The attached excel table summarises the total spend with the bodies listed for the period between March and December 2020, and the nature of the research and development work associated with each.

The Education Endowment Foundation’s publication emphasises the importance of systematic phonics approaches in reading and writing activities with pupils in key stage 1. There is sound evidence that systematic phonics is a highly effective method for teaching early reading. The evidence indicates that the teaching of phonics is most effective when combined with a language rich curriculum to develop children’s positive attitudes towards literacy. The National Curriculum for English places a renewed focus on the requirement for pupils to learn to read through systematic phonics, applying phonic knowledge and skills to word reading.

In 2018 the department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme. The department appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs. The English Hubs Programme is supporting nearly 3,000 schools across England to improve their teaching of reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure. The English Hubs are focused on improving educational outcomes for the most disadvantaged pupils in reception and year 1. The Education Endowment Foundation’s publication has been used widely across the English Hub community.

The government has announced a catch up package worth £1 billion, including a ‘Catch up Premium’ worth a total of £650 million to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. Our expectation is that this funding will be spent on the additional activities required to support children and young people to catch up after a period of disruption to their education.

The package also includes the National Tutoring Programme which provides up to £350 million to support disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils. This will increase access to subsidised, high-quality tuition for the most disadvantaged young people, helping to accelerate their academic progress and tackling the attainment gap between them and their peers.

To support settings to make best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation have published a COVID-19 support guide which includes evidence-based approaches to catch up for all students. Details can be found here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/national-tutoring-programme/covid-19-support-guide-for-schools/.

Since the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) was established in 2011 through a £125 million grant from the Government, it has revolutionised the use of evidence in education. It has made grants worth £83 million to 133 projects working with over 8,300 schools and has published individual evaluation reports on 66 completed projects. The EEF has also identified nine programmes that it has previously tested and which show particular promise; each of which will receive further grant funding in order to test its impact at a larger scale. Full details of all of the projects that the EEF has funded to date, and evaluation reports on those which are complete, are published by the EEF on its website at: www.educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk.

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) was established in March 2011 with an endowment of £125 million from the Department. Since then, the Department has awarded a further £12 million of funding to the EEF - £10 million in 2012 to support literacy catch-up for children at the transition from primary to secondary school;

£1 million in 2013 to fund pilot studies that test approaches to engaging teachers with research evidence in ways that have an impact on teaching practice; and £1 million in 2014 to expand research into the most effective ways that character can be taught in schools.

The table below shows net underspend based on the Department’s total expenditure (both resource and capital expenditure, aggregated) compared to the budgeted amount permitted to be spent by the Department in that year’s Parliamentary Estimate. The figures are drawn from the audited Statement of Parliamentary Supply in the relevant Department for Education and Skills; Department for Children, Schools and Families; and Department for Education Annual Report and Accounts (‘Resource Accounts’ prior to 2010-11).

Between 2010 and 2016, the Government spent £332m to support schools to become academies. During the same period, there have been nearly 5,000 academies opened. The vast majority of spend has been used for grants to schools to support them to convert to academy status.

The level of grants for sponsored projects has varied since 2010, when the academies programme began to expand under the coalition government. Since this expansion, the costs per sponsored academy have come down significantly, reflecting efficiencies implemented by the Department.

Through our careful management of the economy we have been able to protect the core schools budget in real terms. That means schools are receiving more funding than ever before for children’s education, totalling over £40 billion this year.

When the Government launched our Educational Excellence Everywhere white paper, it was clear that we would attend to and reflect on the discussions around it. After listening to the sector, in May 2016 the Department confirmed that it would no longer be pursuing full academisation by 2022.

It remains our ambition that all schools will become academies, but removing the requirement for this to happen by 2022 means that our spending on school support will depend on the new rate of academy conversion. We are monitoring this and will allocate funds according to the expected rate and need. Indicatively, in 2016-17 we expect to spend around £90 million on supporting schools to convert, supporting sponsors to turn around the schools they take on, and supporting strong multi-academy trusts to deliver for pupils.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport alongside the Department for Education and Arts Council England have worked together to increase the opportunities and support for any young person who wants to get involved with the arts. Over this Parliament over £400m has been invested in music and cultural education.

The EEF, which was set up in 2011 through a £125m grant from the Government, is funding and evaluating a number of projects that have a cultural education dimension (for example, looking at the link between music instruction and academic attainment). The EEF/Sutton Trust teaching and learning toolkit also summarises evidence on the impact of pupil participation in artistic and creative extra-curricular activities on academic learning and other outcomes.

Pursuant to the answer of 24 October 2013, Official Report, column 236W, the Department holds ministerial briefing papers for these meetings.

The Department publishes quarterly reports on the gov.uk website, which detail meetings between Department for Education Ministers and external organisations. This includes meetings with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). The reports can be accessed at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dfe-ministers-quarterly-returns

This information is not held centrally and could be compiled only at disproportionate cost.