Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that additional Pupil Premium funding allocated to local schools is supports academic standards in literacy and numeracy.

Pupil premium provides additional funding to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, who face additional challenges and are at greater risk of being not in education, employment or training (NEET). This funding is worth around £3.2 billion in the 2026/27 financial year.

The department publishes guidance for school leaders on the effective use of pupil premium. Schools must spend this funding in line with the evidence-informed ‘menu of approaches’, which covers high-quality teaching, targeted support and wider strategies to improve attainment. We have identified low attainment, including in English and maths, as the most prevalent risk factor for becoming NEET. The menu includes measures to address these literacy and numeracy challenges.

We work closely with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to promote evidence-based approaches and interventions that raise attainment for disadvantaged pupils. We are also funding the EEF to deliver pupil premium strategy reviews for schools that need additional support, which will help schools plan, implement and monitor improvements to their pupil premium strategies.

All schools are required to publish an updated pupil premium strategy statement annually by 31 December. Schools are held accountable for the outcomes they achieve with all their funding, including through inspections by Ofsted and by governors and trustees, and pupil premium is no exception.