The Department also highlighted the impact of the new minimum per-pupil funding levels on the distribution of funding. The effect of these had been to shift funding in the direction of schools that had very low levels of deprivation.12 The Department told us that it had always known that the minimum funding levels were likely to benefit the least deprived schools. This was because the national funding formula was weighted towards disadvantage, so the schools with the lowest per-pupil funding were highly likely to the least deprived schools. It noted that only a small proportion of funding (less than 2% of total schools block funding) was distributed via the minimum funding mechanism.13