§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what evaluation his Department has made of the education maintenance allowance pilots; and if he will publish the findings. [87196]
§ Margaret HodgeWe are now into the fourth year of operating the EMA pilot scheme. An independent evaluation of the EMA pilot commenced in September 1999 in 15 pilot areas and 11 control areas. This evaluation is being undertaken by a consortium of four organisations, headed up by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough University.
The findings so far are highly encouraging, indicating that EMA has had a positive effect on participation and retention among the target group, as well as on student behaviour. It is for this reason that we have announced that the scheme will be extended nationally from September 2004. The evaluation will help inform the development of the national scheme by offering evidence of different impacts from the different variants being tested in the pilot.
Qualitative, quantitative and implementation findings from the first and second year of the evaluation have been published on the DfES website, including via the EMA website.