Today, I can tell you with pride that this government is going further than ever before. We are making a pledge to all children and parents across our country.

We will make sure that every school in Yorkshire does what the best schools already do – intervene to support any child who falls behind in English or maths, helping them make better and faster progress.

And if that additional support is needed, the school will speak to you, their parent, about how you can help at home.

The Government has made a pledge to pupils.

In school, that could mean high quality tutoring – previously only available to a fortunate few but now freely accessible to those who need it most – or speech and language therapy for the youngest children whose development is so vital.

The point is that the support which is right for that child must be available when they need it – and it will be.

This is just one of the new plans the Government is putting forward today in our Schools White Paper – our strategy to put the right support in the right place, and at the right time for every child.

Literacy and numeracy skills are vital for children’s education and future job opportunities.

We are clear about the targets we want to hit. By 2030, an average of 90 per cent of children across England should be achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at the end of primary school – up from 65 per cent in 2019.

And we want more young people achieving good GCSE results too, so our ambition is for the average GCSE grade in English language and maths for children across England to be a 5, up from 4.5 in 2019.

The benefits of this will be felt far and wide, and for years to come.

Our primary level target, if achieved, is estimated to be worth £30-£60bn for the economy per school year that achieves it.

Our extensive White Paper will also show how we are knuckling down into the detail.

We know that certain areas of the country will need more support to meet these targets than others. That is why today we are announcing more information on the support we will offer our 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs), the places in the country which have some of the lowest attainment and highest rates of disadvantage.

From these areas, we are selecting 24 Priority Education Investment areas, including Doncaster, Wakefield, Kirklees, Rotherham, Bradford, Leeds and North Yorkshire for even greater support.

With the help of excellent teachers, intensive investment, local collaboration and dedicated, tailored support, we will work specifically in these areas to make education the best it can be.

Around £40m of additional funding will support this work across all Priority EIAs, which we will use to address specific, local issues in order to tackle the most entrenched barriers to school improvement and higher pupil attainment, ensuring that no child or young person is left behind.

Our strategy includes prioritising bids for new academically-excellent sixth form free schools in these areas, where there is need, on top of £86m in funding over three years to help the best academy trusts support local schools.

This is in addition to the substantial support offered to all Education Investment Areas, including retention payments for teachers in high priority subjects.

We are also making sure that all schools across Yorkshire have the funding they need to deliver the high standards we want to achieve.

Newly announced today, local authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber are, in total, set to receive an additional £84m of capital funding to support them deliver school places needed for September 2024 and for September 2025.

Per pupil funding is also expected to increase by around 5.8 per cent, bringing total core mainstream revenue school funding to around £4.2bn for Yorkshire and the Humber in

2022-23, including the additional supplementary grant for schools that was secured in the Spending Review last autumn.

The full range of plans that we have set out today – from helping our children read and do their sums to the best of their ability, to understanding and improving education in areas most in need of support, and beyond – have been crafted to level up education in England.

From North to South, East to West, we are working harder and better than ever to help all children and young people fulfil their potential.

Robin Walker is the Schools Minister and Conservative MP for Worcester.

Yorkshire schools will intervene to support any child who falls behind in English or maths - Schools Minister Robin Walker