Ministers should target at least £640 million in extra funding towards pupils in poverty, using money saved through failing school rolls, according to a new report.
The Education Policy Institute (EPI) report calls for more money to be directed to students who are persistently disadvantaged - who have been eligible for free school meals for at least 80 per cent of their time in school.
In the report, researchers warn that this group are significantly behind their peers in educational attainment, but that this is not recognised by the school funding system through either the National Funding Formula (NFF) or the pupil premium.
This means that persistently disadvantaged pupils, despite their greater needs, do not receive additional targeted funding.
Funding for long-term disadvantaged pupils
In 2023, the attainment gaps between this group and their peers were equivalent to nearly a year of learning at the end of key stage 2 and nearly two years by the end of KS4. The EPI says the KS4 gap was wider than at any point at which it has been measured previously.
The EPI is calling for £640 million from the savings made by falling pupil numbers to reverse real-terms cuts in the pupil premium and also to target additional funding specifically at persistently disadvantaged pupils through an enhanced pupil premium.
This enhanced premium would be worth a further £308 per persistently disadvantaged pupil in primary and £255 per persistently disadvantaged student in secondary. The EPI adds that this funding could be phased in gradually to ensure affordability over the spending review period.
It says that to ensure clarity for schools, additional funds should be distributed through the pupil premium rather than through the NFF.
Jon Andrews, the EPI’s head of analysis and director of school system and performance, said: “Over the next spending review period, the number of pupils at schools in England is expected to decline. The Treasury should not see this as an opportunity to make savings but as a chance to invest.”
He said that the school funding system allocates £6.5 billion in deprivation funding per year but makes no distinction between those in short-term poverty and those in entrenched, long-term disadvantage.
“This is despite the fact that those in persistent poverty have attainment that is well below average,” he added.
‘Chance to rethink’ school funding
Primary schools are projected to have 200,000 fewer pupils by 2028-29 because of a drop in the birth rate. The EPI says this presents an opportunity to rethink how resources are distributed to schools. If per-pupil funding remained the same, savings of £750 million could be generated.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the union agreed with the EPI’s call to target extra funding to support persistently disadvantaged pupils.
He added: “The fact that pupil numbers are expected to fall - reducing the overall cost of school funding - provides the opportunity to use this ‘saving’ to do something really positive for these children without costing the taxpayer a penny extra. That is surely an opportunity that is too good to miss.”
Before the government’s Budget announcement at the end of last month, three organisations wrote to the education secretary urging her to target more school funding at long-term disadvantage.
The Northern Powerhouse Partnership, the Centre for Young Lives and Shine wrote to Bridget Phillipson to say that increasing pupil-premium funding and targeting it at longer-term disadvantaged pupils was one of the measures the government should take to close the disadvantage gap by the end of the decade.
In its Budget, the Labour government announced that core school funding will increase by £2.3 billion a year, including an extra £1 billion for special educational needs and disabilities.
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