The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) quizzed Department for Education officials on its strategy to close the disadvantage gap, as well as on how it allocates funding and ensures money is well spent.
The hearing came after the National Audit Office (NAO) published a report in July saying the DfE does not have a strategy or monitoring plan for reducing the disadvantage gap.
It also follows key stage 2 Sats data showing the disadvantage gap had narrowed but is still bigger than before the pandemic. At KS4, the gap narrowed in 2024 but remains wider than it has been since 2010-11.
MPs yesterday heard from DfE permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood, director general for schools Juliet Chua and director general for strategy Tony Foot.
Here are nine things they told the committee:
1. DfE will continue to review early years pupil premium
The disadvantage gap at age 5 is around 40 per cent of what it reaches by age 16.
Labour’s total spend on early education is set to reach £8 billion this year, and the government announced an uplift of 45 per cent to the early years pupil premium as part of this.
But the pupil premium still remains lower for early years than for primary-aged pupils - at £570 a year compared with £1,480 a year.
Asked if this balance is about right, Mr Foot said the DfE will continue to review this in the future, particularly as the evidence base on effective interventions at early years develops.
Ms Acland-Hood added that the DfE wants to make sure it is increasing the early years pupil premium rate in a way that “doesn’t cause instability in the system”.
She said the DfE went “as far as we could” with putting extra money in amid constrained budgets, without causing “turbulence” in the system by moving too much funding around.
2. DfE prefers NFF for disadvantage funding
MP Anna Dixon asked officials why the pupil premium had not kept up with inflation since it was introduced.
Mr Foot said the DfE has increased funding through deprivation factors in the national funding formula (NFF). These make up 10.2 per cent of the formula as of 2024-25.
These factors “are acting as a very effective proxy for the SEND [special educational needs and disabilities] need that has come through the system and overlaps significantly with disadvantage”, he added.
3. DfE ‘following up’ with schools on pupil premium plans
PAC chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown questioned the DfE about Sutton Trust findings that many heads use pupil premium funding to plug gaps in their budgets.
How can the DfE ensure the money goes on disadvantage as intended, he asked.
Ms Chua said the DfE is following up with schools that have not published their pupil premium strategy after Sir Geoffrey said “only 80 per cent” of schools are actually publishing their strategy.
“We follow up a sample where we see that’s not taking place,” said Ms Chua. “The individual schools we followed up with are now in the process of updating and making sure they do have strategies that are available.”
“We take a sampling approach, we can’t do all of them,” she added.
4. 30% of schools not looking at pupil premium evidence
DfE officials said 70 per cent of schools say they have used the Education Endowment Foundation’s evidence base in putting together their pupil premium spending strategy.
Ms Chua said the DfE thinks this is an underestimation.
MP Lloyd Hatton said this suggests there is a “grey area” in knowing how well the money is being spent.
“I worry about who the 30 per cent are who aren’t saying yes to that question,” said Ms Acland-Hood, and added that the DfE will continue to look at this.
5. DfE hopes to widen evidence base
Mr Foot also said the DfE hopes to widen the evidence base on how disadvantage funding should be spent. It is publishing areas of research interest externally and is running roundtables to discuss gaps in the evidence base.
It has previously run roundtables on how to ensure pupils are thriving in schools and quality early education. In the future, it hopes to run one of these on attendance and one on the home learning environment.
6. DfE to keep tracking tutoring impact
MPs quizzed DfE officials extensively on why funding was not continued for the National Tutoring Programme despite some evidence that it was helping disadvantaged pupils make progress.
Ms Chua said the DfE has set the expectation that schools can continue to fund tutoring through the pupil premium. However, school leaders have repeatedly warned they would not be able to afford this.
Ms Acland-Hood said it will keep tracking the impact of tutoring to see whether it should be more strongly recommended as a ring-fenced intervention.
But she added that the DfE wants schools to be able to look at the evidence base and decide for themselves the most effective interventions for closing the disadvantage gap.
7. RISE teams to scrutinise school performance
Ms Acland-Hood said the new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams will strengthen the department’s ability to support schools that are not performing as well as others - though this can be underperformance in any area.
“The RISE teams will work with a larger group of schools than has been possible in the past where performance is challenging,” she said.
“There is a bit more architecture going on into where schools are struggling so we can get alongside that,” she added.
8. Disadvantage index must be used with other measures
One MP said there are “obvious weaknesses” in the DfE’s methods for measuring the attainment gap and asked how confident the department is that the disadvantage index is the best way to do this.
The disadvantage index at KS4 is at 3.92 based on 2024 exam results. It works by ranking all pupils from state schools on average grades and assessing whether disadvantaged pupils rank lower than their peers. The lower it is, the narrower the gap.
Ms Acland-Hood acknowledged the index can be difficult to understand and does not give more specifics about where the gap is, but is resilient to changes in assessment methods over time.
She added that it must be used in combination with other measures of the disadvantage gap.
9. DfE denies it lacks a plan
Ms Acland-Hood said she did not “quite agree” with the NAO’s assessment that the department does not have a strategy for closing the disadvantage gap.
“I think what they’re saying is that we haven’t articulated across literally all of the department’s business how every bit of it fits together,” she said.
“The opportunity mission is fundamentally how we’re organising all the work of the department and it has closing attainment gaps right at its heart.”
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