Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in pursuant to the Answer of 21 December 2017 to Question 120011, whether she has made an assessment of the accuracy of the Ever 6 model in establishing entitlement to Pupil Premium in schools with growing pupil rolls; and if she will make a statement.

The department counts the numbers of pupils eligible for pupil premium using a single census point in January to enable it to allocate pupil premium to schools by June. This gives certainty to schools about their pupil premium budget to allow them to plan it’s use effectively.

To make in-year adjustments to reflect the movement of pupils would introduce uncertainty. The EVER6 FSM measure is designed as a proxy measure to reflect relative deprivation in schools and is not intended to allocate a specific amount to an individual pupil. Schools have the ability to use their pupil premium allocation flexibly to meet the various needs of all eligible pupils. The funding model does take into account growing pupil numbers for schools that are newly opened or are continuing to grow by year group following opening. The department rarely receives queries from schools on this issue.