Reacting to the Department of Education data that reveals that it did save money on Pupil Premium this year despite claiming otherwise, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said: 

"This data shows that the government’s previous claims that schools would not lose out as a consequence of the changes to Pupil Premium this year were, at best, disingenuous.

“The stark reality is that we now know that the change to how the pupil premium is allocated has led to a £90m stealth cut to school budgets. Worse still, it means over 60,000 pupils won’t get the vital support they should have been entitled to this year.

"There is simply no justification for this change, and the government must reverse this decision immediately. A failure to so will completely undermine its claims to be ‘levelling up’ and ‘leaving no child behind’. It is hard to think of a worse possible time for the government to be withholding support for tens of thousands of disadvantaged pupils.”

A poll of NAHT's members conducted this month highlighted increased Pupil Premium funding as one of the top three most important actions to take to help schools to help pupils recover from the effects of the pandemic.