Automate your Pupil Premium strategy and track spend
Provision Map helps schools identify, monitor and evidence support for disadvantaged pupils, ensuring Pupil Premium funding is targeted effectively and every intervention is accountable.
Manage Pupil Premium funding
Pupil Premium status is one of the key indicators school leaders use when planning support, allocating resources and monitoring outcomes. Provision Map brings pupil information, interventions and impact evidence together in one place, helping schools move beyond tracking spend to demonstrating the difference it makes.
• Record support, interventions and funding allocation in one centralised system
• Make Pupil Premium pupils visible alongside SEND, EHCP and other key indicators
• Build an evidence base to demonstrate impact to governors, senior leaders and inspectors
Identify pupils who need support
Research shows that Pupil Premium status is often used as an important signal when planning interventions and building provision maps. Provision Map helps you surface this information alongside SEND status, EHCPs and other learner needs, giving staff the visibility they need to make informed decisions.
Whether you're reviewing an individual learner, a cohort, or your whole school provision, key information is available in one place.
With Provision Map you can:
• Quickly identify Pupil Premium pupils
• View support alongside SEND and other learner characteristics
• Support targeted intervention planning
• Improve visibility across teaching and support teams
Create a clear evidence trail
Schools are increasingly expected to demonstrate not only what support has been provided, but also why it was chosen and what outcomes it achieved.
Provision Map creates a chronological record of interventions, reviews and support strategies, helping schools build the evidence needed for internal accountability and external funding applications.
Record and monitor:
• Additional support and provision
• Review notes and outcomes
• Staff observations
• Parent and pupil feedback
This creates a comprehensive history of support that can be used when reviewing effectiveness, planning next steps or justifying future funding requests.
Support governor and Ofsted reporting
Reporting on Pupil Premium provision is often manual and time consuming, requiring information to be gathered from multiple systems.
Provision Map helps schools bring together intervention activity, pupil information and provision data in one place, reducing duplication and making reporting easier.
Make reporting simpler with:
• Centralised intervention records
• Cohort and individual pupil summaries
• Historic provision tracking
• Clear evidence of support provided
• Data that is accessible during inspections and reviews
By maintaining accurate records throughout the year, schools can spend less time gathering evidence and more time supporting pupils.
Read our 4 ways Provision Map can help track pupil premium spend blog to find out more.
Move beyond recording activity
One of the biggest challenges schools face is demonstrating the difference an intervention has made.
Provision Map helps schools connect support to outcomes by tracking provision over time, creating a clearer picture of what has been implemented, when it took place and how pupil needs have evolved.
Build a stronger picture of impact:
• Monitor intervention timelines
• Review outcomes alongside provision records
• Identify what support is working
• Inform future funding decisions
• Strengthen accountability across the school
Because effective Pupil Premium provision is about more than documenting activity. It's about ensuring support reaches the child and delivers meaningful outcomes.
Why schools use Provision Map for Pupil Premium
When funding decisions depend on being able to evidence need, demonstrate provision and show impact, schools need more than spreadsheets and disconnected systems.
Provision Map gives school leaders a single place to plan support, record what has been delivered and build the evidence needed to demonstrate that Pupil Premium funding is making a difference where it matters most: improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.
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Provision Map has helped significantly with the day to day leadership of SEND but also with keeping track of Pupil Premium spend and impact.
The Stanway School
FAQs
Pupil premium is extra government funding given to publicly funded schools in England to help improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. It is intended to reduce the attainment gap by giving schools additional resources to provide targeted academic, pastoral, and wider support.
Eligibility usually relates to pupils who have been registered for free school meals within the past six years and children looked after by the local authority. Schools have discretion over how they use this funding, though they are expected to base decisions on evidence, monitor the impact of their approach, and show that spending supports better progress, attendance, engagement, or wider outcomes.
Pupil premium funding is available for pupils who are eligible for Targeted Free School Meals (FSM) or who are part of the Ever 6 FSM cohort, meaning they have been eligible for Targeted FSM at some point in the last six years.
Funding is also available for children who are looked after by a local authority and for those who have been previously looked after (for example, through adoption or other permanent care arrangements). Under the 2026-27 changes, pupils who are newly eligible for free school meals through the expanded Universal Credit criteria alone receive free meals, but do not automatically qualify for pupil premium funding.
Read more about the changes in our Pupil premium funding changes blog.
Pupil premium criteria are set by the Department for Education and determine which pupils attract this funding for schools in England.
Schools should check the latest government guidance each year, because funding rates and eligibility rules can change. Find out more about the latest entitlements and criteria in our Pupil premium funding changes and funding for 2026-27 blog.
The amount a school gets for a pupil premium child depends on the pupil’s eligibility category and the funding rates set each year by the Department for Education.
In practice, schools in England receive different amounts for pupils ranging from £1,550 to £2,690. However, this all depends on the criteria the pupil meets.
Schools do not usually submit a separate application for pupil premium funding in the same way they would apply for a grant. Instead, funding is allocated through the annual school census and other official records that confirm which pupils meet the published eligibility criteria.
Therefore, the most important step is to make sure families are encouraged to register for free school meals where appropriate, and that pupil records are accurate, complete, and updated on time.
For looked-after children and previously looked-after children, schools should also work closely with the local authority and check that supporting information is recorded correctly.
However, because funding depends on verified data, schools should review census returns carefully and maintain clear internal processes for identifying eligible pupils throughout the year.
Schools track pupil progress by combining attainment, attendance, behaviour, and pastoral information to build a rounded view of each pupil’s development over time.
For disadvantaged pupils, this often includes comparing current performance with prior attainment, reviewing progress against individual targets, and monitoring whether support is improving engagement and outcomes.
However, effective tracking is not only about collecting data at set assessment points. It also involves recording interventions, staff observations, review meetings, and pupil or parent feedback, so leaders can understand what support was provided and whether it made a measurable difference.
Therefore, many schools use a central system such as Tes Provision Map to bring these records together, making it easier to identify patterns, adjust provision, and report clearly to governors, inspectors, and other stakeholders.
Schools can spend pupil premium on approaches that are intended to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. This may include targeted teaching, structured interventions, tutoring, attendance support, pastoral provision, literacy and numeracy programmes, behaviour support, and strategies that strengthen classroom practice.
What's worth noting is that there is no fixed list of approved purchases, so schools are expected to use professional judgement and align spending with their pupil premium strategy. They should connect spending to clear aims such as improving attainment, increasing attendance, supporting engagement and improving wider outcomes amongst others.
Schools should also keep strong records that show who received support, why it was chosen, how funding was allocated, and what impact followed. Consequently, many schools use a central tool such as Tes Provision Map to record provision, monitor progress, and evidence that pupil premium spend is both targeted and accountable.