In a new report, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) highlights how 90% of the estimated £9billion of DfE funding associated with tackling disadvantage is not ring-fenced “meaning the department does not have a good understanding of how schools spend funding and therefore how effectively it supports the attainment of disadvantaged pupils”.
The PAC cites evidence that shows 47% of school leaders surveyed by Sutton Trust in 2024 said they used the pupil premium to plug wider budget gaps, up from 23% in 2019.
“The Department does not have a systematic way to understand how pupil premium is spent, with only 80% of schools sampled in 2023 meeting the requirement to publish 2022/23 strategies setting out how they plan to use funding to improve disadvantaged children’s attainment,” the report states.
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