Socio-economic inequalities in English schooling under the Coalition Government 2010–15

The reduction of socio-economic inequalities in school outcomes was a major priority of the Coalition Government in England from 2010–15. In this paper we examine the Coalition's policies and spending, including an analysis of the distributional effect of its pupil premium policy. We also look at trends in outcomes up to 2014. We find that although the pupil premium had a modest overall effect of distributing more money to schools with poorer intakes, this was nested within a wider set of policies which have disadvantaged low income families and children, and that there is evidence of socio-economic gaps widening on some indicators.