Funding for poorest pupils ‘cut by £150m’ Funding for the poorest pupils in England’s schools is being cut by £150m in real terms as a result of […]

Funding for the poorest pupils in England’s schools is being cut by £150m in real terms as a result of the Government’s spending policy, new figures have shown.

Pupil premium money, which is handed to schools for every student they have in receipt of free school meals, will be worth £150m less by the end of the next school year than in 2015.

The shortfall comes despite the Conservatives pledging to protect pupil premium spending in the party’s general election manifesto in order to “support those who need it”.

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Proud reform

As a backbench MP, the new Education Secretary Damian Hinds heaped praise on the spending policy, describing it as a “a key structural reform introduced by this government and one we can be proud of”.

But since 2015, the Government has frozen pupil premium funding in cash terms, leading to a real terms cut of £100m, rising to £150m by 2019.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said the Government’s school spending policy was hitting the most disadvantaged hardest.

“At the last two elections the Tories made manifesto commitments to protect the pupil premium, but instead it has been cut by millions of pounds in real terms,” Ms Rayner said.

“Once again, parents, pupils and teachers are being let down by Tory cuts to their schools and it is the most disadvantaged children who are paying the price.”

The real terms fall in pupil premium funding comes against a backdrop of wider cuts to school budgets, which have fallen by £2.7bn since 2015.

Big issue

The issue of squeezed school funding was one of the key battlegrounds during last year’s general election.

Earlier this week, Theresa May’s former chief of staff Nick Timothy called for an end to austerity and admitted that school spending was a key factor in the election result.

“Any candidate who fought in the election campaign would say that school spending was one of the big issues,” he said.