Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of pupil premium criteria for meeting the needs of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children.

The pupil premium is additional funding, worth over £2.4 billion in the current financial year, to help schools improve the progress and attainment of disadvantaged pupils. Allocations to schools are based on the number of pupils on roll at the time of the January school census who are currently registered for benefits-based free school meals (FSM) or who have been registered at any point in the last 6 years (known as ‘Ever 6 FSM’); or who are currently looked after, or have left local authority care in England or Wales through adoption or other specified routes. In 2019-20, 27.3% of all pupils in state-funded education in England attract pupil premium funding to the schools they attend.

The department knows that a significant proportion of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller of Irish Heritage (GRT) pupils qualify for the pupil premium. In 2017-18, 41.1% of GRT pupils at the end of key stage 2 and 33.7% at the end of key stage 4 were registered for FSM.

Nonetheless, the department is aware that there are concerns that some GRT pupils from financially disadvantaged family circumstances do not attract pupil premium funding to the schools they attend, because their parents choose not to apply for those benefits that would qualify their children for FSM. We encourage those parents who are eligible for qualifying benefits to take up the offer of support, so that all available resources can be brought to bear in improving the futures of all our young people.

It should also be noted that the pupil premium is not ring-fenced funding and schools have flexibility over how they use their allocations to address the needs of their pupils. This can include the implementation of whole school approaches that will improve the progress and attainment of all pupils, as well as being particularly beneficial for those pupils who are formally classed as disadvantaged and attract pupil premium funding. We actively encourage schools to adopt evidence-based approaches to their pupil premium spending, and to look at the pupil premium guide recently produced by the Education Endowment Foundation on how to maximise the impact of the funding. This information can be found at the following link: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/pupil-premium-guide/.