The statistics show that schools in Birmingham are likely to share almost £24m, with 55,610 children eligible for the premium. Schools in Kent and Lancashire will receive around £11m and £10.5m respectively.
Wokingham and Rutland are among the areas expected to be given the lowest allocations, receiving £511,000 and £201,000 respectively.
The money is to be calculated according to the number of children in a council area who are in receipt of free school meals or in local authority care, with each of these groups allocated £430 per child. In addition, children of service personnel will be allocated £200 each.
No London weighting
Malcolm Trobe, policy director at the Association of School and College Leaders, said schools will need a "critical mass" of pupil premium children if the cash is to make a difference to the attainment of the most disadvantaged.
"A great deal will depend on how many pupil premiums each school gets," he explained. "If you're working on an individual student basis then the money won't go very far. On average it would take five to six pupil premiums just to put on an extra one-hour group, once a week. You'd need 30 pupil premiums just to put on one extra hour a week for each of your five year groups. It's a drop in the ocean in that respect."
Caroline Dawes, head of children's services at London Councils, warned that eligible children in the capital's schools will benefit proportionally less than their counterparts across the country.
"It's £430 per pupil wherever you are in the country," she said. "Given that we think most schools will be spending it on extra staffing, such as one-to-one support and mentoring, the money will go a lot less far in London than it will in other parts of the country, because of inner and outer London weighting."
Dawes also questioned how the allocations were calculated. "Not everyone who is eligible for free school meals applies for it," she said. "There are issues such as language barriers and parents not wanting to give their personal details. Places such as Tower Hamlets have low free school meal numbers considering the high levels of deprivation in the area. Schools are actively encouraging their pupils to apply for free school meals but we think that some of them could still lose out quite considerably."
Martin Freedman, deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, argued that most schools will simply "put the pupil premium in the overall pot and use it to offset the cuts they've received elsewhere".
"Unless you're a school that has turned into an academy recently, your budget has had a real-terms cut this year," he said. "The government claims this is additional money, but they're being a bit disingenuous."
Freedman also argued that the government's plans to use a "light touch" approach to policing the spending of pupil premium cash could backfire.
Compensation for cuts
Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the pupil premium only "compensates for losses" in many schools, but added that the cash would help schools improve results for deprived children.
"A lot of primary schools will be using it on reading recovery schemes like Every Child a Reader because central funding for that has been cut," he said. "Where there is a critical mass of pupil premium pupils, there are schools that are considering spending it on education welfare officers, to work with children and families and make sure they attend school."
A spokesman for the DfE said the government would not "peer over schools' shoulders" to monitor pupil premium spending.
"We trust their decisions," he said. "However, it is important that there is transparency about how the money is spent. Therefore, we will ask schools to report to parents annually about how they have used the pupil premium. The extent to which schools improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils will be covered by the wider accountability system that we are developing."
BIRMINGHAM'S PREMIUM
Birmingham is likely to be allocated the largest amount of pupil premium funding in the country.
The government estimates there are 55,610 children eligible for the premium in the authority, meaning schools in Birmingham would share £23.9m.
According to government figures Birmingham has 54,232 children eligible for free school meals, 1,352 children in care and 23 children of service personnel.
