Department for Education unveils pupil premium and school funding plans
The government has launched a consultation on its proposals for the introduction of a pupil premium that will provide additional funding for more disadvantaged pupils.
The consultation paper asks for views on how best the premium can operate, including what deprivation indicator should be used to determine eligibility. The options for how deprivation is calculated include free school meal eligibility, out-of-work tax credit, and commercial classifications such as ACORN and MOSAIC which are used by some local authorities.
The government also proposed including looked after children and exploring whether to cover children from armed forces families.
The consultation paper also seeks views on:
- Its proposals for distributing overall school funding from April 2011.The government intends to review school funding for all schools including academies beyond 2011-12, with details to be announced.
- Ending the policy of funding a minimum of 90% of a local authority’s three-year-old population
- Ceasing to fund dual-subsidiary registrations at pupil referral units
- A proposal to allow local authorities to apply for additional funding where they have schools serving service children
- A proposal to allow councils to claim for 10% of a unit of funding for home-educated pupils, and
- An intention to have a minimum funding guarantee.
All local authorities will also be required to introduce the Early Years Single Funding Formula (EYSFF) from April 2011, the government said. The EYSFF will require all councils to be transparent about the funding they are providing for free nursery education for three- and four-year-olds. The government also said it will look at whether, over time, it will be feasible to introduce a pupil premium for early years.
Education Secretary Michael Gove said: “Children from poorer backgrounds, who are currently doing less well at school, are falling further and further behind in the qualifications race every year – and that in turn means that they are effectively condemned to ever poorer employment prospects, narrower social and cultural horizons, less by way of resources to invest in their own children – and thus a cycle of disadvantage and inequality is made worse with every year that passes.”
Gove added that just two out of 57 countries now have a wider attainment gap between the highest and lowest achieving pupils. “This is not good enough and addressing this disparity is a top priority of the coalition government,” he insisted.
Under the scheme, the pupil premium will provide additional per pupil funding on top of the existing funding provided to schools. The premium funding will not be ring-fenced at school level, which means schools be allowed to decide how the extra funding should be spent for a particular individual.
The level of funding for schools for 2011/12 will be determined once the outcome of the spending review is known on 20 October 2010.
The consultation will last until 18 October.
