Jim Dickson

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. In my constituency, the IB is available to children from low-income backgrounds and is particularly attractive because it provides young people with additional stretch and challenge and breaks down barriers to opportunity—not only in top universities, which is very important, but in apprenticeships and employment. It would be a tragedy if that were lost, and the point that my hon. Friend asks the Minister to respond to is exactly the right one. The challenge we face is that the longer teaching hours mean that the IB costs more to deliver. The LPU funding has been crucial in allowing state schools such as Dartford grammar to deliver it. It is clear to me that without that funding, the IB diploma will no longer be available at Dartford grammar and will become the preserve of private schools that can afford to offer it, cutting off those in the state sector from the limited access that currently exists. I understand that there may be some transitional funding in place for the next academic year—40% of the current value has been mentioned—but I am unclear what that will mean for a school such as Dartford grammar, where the entire sixth form takes the IB. The school faces the prospect of needing to replace its entire curriculum and restructure staffing for the sixth form over the next year, with extremely limited notice that this was coming. I hope that the Minister will be persuaded to think again about the future of the large programme uplift, but if the Government are determined to pursue this course of action, perhaps they could provide more detail and a longer period for any transitional funding for schools, and let us know of any other source of assistance for state-funded schools that wish to keep the IB diploma.