§ Mr. Gordon MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what links her Department has identified between additional educational needs and social and economic factors and indicators, other than parental take-up of income support and working families tax credit. [75978]
§ Mr. MilibandTo investigate the links between additional educational needs (AEN) and deprivation indicators, the department commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to research the incidence of pupils with AEN and the costs of meeting their needs. They found that the number of pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) was the strongest factor explaining variation in reported social need. They also found that the number of pupils with English as an additional language was strongly linked to non-social measures of AEN. They also looked at several ward based measures such as Long term unemployment, the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) and the Access domain from the IMD, but found that these indicators were not as good at explaining variations in reported need as the standard FSM data.
The department also considered a number of other measures of deprivation: from the 1991 census, such as rented accommodation or low social class; and from the Labour Force Survey, such as the proportion of working age adults with no qualifications. Many of these measures showed some statistical relationship with low attainment suggesting they could be used as a proxy for AEN. However, they are also all highly related to parental take up of income support, which is 376W the most consistently strong factor explaining variation in low attainment between different authorities, schools and pupils.