Education Policy Institute publish annual report

The Education Policy Institute has published their annual report, which looks at the state of education in England in 2024, focussing on the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. This year’s report sees some areas face worsening disparities faced by disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils.

The report focuses on comparing attainment gaps in 2024 with the previous year (2023) and changes since 2019, and particularly focuses on early years, where an attainment gap is widening since 2019. This is especially prominent in economically disadvantaged young children and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

England is making little progress in closing the gap between vulnerable groups of pupils and their peers, and things worsened during and after the pandemic. Between 2019 and 2024, the gap widened across all phases, including the 16-19 phase. 2024 saw a falling disadvantage gap at key stage 2, from 10.3 of learning in 2023 to 10.0 months of learning in 2024, and a slight decrease at key stage 4 (from 19.2 months to 19.1 months). These gaps remain up to a month larger than their pre-pandemic lows.

The gap in early years continued to rise in 2024 (reaching 4.7 months, up slightly from 4.6 months in 2023), which could be a significant cause for concern for policymakers.

The 16-19 gap also widened, with disadvantaged students 3.3 grades behind their peers, up from 3.1 grades in 2023. One in five disadvantaged 16 year olds are not studying towards any substantial qualifications or an apprenticeships, so the participation gap in 16-19 education has also widened (from 10.2 per centre points in 2017 to 12.5 percentage points in the most recent year).

Children with SEND continue to experience serious educational disadvantage, with some of the widest attainment gaps across all groups. By the end of primary school, pupils with an EHCP were over two years (27.2 months) behind their peers in 2024, with those receiving SEN support 16.8 months behind. Students taking GCSEs with an EHCP were over three years (39.6 months) behind, while those receiving SEN support were 21.8 months behind. In further education, those with an EHCP were 6.8 grades behind their peers, while those receiving SEN support were 3.5 grades behind.

Ethnicity also plays a part in attainment. Overall, White British children start school ahead of most ethnicities in reception year—except for Chinese, White and Asian, and White Irish pupils. But by the end of key stage 4 and 16-19 education, pupils from other ethnic groups tend to outperform White British pupils. By the time disadvantaged White British pupils sit their GCSEs, they are almost two years behind their non-disadvantaged (White British) peers.

The report found that girls outperform boys across all education phases on the EPI’s headline measures. In 2024, girls in reception year were 3.3 months ahead, a wide gap than in both 2023 (3.2 months) and 2019 (2.9 months). Girls in 16-19 education were 1.6 grades ahead of their male peers, and at GCSE, girls were 4.5 months ahead of boys, unchanged from 2023 though a reduction from the 6.3-month gap in 2019.

To prevent the disadvantage gap from widening further, the report made several policy recommendations, such as: government assessing the adequacy of disadvantage funding across all phases and improve targeting, the government to publish its delayed child poverty strategy, and another call for improving outcomes for the youngest pupils with SEND who have been some of the worst affected by the pandemic.