There are many underperforming groups so why have you mainly targeted the Premium at pupils known to be eligible for FSM?

The Pupil Premium has been targeted at pupils from low income homes using known eligibility for free school meals (FSM) as a proxy, since all the evidence and facts make it abundantly clear that poverty is the single most important factor in predicting a child’s future life chances.

Starting in April 2012 we widened the coverage of the Premium to include those eligible for FSM at any point in the last six years (known as the Ever 6 FSM measure). We estimate that this will include an extra 555,000 pupils.

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 What about SEN? Surely children with special needs should be covered by the Pupil Premium?

Around 30 per cent of pupils with SEN are known to be eligible for FSM and will therefore benefit from the Pupil Premium. This includes all pupils regardless of age. But it is important to note that there is already additional funding in the system to support children with SEN. We are also currently consulting on ways to improve radically the entire SEN system and on how this might be achieved.

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 What about underperforming Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) children not specifically included in the Pupil Premium allocation?

Attainment gaps are a complex issue and the under-performance of a specific ethnic group may be due to a combination of factors including: socio-economic factors, parent’s education, behaviour, attendance and bullying.

The Pupil Premium is at the heart of our strategy for to raise the life chances of pupils from deprived backgrounds whatever their gender or ethnic group. The Premium will guarantee additional funding for schools with deprived children, and ensure that the poorest children, wherever they live, are able to receive the most support.

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 You are removing the ring-fenced Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG) from April 2011. Doesn’t this mean that ethnic minority achievement will start to slip backwards?

Not at all. Whilst EMAG will no longer continue as a separate ring-fenced grant, in 2011-12 the same level of funding for 2010-11 (£201m) will be mainstreamed into the Dedicated Schools Grant. It will remain the responsibility of individual LAs – in conjunction with their school forums – to decide how to allocate funding to their local schools. To reduce any potential turbulence resulting from the mainstreaming of this grant, LAs will be able to take account of previous levels of grant when making allocations to individual schools.

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