Disadvantaged children not receiving intended funding

A report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has revealed that disadvantaged children may not be benefiting from funding intended for them, as the Department for Education (DfE) only have a limited picture of how schools are spending billions in funding associated with disadvantage.

The PAC’s inquiry found that pupil premium funding, intended to be used to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged children, is being used for whole school interventions. Over 90 per cent of this £9.2 billion funding is not ringfenced for its intended use.

The report shows that 47 per cent of senior school leaders were using pupil premium to plug budget gaps in 2024, up from 23 per cent in 2019, according to research from the Sutton Trust. Although the DfE requires schools to report on how funding will be used to support disadvantaged pupils, a fifth of schools had not published such a report in 2023. Consequently, the PAC recommends DfE introduce stronger and clearer mechanisms to understand how schools spend funding, whilst retaining the principle of local decision-making.

In 2022-23, a quarter of disadvantaged pupils achieved a GCSE grade five in English and Maths, compared with 52 per cent of pupils not known to be from a disadvantaged background. Although there is a slight narrowing of the attainment gap, the PAC warns that this progress is far too slow.

The PAC also recommends that the DfE should assess wider outcomes such as progression into work and wellbeing as well as academic attainment, which the DfE agreed during the inquiry. This follows the DfE’s disadvantage attainment gap index to measure progress, which compares attainment at key stage 2 and key stage 4 of disadvantaged pupils against their peers.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chair of the Committee, said: “Schools are best-placed to make decisions on how to support their pupils within their local context. Autonomy for schools in this area is an important principle. However, with autonomy must come accountability. Our report finds that, for too many schools, the government is not sighted on how money that ought to be spent on helping disadvantaged children overcome their circumstances is actually being used. In a constrained funding environment, it becomes all the more important that schools are supported to make the right choices.”