Schools minister pledges pupil premium probe

The new schools minister is “looking at” how schools use the pupil premium to make sure some schools are not spending it “in ways that the funding is not intended”.

Jonathan Gullis told a fringe event that he wanted to examine whether the £2.6 billion for disadvantaged pupils was “being used to really target and drive attainment, improve attendance, help with behaviour”.

But government sources this week denied this would be a formal review of the policy. Instead, the Department for Education will work with the Education Endowment Foundation to provide better guidance for how the money can best be spent.

Created under the coalition government, the premium is paid to schools for each pupil who has been eligible for free school meals at any point in the previous six years.

Headteachers choose how to spend the grant, although government guidance points to evidence that shows it is most effective when used to support high-quality teaching and address “barriers to success”, such as attendance and behaviour.

Since last year, schools have had to demonstrate “how their spending decisions are informed by research evidence”.

‘Plenty of good examples’ of pupil premium use

“I’m sure there are plenty of examples in schools where that is happening well, but I do worry … that money is at times being used in other ways, in ways that the funding is not intended,” Gullis said.

“I want to make sure that that money, a significant amount of funding, is used in the appropriate way.”

Any formal review would likely create extreme anxiety in schools at a time when the Treasury is trying to find efficiency savings to fund tax cuts promised in the government’s mini budget.

It follows calls on the government to increase the premium after schools were told they would have to raid their own coffers to pay for tutoring when government subsidies ended.

Tutoring is one of the interventions the government has recommended for pupil premium spending.

Ministers also said earlier this year they would “make it easier” for schools to use the £2.6 billion annual funding to “support literacy and numeracy skills where needed”.

However, the fund would retain its “core focus” on improving attainment for disadvantaged pupils, they said.