Schools could be losing out on as much as £124 million as a result of the government’s change to the way it allocates pupil premium funds this year - described by some as a “stealth cut”.
New figures released today by the Department for Education reveal how many pupils were eligible for free school meals (FSM) as of January 2021, which can be compared with data for October 2020 to give a fresh estimate of the potential dent in school budgets left by the policy change.
This year, instead of basing its allocations on pupils eligible in January, as it has done in previous years, the DfE is using data from a census carried out last October to calculate the number of children attracting the premium in the financial year 2021-22.
The change means that schools will lose out on funds this year for any children who became newly eligible for the cash between October and January.
Today’s data shows that 1,008,164 primary school children were eligible for FSM in January 2021, compared with 933,189 in October 2020 - a difference of 74,975.
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A further 660,476 secondary children were eligible for the meals in January 2021, compared with 636,682 in October 2020 - a difference of 23,794.
This means that, across both primary and secondary schools, 98,769 children became eligible for FSM over the course of the 2020 autumn term.
As the data does not specify how many of these children became newly eligible for FSM in January 2021, it is possible that some may have claimed on another occasion in the past six years.
For those children, schools would not be losing out on any cash as a result of the census date change. This is because all children claiming FSM at any point in the past six years are automatically eligible for pupil premium funds.
However, the data can still be used to calculate an upper estimate of the cost to schools, assuming all FSM pupils in January 2021 were newly eligible.
This year, the government has allocated £1,345 for each primary pupil and £955 for each secondary student on the premium.
Taking into account the additional 74,975 primary children and 23,794 secondary students eligible for FSM in January 2021, the data suggests that schools could be losing out on as much as £124 million as a result of the change.
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The DfE has so far refused to specify the amount that schools are set to lose from the census shift.
Kate Green, Labour’s shadow education secretary, has described the policy shift as a “stealth cut”, arguing that the Conservative Party has “neglected children through this pandemic”.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, said: “As we expected, there has been a big rise in the number of children eligible for pupil premium this year - and a worrying number of them will not be receiving any additional funding due to a change in reporting date implemented by the government.
“The government has made bold claims about their ambitions for recovery and said that no child will be left behind. But by implementing this pupil premium change in the middle of the pandemic, they have actively removed support for those children who are most in need of help.
“They must come clean about how much they have saved with this change, and they must put that money back into school budgets immediately.
“We aren’t asking for additional money. Only for what schools would have received if this census date change hadn’t been implemented. If the government doesn’t take action, they will be abandoning those children most in need at the most critical time.”
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Julia Harnden, funding specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “While it isn’t possible to say exactly how much money schools have lost out on, this figure gives an idea of the scale of the funding hole.
“This isn’t just a technical issue around funding allocations. It is real children who need and deserve the support of pupil premium money.
“The shortfall in this funding means that schools are left in the impossible position of trying to provide this support without adequate funding, and in the context of budgets which are already extremely stretched because of the many other pressures on them.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Pupil premium funding is expected to increase to more than £2.5 billion this year, and per-pupil rates are unchanged - so a typical school will see an increase in its pupil premium allocations this year compared to last. Any pupil who becomes eligible after the October census will attract funding in the following year.
“We have provided a £14 billion increase in school funding over three years - the biggest uplift in a decade - and school leaders can target our ambitious recovery funding worth £3 billion to date to further support disadvantaged pupils with their attainment.”
Tes has calculated the cost of the pupil premium change according to FSM eligibility at state primary and secondary schools alone.
FSM numbers for pupil referral units (PRUs) have been excluded because pupil premium allocations for these settings will be based on the January 2021 census, rather than the October 2020 census. This means PRUs will not lose any funds as a result of the policy change.
FSM numbers for nurseries have also been excluded because these settings are not eligible for the pupil premium. Instead, they can apply for early years pupil premium, which is a different entitlement.
Finally, FSM numbers have been excluded for special schools because it is not possible to determine from the DfE statistics what proportion of these pupils are of primary and secondary age. This means the cost to schools cannot be accurately estimated based on 2021-22 pupil premium allocations.
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