AoC welcomes EPI's call for a 16-19 student premium

David Hughes, Chief Executive, Association of Colleges, said: "The ‘Closing the Forgotten Gap’ report from EPI rightly calls for the introduction of a 16-19 student premium to support young people from lower-income households to achieve their potential in education. It's a call we have been making for some time because young people in 16-19 education have lost out more than most since 2010, with fewer hours of teaching and less support than they deserve.

"There is no other country which has the same reduction in funding at age 16 that we have, nor the further 17.5% funding rate cut at age 18 and there is no justification for either. Likewise, it is largely by accident that the pupil premium ends at age 16, when the statutory requirement is for young people to stay in some form of education until 18.

"The report points out that whilst achievement gaps between disadvantaged students and their peers start early, they widen throughout their education, including in the final years to 18. Colleges have been seeing and trying to address the serious impact of poverty on their learners without the targeted additional funding that an extended pupil premium would offer for the most disadvantaged students.

"The new government's Opportunity Missions sets out an ambitious plan to ensure that a child's background should never be a barrier to their achievement and progress - a student premium to age 18 would be putting the right resources into the right places to help make that a reality."