• New exploratory research published by the Centre for Young Lives suggests there is a geographical divide in how well schools are providing for disadvantaged children - though further research is necessary to fully understand school-level data
• London boroughs dominate the early findings, with all top ten local authorities for indications of inclusive practice in London
• The research paper identifies local resources, leadership, historic and geographic factors and funding as among the reasons for lower inclusion scores in rural and coastal areas. It argues the Government’s inclusion reforms should account for local and regional variation.

[.download]Download the research paper[.download]

The Centre for Young Lives is today (Monday 22^nd December) publishing a new research paper, Mapping inclusion in education, which gives all local authorities an indicative ‘inclusion score’, and which suggests London boroughs may be outperforming the rest of the country on inclusion.

Ahead of the development of the Department for Education’s “school profiles”, which will include the exploration of inclusion measures, this research paper explores the implications of measuring inclusion and the geographical variation which may shape findings. It builds on research published in May by the Centre for Young Lives, which showed London powering ahead with lower rates of lost learning. 

Today’s analysis provides an early-stage metric to measure inclusion by combining data on suspensions, absences, attainment, and the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. The analysis suggests that lower inclusion scores are particularly concentrated in the South West, the South East, Yorkshire and the Midlands, and in rural and coastal areas.

Through three case studies of local authorities with different inclusion scores, the research paper also suggests that the Government’s inclusion reforms should account for local and regional variation which may be affected by local resources, leadership, and historic and geographic factors. 

It highlights the importance of ensuring the schools funding formula better serves schools in highly deprived neighbourhoods and accounts for the higher costs of delivering inclusive education in disadvantaged areas. 

The research paper highlights the need for further research, including using school level data to enable a more nuanced analysis which looks at variations within and across local authorities and across different academy trusts. Using pupil level data alongside school and local authority level data could further understanding of inclusive practice and better reflect the complexity of England’s education system. 

Further research could also explore the data available on pupil wellbeing and behaviour which can be included in the inclusion score to better reflect pupil experience.