Tory and Lib Dem plans for pupil premium unlikely to work

The report, The Pupil Premium: Assessing the Options, says the premium is unlikely to be enough to encourage schools to actively recruit more disadvantaged pupils.

"It may lead to a small reduction in covert selection by schools, but is unlikely to significantly reduce social segregation between schools," says the report.

The report also looked at a range of options for allocating the pupil premium.

The model favoured by the Conservative Party of creating a single national funding formula that includes a pupil premium is seen as unfair by the IFS.

Around one in 10 schools could see their budgets cut by 10 per cent through this method, says the report.

The Liberal Democrats model of offering a pupil premium on top of existing funding is seen as the fairest as it ensures no school receives less money.

This option requires money from outside of school funding. The Lib Dems are proposing paying for it through cutting tax credits to above average income families.

Another option, of overhauling central government grants and allocating money based on the number of disadvantaged pupils, was also criticised. Around a fifth of schools would see budget cuts of least 10 per cent through this model.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: "Under our plans no schools will lose funding. We are looking to get additional funding." He added that details about how that additional funding will be raised, "will be announced in due course".

Schools minister Vernon Coaker, who is critical of the premium pupil idea, said: "As the IFS report concludes a national pupil premium can only be done by finding billions in additional funding, which the Tories have so far refused to do, or by imposing cuts of 10 per cent to many schools."