Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department made of the effect of trends in the level of school spending per pupil in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens on pupil educational achievement between 2010 and 2019.

Schools in St. Helens will attract 4.8% more per pupil next year, a total of £5.9 million of additional funding compared to 2019-20 (subject to changes in pupil numbers). Local authorities’ allocations are provisional at this stage.

The pupil premium was introduced in 2011 as additional funding to help schools improve the progress and attainment of disadvantaged pupils. In 2019-20, schools in St Helens local authority are being allocated £9,670,780 in pupil premium funding, compared to £2,645,000 in 2011-12. The increase in funding is due to changes in the number of pupils eligible for free school meals, the extension of pupil premium eligibility criteria to cover a wider range of pupils, and increases in pupil premium funding rates per pupil.

The factors correlated with trends in pupil attainment are wide ranging and complex. They include school and pupil characteristics such as gender, ethnicity and disadvantage amongst others. The Department has not undertaken a specific assessment of the trends between school spending per pupil and pupil educational achievement in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens between 2010 and 2019.

Data on the achievement of pupils at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4 in each local authority can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-key-stage-2.

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-gcses-key-stage-4.

Nationally, the Government is investing a cash increase of £2.6 billion to core schools funding next year, with increases of £4.8 billion and £7.1 billion in 2021-22 and 2022-23 respectively. This is in addition to the £1.5 billion per year the Department will continue to provide to fund additional pension costs for teachers over the next three years, meaning the total core schools budget will rise to £52.2 billion by 2022-23.