To ask the Minister of Education what consideration was applied when creating the social disadvantaged priority criterion for pre-school admission places; and what evidence exists of the effectiveness of this priority criterion in combatting social disadvantage.

When the Pre-School Education Expansion Programme was launched in 1998, funded places were available for only around 45% of children in their pre-school year and the social disadvantaged priority criterion was put in place to help ensure that the children considered most in need of pre-school education had priority access to those limited places.

The social disadvantaged priority criterion was first introduced in 1999 and was designed to give priority in the pre-school admissions process to children from socially disadvantaged circumstances. Research shows that children from socially disadvantaged circumstances tend to experience more difficulty at school than other children, therefore, as part of wider efforts to tackle educational underachievement children from socially disadvantaged circumstances were prioritised for pre-school admission.

Pre-school provision is now universal. Currently, the Department is committed to ensure that at all children whose parents want it can access a year of funded pre-school education in their immediate pre-school year. In each of the last five years, at least 99.8% of children whose parents engaged with the pre-school admissions process to the end obtained a funded pre-school place.

Given the current position with regard to levels of pre-school provision and changes to qualifying benefits with the introduction of Universal Credit, I plan to review the priority criterion. I will consider a range of issues in determining what changes are required. Any proposed changes will be subject to consultation.