Pupil Premium: Coronavirus

(asked on 12th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to update data held by his Department on the number of children that qualify for free school meals to ensure that pupil premium grant funding reflects the increase in the number of children whose families are eligible for that funding as a result of the economic consequences of the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 22nd April 2021

The January 2021 census will be used to determine pupil premium eligibility for alternative provision and pupil referral units for the financial year 2021-22. Pupil premium eligibility for mainstream and special schools will be based on the October 2020 census.

As part of the October census, schools are required to submit information on free school meals (FSM) eligibility for all of their pupils. The move to using the October census for the pupil premium should not affect the information submitted by schools as part of the census. The only circumstance in which amendments can be made to the October census is if there is an error in the numbers. We look into such cases on a case by case basis when they are reported to us.

Pupil premium will continue to be based on “Ever6 FSM”, whereby all pupils eligible for free school meals at the time of the October census, or at any point in the previous 6 years, will attract pupil premium funding. Per pupil funding rates will be the same as in 2020-21. As a result, we expect a typical school to see an increase in pupil premium funding from 2020-21 to 2021-22 as more children have become eligible for free school meals as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, and for total pupil premium funding to increase from £2.4 billion in 2020-21 to more than £2.5 billion in 2021-22. In addition to this, the Government announced a further £300 million for a one-off Recovery Premium which will be allocated to schools based on the same methodology as the pupil premium. In this way, schools with more disadvantaged pupils will receive larger amounts.

The Department will confirm pupil premium allocations for the financial year 2021-22 in June 2021. This will provide the public with information on the specific amounts that regions, local authorities, and schools are receiving through the pupil premium for 2021-22.

The Department publishes information on pupil premium allocations and the number of pupils eligible annually. The most recent publicly available figures can be found via this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-allocations-and-conditions-of-grant-2020-to-2021.

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