Queen’s Speech: Pupil premium for poorest children confirmed

The first legislation to be introduced by the new Department for Education will include a "pupil premium" to ensure extra money follows the poorest pupils, encouraging schools to enrol them.

By Molly Garboden on May 25, 2010 in Children, Social care leaders

The first legislation to be introduced by the new Department for Education will include a “pupil premium” to ensure extra money follows the poorest pupils, encouraging schools to enrol them.

The move, a Liberal Democrat policy, will be part of the Education and Children’s Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech today.

The government will also legislate to devolve greater powers to councils and local communities, giving them more say on how they spend grants.

The Decentralisation and Localism Bill will require public bodies to publish online the job titles of every member of staff and the salaries and expenses of senior officials. Residents will have the power to instigate referendums on any local issue.

The Local Government Bill will revoke decisions by the former government to restructure Exeter, Norwich and Suffolk councils which the Prime Minister’s Office claimed would be expensive and ran the risk of disrupting children’s services.

The Queen also confirmed a reduction in the number of quangos, saving £1bn year on year.

At-a-glance guide to the Queen’s Speech

Bill	What does it do?
The Great Repeals Bill, also know as The Freedom Bill	Scraps ContactPoint
Education and Children’s Bill	A ‘pupil premium’ will be introduced, so that more money follows the poorest pupils, encouraging schools to enrol them
Public Bodies (Reform) Bill	Will pave the way for reducing number and cost of government quangos, with a view to saving £1bn per year by lowering the cost of bureaucracy. However, some, including the children’s commissioner and the Care Quality Commission, are believed to be safe
Decentralisation and Localism bill	Local government finance to be reviewed. Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, to oversee the drive to devolve greater powers to councils and local communities
Cap on non-EU economic migrants – secondary legislation	Will cap the amount of people coming from outside the EU and could have consequences for care staffing
Welfare Reform Bill	Will reduce the overlap between job seeker’s allowance, incapacity benefit and employment and support allowance and is likely to speed up work capability assessments of people on incapacity benefit