Scottish local authorities are questioning the data used to calculate the “pupil equity funding” that schools receive - with Scotland’s biggest council arguing that the figures are out of date and fail to take account of the impact of Covid on families.
The Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) gives schools an extra £1,225 for every child registered for free school meals (FSM), in a bid to help them close the attainment gap between affluent and poorer children.
However, the Scottish local authorities’ body Cosla says that the data that school allocations are based on is “becoming less reliable each year” because of the introduction of universal free school meals for pupils in the first five years of primary.
Glasgow City Council, meanwhile, says that the number of pupils claiming free school meals has increased since the pandemic. Figures shared with Tes Scotland show that free school meal registrations in secondaries in Glasgow rose by over 50 per cent between 2020 and 2022 - but this is not reflected in the PEF allocation its schools receive.
The Scottish government uses data from 2014 to estimate the number of pupils claiming free meals in P1-3, given that in later years all pupils in early primary became entitled to free meals.
School funding for disadvantaged pupils ‘falling short’
Universal free school meals in primary has been welcomed by child poverty campaigners, with pupils from P1 to P5 now benefiting (plans to provide free school meals to all P6-7s have been delayed). However, the policy does mean that old data - that experts say is likely to underestimate disadvantage - is being used to determine school PEF allocations, particularly for pupils in early primary.
Even the PEF allocations that schools receive for other year groups are based on old figures. The most up-to-date data the government used to allocate this year’s PEF to schools is from 2020, and those allocations are now set for four years up to 2025-26.
In England - where the equivalent scheme is the pupil premium - there was outrage last year when the FSM figures used to calculate funding for schools were just a few months out of date, with headteachers pointing out that poverty was growing month by month. In Scotland the figures being used are years out of date - and many years out of date for certain year groups.
John McKendrick, a professor in social justice at Glasgow Caledonian University, said it was likely that “there is a higher demand for FSM in some areas, and that 2014 [figures] underestimate the resource required”.
The Child Poverty Action Group told Tes Scotland: “It’s likely that more families have become eligible for FSM due to Covid and more will in the coming months due to the cost-of-living crisis.”
Professor McKendrick makes the case for calculating how free school meals registrations have changed in the year groups that currently do not benefit from universal free meals, and applying this change across the board.
He said that failing to use up-to-date figures means that schools are receiving less money than they should and there will “undoubtedly be some losers”.
He added: “Some schools will not be getting the resource that the government believes they require in order to close the poverty-related attainment gap.
“The whole point of pupil equity funding was to try and level up, to try and make sure that inequalities in society are tackled. It is not in anyone’s interest for the resource not to match the scale of the challenge.”
Labour education spokesman Michael Marra, who has been vocal about recent government changes to the way other Scottish Attainment Challenge cash is allocated, said failure to use current data “risks leaving thousands of pupils in need behind”.
“Poverty and deprivation is rising on a weekly basis as the cost-of-living crisis bites and the data being used does not even factor in the damage done by the pandemic,” he said.,
“It is simply not good enough that the government is relying on the use of old, historic data.
“This is emblematic of this SNP government’s complete lack of focus on tackling the attainment gap in Scotland.”
Glasgow City Council told Tes Scotland that it had raised the issue with the government through the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES). The council said the government needed “to take account of more recent FSM statistics, as Glasgow has seen an increase during the pandemic”.
In secondary schools, the number of students claiming free meals in Glasgow has increased by over 50 per cent, from 7,548 in 2020 to 11,547 in 2022. The proportion of students registered for free meals in secondary in Glasgow, meanwhile, has gone up from 28.6 per cent in 2020 to 41.3 per cent in 2022.
In its submission to the ongoing Scottish Attainment Challenge inquiry being carried out by the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee, Cosla said the way PEF was allocated was an area that “could be strengthened”.
It added that the data on eligibility for FSM “is becoming less reliable each year as the universal free school meal entitlement is expanded”.
Free school meals for all P1 to P3 pupils were introduced in 2015, with all P4 pupils becoming entitled in August 2021 and P5 pupils starting to receive free meals in January. The government had said all other primary pupils (P6-7s) would receive free meals by August 2022 but later deferred that commitment.
However, instead of arguing for allocations to be based on more up-to-date FSM data, Cosla made the case for decisions about the deployment of PEF to be made locally “informed by local knowledge and insight and using the best available data sets which consider the local context in relation to deprivation”.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “We are investing a record £1 billion through the Scottish Attainment Challenge in this Parliament to support children and young people impacted by poverty. This includes £520 million of pupil equity funding over the next four years.
“Following feedback from headteachers, we have, for the first time, confirmed school-level PEF allocations for each of the next four years. This provides more certainty for headteachers and supports longer-term planning. To ensure consistency at school level we have continued to use the existing methodology for setting PEF allocations.
“Also, in recognition of the fluctuating demand as a result of the pandemic, we have increased PEF from £1,200 to £1,225 for each pupil registered for free school meals.”
