Stockport Governor Association

The coalition government's education agenda is summarised in a recent NGA piece. It looks as if they – and we ‐ are going to
 be very busy keeping up with the changes. Two key changes to 
funding, not mentioned above, are, however, worth saying a little bit more about. These are the introduction of the pupil premium and the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). Both are controversial, the latter, along with the planned rise in university tuition fees, having sparked national protests from school and college students.

Controversy or no 
controversy, however, both are set to happen. The pupil premium is designed to 
provide every pupil entitled to 
a free school meal (those from households where the income is less than £16,000 per annum) with £430 a year, starting in April 2011. The purpose of the premium is to 
support pupils from deprived backgrounds, known to 
underachieve compared with their non‐deprived peers, to reach their full potential. The DfE is adamant that "the funding for the pupil premium is in addition to 
the underlying schools budget", although this is disputed by teachers' unions and members of the opposition who 
feel that it will be merely moving money from one school to another and that some schools will definitely lose out. 

As always, the devil will be in the detail. What is clear is that the additional money will be passed straight to schools and, since it is not being ring‐fenced, schools will be able to 
spend the money in whatever way they judge best for supporting their pupils to 
increase their attainment. How use of this funding is to 
be monitored is as yet unclear.

Watch this space! 

The Educational Maintenance Allowance was established by the previous government in order to encourage young people from low income households to
stay on in full‐time education or training after the age of 16. Students were paid £10, £20 or £30 a week, depending on their household income. The coalition government announced in October 2010 that the EMA was to
be abolished, as part of its budget cuts. It will be closed to
 new applicants from January 2011, but those currently in receipt of the EMA will continue to receive it for the rest of the academic year. In a survey of 56 local authorities in 2004, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and Loughborough University found that staying‐on rates improved by 5.9 percentage points among those eligible for receipt of an EMA.

This result was most pronounced amongst boys whose parents were unemployed or employed in unskilled or semi‐skilled manual jobs. In announcing its decision, the DFE stated that, according to
research by the IFS and the NFER, 90% of those receiving the EMA would still stay on in post‐16 education and training if there were no longer an EMA. Help would still be available to the 10% who
"really need15 help"
through substantially increasing the size of the discretionary learner support fund. It has also
been pointed out that, from 2013, the school leaving age will be raised to 
18 so there will a statutory obligation for all 16‐18 year olds to remain in education and training anyway.

Maureen Banbury