Secondary schools are so desperate for funding that 45% have used pupil premium to plug budget holes in 2025 – up from 32% in 2024, according to the Teacher Voice Omnibus Survey, conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) for social mobility charity The Sutton Trust.
It is the highest rate since 2017, when the trust’s poll began and backs up concerns raised last month by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, that billions of pounds of funding associated with tackling disadvantage may not be benefiting these pupils.
Despite siphoning the funding in this way, half of secondary schools have been forced to make cuts to numbers of teaching staff (50%) and teaching assistants (51%), up from 38% and 41% last year.
Primary schools are also hard hit, with 46% using pupil premium for wider spending compared with 50% last year.
Nearly nine in 10 leaders across all schools said the pupil premium, which is targeted at reducing the disadvantage gap, does not cover the cost of supporting the poorer children it is targeted at.
In most cases the money is used pay staff salaries, particularly teaching assistant posts, which 74% of leaders across primary and secondary schools say have been cut in 2025.
The amount of pupil premium schools get has fallen by a fifth in real terms since 2014/15, while the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged pupils has widened across all educational phases since 2019, according to separate research by the Education Endowment Foundation.
The Sutton Trust’s chief executive Nick Harrison said: “State schools are overwhelmed with financial pressures, and many are rapidly heading towards breaking point.
“This is having a devastating impact on their ability to provide the support that the most disadvantaged pupils need.
“If action isn’t taken, we’ll be failing the next generation. School funding must be protected in the forthcoming Spending Review if the government is serious about breaking down barriers to opportunity.
“Urgent action is needed, starting with carefully targeted measures to rebalance funding towards schools in the most deprived areas.’
Other areas facing big cuts are tutoring, with 37% of all schools ceasing to offer this to pupils since 2024, after the previous government’s National Tutoring Programme (NTP) ended last summer.
Leaders across all schools are also cutting extracurricular provision, with 53% of school leaders reducing the number of trips, and 33% cutting spending on sports and other extracurricular activities.
Staffing pressures mean many secondary schools are reducing the choices they offer at GCSE (33%, up from 29% last year) and A level (29%, up from 23%).
This comes ahead of the Department for Education’s Curriculum and Assessment Review, which has ‘a system that works for all’ as a key focus.
Government funding to mainstream schools is set to increase by 4.3% in 2025/26, but the DfE admitted projected increases in costs means schools will be able to afford less than half of the 2.8% teacher pay rise proposed for next year.
