Date: 18/03/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

Over the last year, we’ve seen some huge U-turns by the Department for Education, such as schools “must stay open”, reversed after one day in January and “exams must go ahead”, changing to “all exams are cancelled”. I certainly don’t envy the government in having to make some very difficult decisions, after all, the last year has brought each of us challenges we could not have imagined. However, sometimes decisions are made which seem to completely ignore the views of those who are then directly impacted by that decision.

I never publicly take a party political view, as I don’t think that this is appropriate for school leaders, and we also need to work with everyone from across the political spectrum. What I have no problem with, however, is calling out injustice and decisions which directly impact on the life chances of the young people we have the privilege of educating.

The Pupil Premium is widely regarded as one of the best education initiatives introduced in the last decade. It gives schools additional funding to improve the attainment of pupils who are eligible for free school meals, either currently or who have been at any point in the previous five years. This means that for each eligible pupil, schools receive an additional £1,345 for primary pupils and £955 for secondary pupils. The money is spent on a range of strategies aimed at removing barriers to education and improving outcomes, such as funding additional teaching assistants, speech and language support and reading intervention programmes.

This funding has become vital to most schools, but the amount that schools receive is under threat because of a change in how the Department for Education allocates Pupil Premium funding.

Previously, funding has been based on the number of pupils eligible in January each year. However from April, this will be based on pupil numbers from the previous October.

This might seem like a minor change, but there has been a large increase in pupils who are eligible for free school meals in the last few months, due to the impact of the pandemic on jobs. This could result in a considerable loss of Pupil Premium funding for schools, which has been estimated at £250 million nationally. It means that a pupil who became eligible for free school meals on 1st November 2020 would not attract the Pupil Premium funding until April 2022.

Unfortunately this change could wipe out the impact of the additional funding given to schools for Covid recovery, making it feel like school funding is being given by one hand and taken away by another. Schools, Trusts and local authorities have asked the Department for Education to review this decision, as it will impact directly on the support available for disadvantaged pupils.

Let’s hope that there is a rethink from the Department for Education and they perform another U-turn to make sure that schools don’t lose vital funding to help disadvantaged pupils at such a crucial time.