The Department’s policy is to allow schools and other providers autonomy and flexibility to support disadvantaged children in a way that suits local circumstances and their pupils’ needs. More than 90% of the estimated £9.2 billion funding associated with disadvantage is not “ringfenced”. Schools can choose how to spend this money which may be on wider priorities or teachers’ pay. They need not spend it in a way that benefits disadvantaged pupils.57 However, the Department does not have a good understanding of how schools spend most disadvantage related funding, or a systemic way to understand, for example, how schools spend pupil premium.58