Written question WQ85150

We remain absolutely committed to ensuring that the changes we are making do not negatively impact any children in Wales who would have received additional support as a result of their eligibility status. There are no current plans to replace the Pupil Development Grant stream of funding after the next academic year.

I gave an oral statement in March concerning our direction for supporting disadvantaged learners and the proposed action plan. Tackling the impact of poverty on attainment, is at the heart of our national mission in education, and only by pursuing that relentlessly can we succeed in our aim to achieve high standards and aspirations for all.

To support our national mission to tackle the impact of poverty on educational attainment we will be publishing an action plan in the autumn. Year on year we have extended the PDG to reflect the increase in eFSM learners, with funding for 2022-23 now at over £130m.

In regard to Free School Meals the December Written Statement acknowledged that in offering every primary aged learner a school meal for free it was possible that we would no longer be able to use Free School Meal eligibility as a proxy indicator for disadvantage for children in this age group.

We know that this indicator has, for many years, informed both local and national policy and the way in which funding is allocated. It has also been used as a way of passporting entitlements to learners – for example, those learners eligible for a free school meal currently are also eligible for PDG Access, and their eligibility status informs the level of funding their school receives via the PDG.

The Statement set out we therefore needed to work closely with partners, and right across government, to consider the impact of any potential changes to the way in which we record those eligible for free school meals, and any associated data sets. Our aim is to minimise turbulence to both funding allocations, entitlements to learners and families, and ways of working going forward