Despite the government pumping £2.5bn into the pupil premium since its launch in 2011, a National Audit Office (NAO) report published earlier this month has found the funding and policy is yet to reach its full potential.
The premium, provided to about two million disadvantaged children aged five to 16, awards local authorities £1,300 per primary pupil and £935 for each secondary pupil per year to pay for additional learning support. They also receive £1,900 in premium payments for each looked-after child.
The NAO report, Funding for disadvantaged pupils, says schools are not using effective, low-cost interventions often enough. In particular, it criticises the widespread use - 71 per cent of schools do so - of the premium to fund teaching assistants, which the NAO says "will only improve results if schools learn to deploy these staff more effectively".
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