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Education Maintenance Allowance

Volume 479: debated on Monday 21 July 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much he expects his Department to spend on the education maintenance allowance in each of the next five years; and if he will make a statement. (219238)

The budget allocations for the education maintenance allowance for the comprehensive spending review period are 2008-09 £549 million; 2009-10 £529 million; 2010-11 £529 million.

Latest expenditure estimates are 2008-09 £531 million; 2009-10 £544 million; 2010-11 £560 million. DCSF officials are working with the Learning and Skills Council to establish whether these latest estimates are a robust and accurate basis for funding.

Forecasts of expenditure beyond this period are not available.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the effects of the education maintenance allowance on (a) improving retention and (b) widening participation in education; and if he will make a statement. (219239)

The education maintenance allowance (EMA) pilot evaluation evidence showed that:

(a) EMA had a positive and significant impact on post-16 retention: there was a 6.1 percentage point increase in participation in full-time education throughout the two-year period beyond compulsory schooling among eligible young people in pilots areas, compared to young people with the same characteristics in control areas without EMA.

(b) EMA led to increases in participation nationally by 3.8 percentage points for 16-year-olds and 4.1 percentage points for 17-year-olds. The evaluation showed relatively greater impact for low/middle achievers and lower socio-economic groups. These increases in participation have been sustained since the national roll-out of EMA. More recent analysis has found positive and statistically significant impacts of EMA on attainment as well as participation. These positive impacts have been particularly strong among more disadvantaged groups such as those from the most deprived neighbourhoods.