Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 10 September 2018 to Question 170788 on Schools: Fees and Charges, what information his Department holds on the use of the pupil premium by schools to support children from low-income families.

The department has commissioned and published research on how schools are using the pupil premium funding that they have been allocated, to support pupils from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. For example, in 2015, a report was published detailing the findings of research led by the National Foundation for Educational Research. This looked at the strategies used by schools to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and the characteristics of those schools in which such pupils have better outcomes . This report is available at:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/473974/DFE-RR411_Supporting_the_attainment_of_disadvantaged_pupils.pdf.

In monitoring the progress of our policy, we also take into account, evidence from research commissioned and carried out by other organisations on how schools are using the pupil premium. These organisations include the National Audit Office, which in 2015 published the findings of it’s inquiry into funding for disadvantaged pupils, which is available at:

https://www.nao.org.uk/report/funding-for-disadvantaged-pupils/.

The Sutton Trust also publishes annually the results of its polling of teachers and school leaders on school priorities for spending the pupil premium, the most recent results of which, are available at:

https://www.suttontrust.com/research-paper/best-in-class-2018-research/.

Policy officials also engage in ongoing discussions with schools on how they are using their pupil premium funding, in order to inform the development of our policy.

Furthermore, all local authority maintained schools publish details online for parents and other stakeholders, on how much pupil premium funding they have been allocated, how they are spending this funding to overcome the barriers to academic progress encountered by disadvantaged pupils and the impact this expenditure is having on eligible pupils.