Disadvantaged pupils risk losing out as their funding increasingly used to plug budget gaps

A new report from the Government’s Public Accounts Committe (PAC) finds that disadvantaged children may not be benefitting from funding intended for them, with the Department for Education (DfE) possessing only a limited picture of how schools are spending billions in funding associated with disadvantage.

The report highlights that 47% of senior school leaders were using pupil premium to plug budget gaps in 2024, up from 23% in 2019, according to Sutton Trust research.

You can download the report on the PAC website here.