For immediate release – 27th April 2021
Bell has condemned the Government’s decision alter allocation for the pupil premium as a “stealth cut”, highlighting the £680,800 reduction to school funding in Lambeth this entails.1
Analysis conducted by Schools Week shows that an estimated additional 102,000 children became eligible for free school meals between last autumn and January this year.2
Primary schools receive £1,345 for every pupil who claims free school meals and secondary schools receive £955 for every pupil claiming free school meals.
However, the Government has recently confirmed that as of April 2021, the pupil premium will be calculated based on the number of eligible pupils recorded by schools in their October 2020 census..
Under this change, the Government will not provide schools with the extra funding to cover the many children who became eligible during the intervening months.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Member of Parliament for Streatham said:
“Schools have really been struggling during the pandemic with the added costs of Covid, which they were largely left to meet by themselves.
“The Government’s stealth cuts to the pupil premium are quietly leaving children behind and leaving underfunded local schools to pick up the tab.
“Sadly, this is pretty typical of the Department for Education’s continued failings during the pandemic.
“They had to be shamed into feeding children over the school holidays. It’s clear they will have to be shamed into ensuring disadvantaged children receive the support they need to catch up too.”
ENDS
Notes:
- Labour FOI request to local authorities about the number of children on Free School Meals in October 2020 and January 2021:
| Local authority | Oct-20 FSM | Jan-21 FSM | Change | % Change | Estimated funding for these pupils (£) |
| City of London | 36 | 43 | 7 | 19.44% | 8050 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 5,119 | 5,549 | 430 | 8.40% | 494500 |
| Sutton | 5,601 | 5,962 | 361 | 6.4% | 415150 |
| Merton | 5,769 | 6,223 | 454 | 7.9% | 522100 |
| Bexley | 6,640 | 7,121 | 481 | 7.2% | 553150 |
| Camden | 7,591 | 8,018 | 427 | 5.63% | 491050 |
| Hounslow | 7,632 | 8,155 | 523 | 6.9% | 601450 |
| Brent | 7,184 | 8,219 | 1,035 | 14.4% | 1190250 |
| Haringey | 8,126 | 8,690 | 564 | 6.94% | 648600 |
| Hillingdon | 8,830 | 9,930 | 1,100 | 12.46% | 1265000 |
| Hackney | 11,195 | 11,631 | 436 | 3.89% | 501400 |
| Barking and Dagenham | 10,685 | 11,681 | 996 | 9.3% | 1145400 |
| Lambeth | 11,387 | 11,979 | 592 | 5.20% | 680800 |
| Lewisham | 12,969 | 12,969 | 0 | 0.0% | 0 |
| Southwark | 13,173 | 14,286 | 1,113 | 8.45% | 1279950 |
| Newham | 15,875 | 17,352 | 1,477 | 9.3% | 1698550 |
| Barnet | 9,910 | Not held | x | x | x |
| TOTAL | 147808 | 9,996 | 11495400 |
- ‘Revealed: How much your area will lose from pupil premium funding change’, Schools Week, (23 April 2021)
- Photos above of Bell on recent school visits.
For further information about this press release, please contact Ollie Collard, Communications Officer, Office of Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP at oliver.collard@parliament.uk.