are entitled to free school meals, the ethnic group that have the lowest rates of success are White British Children; this ethnic group accounts for 2/3 of the student collective. White, low-income girls fair poorly, this is not a problem confined to white working class boys; the problem is not gender specific. Attaining a world class education system England can provide a world-class education system but to do so it must overcome two main barriers; the wide variety in regional performance and the long tail of underperformance that primarily affects children and young people from the poorest backgrounds. These two issues are closely related. Children in this position exist across the country, in all regions; it is the collective responsibility of all education professionals, providers, local authorities and national government agencies to work together to improve this situation. The key is to have high expectations for all children and young people at all stages of their education. These expectations should be evident in homes, in educational institutions and in society as a whole. Far too many children fail because they live in families and attend institutions that have low expectations of them. Disadvantage and poor achievement are not necessarily linked to inner cities and urban deprivation. Rural areas and coastal towns have particular problems. Children from low-income families tend to do better in areas where there are lots of children from similar backgrounds; outcomes for these children tend to be worse where low-income families are an invisible minority across areas that are relatively affluent. There is now almost no difference between the GCSE results of children who speak English as an additional language and mother-tongue speakers. Of those children who are entitled to free school meals, the ethnic group that have the lowest rates of success are White British Children; this ethnic group accounts for 2/3 of the student collective. White, low-income girls fair poorly, this is not a problem confined to white working class boys; the problem is not gender specific.

Recommendations for future improvement Wide ranging measures to ensure and accelerate improvement have been suggested. These will impact all educational providers across all ages and stages. A tougher inspection regime: Ofsted will explicitly focus on the achievement and progress of children from low- income backgrounds. Schools previously judged to be outstanding, who are not doing well by their poorest students will be re-inspected. Sub-regional challenges: the development and introduction of sub-regional challenges aimed at raising the bar for disadvantaged children. Previously ‘challenges’ aimed at raising attainment were focused on larger cities- these cities have now improved. National leaders: a more strategic approach to school leadership – getting the best leaders to the areas and schools that need them most. A ‘National Services Teacher’: a concept to help get teachers on funded schemes and the best teachers incentivised to work in the most challenging areas. Communication, language and literacy: a push to review assessment in Reception and Key stage 1 with a view to publishing progress measures from the start of school to the end of KS1. Inadequate colleges: the government should be more prepared to dismantle inadequate colleges that have grown too large to assure quality across their different activities. Smaller specialist units, particularly University Technology Colleges, should be created with stronger links to business, commerce and industry. The Richard Review: this should be fully implemented it represents a sound basis on which to reform and grow the system (the focus of this report is on the development of vocational education and apprenticeships). Post-16 progress and outcomes: all post-16 providers should report on the rate of progress and outcomes for all young people who had previously been eligible for free school meals. FE focus Ofsted has recently been critical of the quality of provision in the further education and skills sector. The government has announced far reaching reforms. From 2015 all young people will be required to participate in learning to the age of 18. Despite improvements in outcomes for 16 to 19 year olds almost four in every 10 finish education without the qualifications they need to secure employment. At level 3, achievement for disadvantaged young people has risen but two out of every three young people from low income families are still reaching the end of their education without the equivalent of two A levels. In the same way as there are wide regional variations at 16 there are also clear disparities at 19. One of the purposes of FE is to provide a second chance to those who have been let down by the school system but data tells a challenging story about how successful the sector has been in this area, e.g. the system helped just 1 in 5 learners, who had not reached a L2 by 16 in English and maths, get there by 19. The reality is that few young people who do not reach level 2 by the end of secondary school subsequently do so by 19. One of the reasons behind this lack of progress is that recently the FE sector has not been funded, or incentivised, to focus on the progress of learners, or ‘adding value’. FE institutions have grown in size. They have a particularly important role in serving their local communities often serving a very high proportion of young people who were previously entitled to FSM. The impact on the future FE landscape Implementation of the Study Programmes, a new funding formula, from September This is a move towards ‘per student’ funding, with a separate allocation to reflect disadvantage and a funding element linked to English and maths at L2. It will be important to move accountability systems, including Ofsted inspections, away from success rates towards better measures of performance, i.e. a greater teaching and learning focus has already been added to the Common Inspection Framework. ‘Destination data’ is a much needed new source of evidence; as the data becomes more reliable it will have a greater emphasis in inspections. School accountability is strengthened by nationally comparable measures of progress. Learner progress is now widely recognised as a better measure of the effectiveness of learning institutions. A similar set of benchmarks will need to be developed for FE. The proposal has been made to create a Further Education Commissioner who will have strong powers to intervene where colleges are failing. More high quality apprenticeships and stronger employer leadership have been identified as key to the development of vocational learning.