Funding for disadvantaged pupils Contents

2Funding

16.We asked how the Department had determined how much to spend on the Pupil Premium. It told us that this had not been derived in a scientific way but was based on the result of negotiations in the 2010 Spending Review.28 However, the Department has weighted the Pupil Premium towards primary schools to reflect evidence demonstrating the importance of earlier intervention. In 2014-15, it gave primary schools £1,320 per pupil compared to £935 in secondary schools. 29

17.The Department uses pupils’ free school meal eligibility to allocate the Pupil Premium to schools. In 2013, it estimated that up to 11% of children who were eligible for free school meals did not receive it because their parents had not registered them. According to the Department’s research, there was substantial variation in the level of under-claiming between local authorities. In some areas it estimated that more than 30% of eligible pupils did not claim free school meals, compared to none at all elsewhere. Furthermore, in 2014, the Department introduced Universal Infant Free School Meals, removing the most obvious incentive for their parents to register in pupils’ first two years of school.30 The Department told us that it remained concerned about under-claiming and that it would open a dialogue with local authorities and schools where there was a particularly high non-claimant rate. It also said that it had requested data from the Department for Work & Pensions and HM Revenue & Customs so that it could look at claimant rates against its school census, identify variations or anomalies, and target its work to reduce under-claiming. The Department explained that the problem of identifying and addressing where Pupil Premium is under-claimed affected the distribution of available funds, but not the overall amount of funding.31

18.We also received written evidence from the Carers Trust which highlighted that many children with caring responsibilities may not be eligible for the Pupil Premium.32 The Department recognises that the use of free school meals as its main measure of disadvantage is imperfect. It explained that this was why it implemented the ‘ever 6’ policy, meaning that children who had been eligible for free school meals at any point in the past six years receive the Pupil Premium.33

19.Free school meal eligibility is currently based on whether a child’s parents receive certain means-tested benefits. Government is currently reforming the benefits system, combining five benefits into one under Universal Credit, which means that from 2016 it will be impossible to identify disadvantaged pupils consistently with previous years.34 The Department has not yet solved how it will identify disadvantaged pupils following the introduction of Universal Credit. It told us that it would need to agree and identify a new earnings threshold against which free school meals eligibility would be identified, and that it was working on it with the Department for Work & Pensions. In response to our concerns that the Universal Credit change could put extra pressure on head teachers to identify pupils, the Department told us that “how eligibility works in the future needs to be the Government’s problem, not the problem of head teachers.”35

20.In April 2015 the Government also introduced an Early Years Pupil Premium, at up to £300 a year for each disadvantaged child, designed to ensure children are better prepared for starting primary school. For example, ensuring that younger children from the most disadvantaged families are still developing language skills and playing with toys that help develop numeracy. In addition to the weighting of existing funding more towards primary schools relative to secondary schools, the Education Endowment Foundation considered that the move to put money into early years was supported by evidence and was a really positive step forward in the use of the Pupil Premium.36

21.The Department reiterated that early intervention helps to ensure that the factors that act as barriers to being ready to learn and ready to go to school can be targeted. In response to our concern about understanding whether the new early years premium was proving effective and being well used, the Department told us that it would be monitoring it closely and that it was very aware of ensuring best practice across the system. The Education Endowment Foundation added that the task of disseminating knowledge on best practice in early years provision would be even more difficult than it is for the schools sector.37

22.Besides Pupil Premium funding, the Department requires local authorities to use deprivation as a factor when allocating ‘core’ funding to primary and secondary schools. Local authorities distribute the money to schools based on pupil numbers and local circumstances, and the Department requires local authorities to use deprivation as a factor in this distribution. In 2014-15, local authorities allocated £2.4 billion of the total £41.5 billion of revenue funding to schools on the basis of deprivation. However, the Department distributes core funding to local authorities on the basis of an old formula that gives some parts of the country more than others.38

23.The National Audit Office found much unexplained variation in the amount schools receive, particularly between London and the rest of the country. In 2014-15 some schools received £3,000 a year more than others for each disadvantaged pupil. Variation exists even between schools with very similar proportions of disadvantaged pupils and cannot be fully explained due to differences in the cost of living.39 Our Education Endowment Foundation witness commented that in his experience of teaching in both London and Yorkshire “it always struck me as odd that we got so much more in East London”.40

24.The Department told us that the school core funding formula had remained basically the same since 2005. It confirmed that Government was committed to fairer funding in future, but that decisions on what fairer funding means in practice, and how it would be done, would be for the spending review. The Department added that, as a first step, the Government had announced an extra £390 million in total for the 69 local authority areas it calculates to be the most underfunded.41 The Department described the Pupil Premium as a ‘bolt-on’ to the existing school funding formula. On the question of whether the Pupil Premium was more effective because it was separate ring-fenced money, the Education Endowment Foundation told us that “The very fact this is separated out has, in my view, clearly sharpened the conversation and focus around this group of children.”42

30 Q 31; C&AG’s report, paras 1.13-1.14

34 C&AG’s report, para 1.11

38 C&AG’s Report, paras 4, 10

39 C&AG’s Report, paras 1.20-1.22