One In Three Head Teachers Using Funding For Poorer Pupils To Plug General Budget Gaps

 New Sutton Trust (@suttontrust) Polling Suggest Costs of Pandemic Having Impact on Funding for Disadvantaged Pupils, While Use of Evidence in Decision-making and a Focus On Tutoring Increases 

Over a third (34%) of heads say the funding they get for poorer pupils is being used to plug general gaps in their school’s budget – a rise from 23% in 2019, suggesting that the cost to schools of coping with the pandemic is having an impact on funding earmarked for disadvantaged pupils. This is according to new polling published by the Sutton Trust today.

The problem is particularly pronounced in primary schools, where 35% of senior leaders say they’re using their pupil premium funding in this way, compared with 28% of those who lead secondary schools.  

The survey of 1,528 teachers, conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) for the Trust as part of their Teacher Voice Omnibus Survey, examines how schools across England are using their pupil premium funding. 

Despite the increased use of pupil premium money to plug budget gaps, the use of evidence in deciding how to spend this funding continues to rise. Almost four-fifths (79%) of all senior leaders said they considered research evidence when deciding how to spend their pupil premium funding, with 69% citing the Sutton Trust / Education Endowment Foundation’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit . Use of the Toolkit is up from 65% last year and 39% in 2012 when it was first launched.

The increasing use of research evidence is reflected in the changing priorities for heads in how they spend their pupil premium funding. Almost one in five (17%) of secondary heads report that one-to-one and small group tuition – one of the most well evidenced approaches – is their priority for pupil premium spending this school year.  

In 2020, one-to-one tuition was the fourth most popular choice, with the change since then reflecting the increased focus on tutoring by the government and the work of the National Tutoring Programme. For heads in primary schools, the most popular priorities for pupil premium funding are early intervention schemes (23%) and paying for more teaching assistants (18%).

Today’s polling comes on the back of a large body of research that shows how disadvantaged pupils have suffered the most because of the disruption to schooling caused by the pandemic. The additional funding schools get through the pupil premium has never been more important.

Yet a change to the reporting date for the pupil premium has meant that schools are set to lose tens of millions of pounds. Schools usually report the number of pupils they have who are eligible for pupil premium in January. But for this school year the government changed the date to October. This means that any children who became eligible recently – for example because their parents have lost work – will not receive any extra funding until next year.

With more pupils becoming eligible for pupil premium funding as a result of the economic effects of the pandemic, data from the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) suggests the average primary school is set to lose £6,000 because of the reporting date change. The Sutton Trust and its sister charity, the Education Endowment Foundation, is concerned about the impact this lost funding could have on teaching and learning for disadvantaged pupils. 

They are calling on the government to reverse this decision to ensure that schools receive pupil premium funding for all eligible pupils. In addition, both charities would like to see significant financial support for disadvantaged pupils prioritised in the education recovery plan.

Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust and chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said:

“At a time when schools are facing monumental challenges, the additional funding they get through the pupil premium has never been more important.  

“So it’s concerning to see that a third of heads are using this funding to plug general budget gaps, likely because they face additional costs due to the pandemic. The priority of the education recovery plan must be to provide enough resources for disadvantaged pupils, so that they can begin to recover from the massive disruption of the last year.”

Professor Becky Francis, CEO of the Education Endowment Foundation, said:

“It is great to see that more schools are using research evidence and the EEF Toolkit to decide how to send their pupil premium funding. Evidence is a useful starting place for school leaders to use in conjunction with their professional judgement and knowledge of their school and its pupils.”

“However we’re worried that the change to the pupil premium reporting date could mean schools lose thousands of pounds of funding for their disadvantaged pupils because of a bureaucratic detail. This detail may seem minor, but it could have real-world implications for the support that schools are able to provide to their pupils who need it most.”

Today (Thursday 29 April) the Sutton Trust has published polling of teachers on their priorities for pupil premium funding and expressed concern about the change to the reporting date for pupil premium eligibility.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“That schools are being forced to use pupil premium funding to plug holes in their budgets should be of huge concern to government. It shows just how dire schools’ finances have become. A decade of austerity and underfunding has left schools with no safety net and many have found themselves unable to weather the additional costs and lost income caused by the pandemic.

“And it is those children that are most in need of help who are bearing the brunt. The government has made bold claims about their ambitions for recovery and said that no child will be left behind. But it is failing to back these words with action and is leaving schools without the funding and resources they need for the job ahead.

“Worse, by implementing the change in reporting date for pupil premium in the middle of the pandemic they have actively removed support for children from families who have been hardest hit. A significant number of children have become eligible for help via pupil premium but they will now not receive any additional funding for another whole year.

“A recent NAHT survey showed that the amount of money lost due to this change is more than schools are being given for education recovery. The government is giving with one hand while knowingly taking away with the other. This must be put right. Government must come clean about how much they have saved with this change, and they must put that money back into school budgets immediately.”

Sutton Trust on Pupil Premium Funding 

Commenting on a poll published by the Sutton Trust which shows that over a third of heads are using Pupil Premium funds to plug general gaps in their school budget, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: 

“We know school budgets have been hit hard by coronavirus and the inadequate reimbursement from Government. Schools have had to spend more on cleaning, heating, supply costs and other Covid security measures, while income from lettings is down. It is not remotely surprising that pupil premium funding is being used to plug shortfalls in general funding this year even more than previous years. 

“Matched to this is a shift in the date of the census from January 2021 to October 2020, meaning that many disadvantaged children will miss out on the funding they are entitled to for their education. Gavin Williamson must come clean as to how much schools have lost as a result of his moving the goalposts. 

“The public sector pay freeze in September is clearly intended to help balance the books – punishing teachers and support staff who have gone the extra mile during the pandemic. 

“As the EPI reported last week, other countries have put much more significant sums into education recovery – in the US the equivalent of £1600 per pupil, the Netherlands £2500 and in England just £250. Without a similar investment plan, children in England will fall behind and disadvantaged children will fall behind further.” 

Kate Green MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, responding to Sutton Trust polling on school’s use of pupil premium funding, said:

“The Conservatives have weakened the foundations of our school system through a decade of real-terms cuts which are forcing head teachers to use this funding – designed to support children on free school meals – to plug holes in school budgets.

“The Government’s ‘stealth cut’ to pupil premium will further undermine school finances and the planned delivery of early interventions, small group tutoring and hiring additional staff to support those pupils most likely to have struggled to learn at home.

“Labour wants to see children at the heart of an ambitious national recovery but the Conservatives are failing to deliver for our children and putting their recovery from this pandemic at risk.”