Today the Department for Education has published
new data on the number of pupils eligible for free school
meals in England. The latest figures for January 2021 show that
the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals rose to
20.8% from 19.7% in October 2020.
The rise between October 2020 and January 2021 of 1.1 percentage
points means that the number of pupils eligible for free school
meals has increased by 100,000 pupils, taking the total to over
1.7m pupils nationally.
The rise follows the recent decision from the Department for
Education to change the way in which it allocates pupil premium
funding for disadvantaged pupils, which is determined by free
school meal eligibility at any point in the preceding six years.
The Department's changes meant that the October school census was
used to determine the number of pupils on free school meals,
rather than the January census. This meant that pupils who were
newly eligible for pupil premium funding in the period between
these two months, who would have previously received funding, are
no longer counted.
Whilst some of these pupils may have already been eligible for
the pupil premium, a rise in the number of pupils eligible for
free school meals between October 2020 and January 2021 is likely
to mean that pupils have missed out on extra funding via the
pupil premium, due to October being used as the new cut-off date.
Commenting on today’s release, Jon Andrews, Head of
Analysis at the Education Policy Institute (EPI) said:
“Today’s figures are a further indication that the government’s
change to how the pupil premium is allocated means that pupils
and schools are now missing out on vital funding. These losses
are found not only in the pupil premium itself but in other areas
such as catch-up funding for disadvantaged pupils, which is
closely linked to it.
"The Department for Education should now publish its analysis of
the impact of this decision on pupil premium allocations and
clarify whether any savings from this have been redistributed.”
