Embargoed until
0001 Thursday 18 March 2021
Today (Thursday 18 March 2021), school leaders’ union NAHT is
releasing new data that shows that the £6,000 average funding
allocated to primary schools through the recently announced
‘recovery premium’ has been entirely wiped out for many schools
because of a change in how the government calculates the number
of children eligible for pupil premium funding.
Normally schools report the number of pupils they have who are
eligible for pupil premium in January. But for the 20/21 academic
year the government changed the date for this census to October.
This means that any children who became eligible during the
intervening time will not receive any extra funding until next
year.
In a survey of NAHT’s school leader members last week, which
received 1,316 responses, we asked ‘how many pupils in your
school became eligible for pupil premium between the October and
January census, and will therefore not receive pupil premium for
2021?’
62% of respondents had 5 or more pupils that had become eligible
for pupil premium between the October and January census.
Currently, primary schools receive £1,345 for each child eligible
for pupil premium, so the lost funding for 5 pupils is £6,725 –
more than the £6,000 ‘catch-up’ funding allocated to primary
schools on average.
That means almost two thirds of schools surveyed have been left
worse off due to the change even after the latest education
recovery funding is taken into account.
Speaking as the findings are presented at NAHT’s School Leaders’
Summit today, Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said:
“These figures suggest that a large number of schools in England
have lost more funding due to this date change than they are
being given in the government’s so-called education recovery
package.
“The government is giving with one hand while knowingly taking
away with the other.
“A 3 month gap may not seem like it would make a big difference
but, given the volatile financial situation for many families due
to Covid-19, it is an exceptionally bad time to implement this
change. A significant number of children appear to have become
eligible for help via pupil premium during that time and these
children will now not receive any additional funding for another
whole year.
“Worse, the children who are losing out are exactly those
children most in need of additional support as they return to
school.
“The government may say ‘no child left behind’, but with this
simple ‘administrative tidy-up’ they have found a way to snatch
back funding from schools and to further entrench educational
disadvantage for the poorest families.
“We warned them that this could be the unintentional consequence
of making this change during the pandemic, and we have raised our
members’ concerns about the situation they now find themselves in
repeatedly. But our warnings have fallen on deaf ears.
“In stark contrast to their promises to put children and young
people at the heart of the pandemic recovery, the reality is that
the government is taking funding away from schools, leaving them
worse off at a time when they need every possible resource
available to them to help the children that most need it.
“The government must put this right. We aren’t asking for
additional money here. Only for what schools would have received
if this census date change hadn’t been implemented. If they don’t
they will be abandoning those children most in need at the most
critical time.”
33% of respondents had 10 or more pupils that had become eligible
for pupil premium between the October and January census. 10% of
respondents had 20 or more pupils that had become eligible.
NAHT’s School Leaders' Summit 2021 is an all-day conference being
held virtually on Thursday 18 March. Entitled ‘A Brighter Future
for Education’ it looks at how education might emerge from the
current pandemic. Keynote speakers include NAHT deputy general
secretary Nick Brook, Steve Munby, David Weston and Liz Robinson.
