The department has not conducted an assessment of the relationship between the proportion of disadvantaged pupils attending a school and its likelihood of being rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding.

Schools are allocated additional funding, in the form of the pupil premium, for pupils on roll who are classed as disadvantaged. Pupils are classed as disadvantaged through having been registered for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years, being looked after or having left care through adoption or other specified routes. Schools have flexibility over the ways in which they use this funding to improve the attainment and other outcomes of their disadvantaged pupils and these can include measures to improve the quality of teaching received by those pupils. Ofsted will also consider how leaders and governors spend the pupil premium, their rationale and the intended impact, as part of school inspection.

As stated in the recent Children in Need review, the government will be taking forward changes to the School Admissions Code, to ensure that all children, especially the most vulnerable, can access a school place as quickly as possible.

As part of these changes, the government will also implement the changes previously announced by my right hon. Friend, the Minister for School Standards, to ensure that children who were previously in care outside of England receive highest priority for admission into a school in England.

All changes will be subject to the full statutory process, including a public consultation, which will be launched in the autumn.

My Lords, it is for schools to make their own decisions about investing their funding and their staffing. The department publishes pay ranges and all maintained schools must follow these in setting pay. Although there is more money going into our schools than ever before, we recognise that there are some budgeting challenges. That is why we have introduced a wide range of practical support to help schools and local authorities economise on non-staff costs.

My Lords, I think that the school which has come to the noble Lord’s attention is Furzedown School in Wandsworth. The challenge which that school faces is declining pupil numbers. They have declined every year for five years, which is why it needs to keep an eye on its staffing levels. That is its problem. It is a well-funded school, receiving £4,900 per pupil, which is well above the national average of £4,166. On the bigger point of overall funding, the IFS has said, independently, that per- pupil funding for five to 16 year-olds by 2020 will be 50% higher than it was in 2000.

My Lords, the noble Lord raises a very important point on exclusion. It is always a last resort to use a permanent exclusion for a pupil. Just to give some context, the percentage of permanent exclusions last year was actually less than it was 10 years ago. In 2006-07, it was 0.12% and last year it was 0.10%, so we need to keep that in perspective. We are pretty confident that there is no causal link between permanent exclusions and knife crime. However, we are alert to the need to provide better specialist provision for children who are permanently excluded. That is why we announced a number of initiatives in October, including an extra £100 million in capital for special provision for schools.

My Lords, we know that first aid saves lives. That is why life-saving skills are part of health education, which we are introducing in all state-funded schools. Pupils will be taught first aid, how to make efficient calls to the emergency services and, in secondary schools, CPR. We are also introducing relationships education in all schools. That will help pupils to form and maintain healthy relationships, manage conflict and get help when it is needed.

The department has published statutory guidance that explains what schools must do to comply with the new duty to publish information about the careers programme and to name their careers leader and contact details on their website from September 2018. The guidance, which is attached, is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/careers-guidance-provision-for-young-people-in-schools.

Information about the number of schools that are compliant with the statutory guidance is not held centrally.

The success of careers programmes in schools is monitored through the progress that schools and colleges are making against the Gatsby Benchmarks of Good Career Guidance. The Careers & Enterprise Company publish an annual ‘State of the nation’ report showing this progress. The attached 2017-18 report, published in November 2018, shows that the average school or college is now fully achieving 2.13 Benchmarks.

We expect the support that we are putting in place, including Careers Hubs and Careers Leader training, to result in significant progress over the next twelve months. Ofsted also takes account of this statutory guidance when developing its approach to assessing careers provision. Ofsted’s current school inspection handbook, which is attached, sets out that inspectors take into account careers guidance provided by secondary schools when making their judgement on the personal development, behaviour and welfare of pupils.

It is important that young people are able to find out about all of the options available to them, including doing an apprenticeship or going to a further education college. This is why we have introduced a new law, commonly known as the Baker Clause, which requires all maintained schools and academies to make sure that there is an opportunity for a range of education and training providers to contact pupils from year 8 to year 13 for the purpose of informing them about approved technical education qualifications or apprenticeships.

A year on from the Baker Clause being introduced, we know that too many providers are still being blocked from going into schools to speak to pupils and we are determined to address this. In January 2019 my hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Skills and Apprenticeships, wrote to five of the largest multi-academy trusts that have not yet published arrangements for provider access on all of their academy websites to ask them to take action to comply with the law. We will shortly write to all local authorities to remind them of their role in making sure that all maintained schools in their area are compliant with the Baker Clause.

We are prepared to act on evidence of serious non-compliance by maintained schools and academies. We continue to encourage providers to report any difficulties that they are experiencing in accessing local schools to talk to pupils about their technical education or apprenticeships offer.

In June 2018 the department published the attached guidance ‘Gender separation in mixed schools’, to support schools in complying with the law on this matter. Such separation is permissible when in accordance with exemptions under the Equality Act 2010 – for instance those related to the correction of educational disadvantage or the needs of different sexes, provision for competitive sports, or is insignificant enough to be regarded as de minimis.

Ofsted began systematically reporting on pupil segregation matters from September 2018 and has drawn attention to this in several inspection reports published since that date. The exact number of schools reported by Ofsted could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The department is taking action in relation to each school where this has occurred, by seeking details of the school’s plans to eliminate segregation or making organisational changes to the school and setting out the approvals process which has to be followed. The department is also in touch with a number of schools thought to operate segregation for pupils to discuss their plans, and has liaised with representative bodies for the schools involved.

Information regarding how many schools in England treat girls differently to boys in terms of (1) common room access, (2) playground activities, (3) eating arrangements, and (4) any other activities in the school but outside the classroom, is not held centrally.

In June 2018 the department published the attached guidance ‘Gender separation in mixed schools’, to support schools in complying with the law on this matter. Such separation is permissible when in accordance with exemptions under the Equality Act 2010 – for instance those related to the correction of educational disadvantage or the needs of different sexes, provision for competitive sports, or is insignificant enough to be regarded as de minimis.

Ofsted began systematically reporting on pupil segregation matters from September 2018 and has drawn attention to this in several inspection reports published since that date. The exact number of schools reported by Ofsted could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The department is taking action in relation to each school where this has occurred, by seeking details of the school’s plans to eliminate segregation or making organisational changes to the school and setting out the approvals process which has to be followed. The department is also in touch with a number of schools thought to operate segregation for pupils to discuss their plans, and has liaised with representative bodies for the schools involved.

Information regarding how many schools in England treat girls differently to boys in terms of (1) common room access, (2) playground activities, (3) eating arrangements, and (4) any other activities in the school but outside the classroom, is not held centrally.