The total amount being spent by the Scottish government on the Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) will decrease by £16.5 million in the coming year, going from approximately £147 million in 2021-22 to £130.5 million in 2022-23.
The government has said that PEF allocations will now be fixed for four years, from 2022-23 up until 2025-26.
In 2021-22, schools received a 15 per cent increase to their PEF money, which the government said was designed to provide “further resource to schools to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap, recognising the new and additional challenges schools and their children and young people face as a result of Covid-19”.
But the increase is not being continued in 2022-23, which means that as schools continue to grapple with the fallout from Covid, most are going to see their PEF funding decrease.
Some schools may feel the impact far more than others.
At Levenmouth Academy in Fife, over half of the 1,600 students live in areas among the 20 per cent most deprived in Scotland. In 2022-23, the school will receive £347,900 via the Scottish government’s Pupil Equity Fund (PEF). Levenmouth Academy receives the largest amount of funding in Scotland through PEF, which allocates funding directly to schools to help them drive up the attainment of disadvantaged pupils.
Funding is allocated on the basis of the number of pupils claiming free school meals.
The primary school set to be the biggest beneficiary in 2022-23, according to Scottish government data published today, is Shortlees Primary in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire - it will receive £279,300.
Even though Levenmouth Academy will receive the largest allocation in Scotland in the coming year (2022-23), it will have £15,617 less to spend than it did in 2021-22, when its allocation was £363,517. Shortlees Primary, similarly, is going to be £33,494 worse off in 2022-23.
However, other schools will take an even bigger hit. In the coming year, St Andrew’s Secondary and Dalmarnock Primary in Glasgow will be around £94,000 worse off.
Although far more schools will see their funding decrease than increase, there will be some winners. Gleniffer High in Paisley, Renfrewshire, for example, will see its funding increase by £104,286 in 2022-23.
Announcing the details of the allocations that schools will receive in 2022-23, the Scottish government said it was investing £1 billion in the Scottish Attainment Challenge over the course of this Parliament and as part of that overall investment Scotland’s headteachers - via the Pupil Equity Fund - would receive more than half a billion pounds over the next four years to help close the attainment gap.
Education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the government was determined to ensure that headteachers were “empowered to take the approaches that are right for the children and young people in their schools to help improve attainment”.
She added: “Our allocation of more than £520 million of PEF for the next four years will give headteachers the confidence and security they need to plan long-term. However, we know schools can’t do this alone, and headteachers should work in partnership with each other, Education Scotland and their local authority, to agree on the use of the funding.”
The government revealed at the end of last year that the Scottish Attainment Challenge will no longer focus on the nine so-called “challenge authorities” - the councils that were judged to be facing the biggest challenges when it came to poverty. These were Clackmannanshire, Dundee, East Ayrshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.
Instead, the government said that in the future it planned to spread the funding the Challenge authorities would previously have received across all 32 Scottish councils.
The new funding arrangements will be phased in over four years, because - while some authorities will receive a funding boost - those councils originally deemed to be in most need of support stand to lose millions of pounds.
