The Department considers it has better evidence of pupil premium effectively supporting disadvantaged children, assessing this evidence as strong, compared to that available for the disadvantage and deprivation elements of the national funding formula.27 Despite this, there has been a 3% real–terms reduction in pupil premium funding over the period 2018– 19 to 2023–24, with per–pupil funding falling by 9%.28 The Department confirmed that pupil premium funding had not kept up with inflation.29 Over the same timeframe, disadvantage and deprivation funding within the national funding formula increased by 10% in real terms, despite the evidence for effectiveness of pupil premium funding being stronger than 21 Qq 8, 9 22 IEDO0020 23 Qq 8, 9 24 Q 12 25 C&AG’s Report, para 2.7 26 C&AG’s Report, para 10, para 2.7 27 C&AG’s Report, para 12 28 Q 25; C&AG’s Report, para 13, para 2.14 29 Q 25 10 it is for funding provided through national funding formula.30 In 2023–24 the Department spent £2.8 billion on pupil premium, and £4.1 billion on the disadvantage and deprivation elements of the National Funding Formula.31