Last week the Coalition Government announced that a Pupil Premium, funded from outside the schools budget, will be introduced next September. It will mean that from next year, schools taking disadvantaged children will get the additional money they need to provide them with the extra support they deserve, no matter where they are in the country. This could mean more individual tuition or catch-up classes, but it will be for the school to decide; thankfully the Government won’t be telling headteachers how to spend the money.

This is a real Liberal Democrat achievement. It was the centrepiece of our education policy during the election campaign, and it is now being implemented in Government. While the Conservatives had a similar policy, it was the Liberal Democrats who pushed for it to be funded from outside the schools budget, and for it to feature specifically in the coalition agreement. And it’s no secret that it was one of the sticking points of the negotiations with Labour – they simply refused to agree to it. Make no mistake, it is the Liberal Democrats who are now the party for the most disadvantaged, championing policies like the Pupil Premium in opposition, placing them at the heart of our manifesto, and making them happen in government.

Liberal Democrats are committed to the Pupil Premium because we understand that education can be a key driver of social mobility. But it is shameful that we still have an education system which too often perpetuates inequality rather than tackles it. The poorest children are only half as likely to leave school with 5 good GCSEs than their better-off classmates. The Pupil Premium will help in tackling Labour’s failure to break the link between social background and performance at school, opening up opportunities for children regardless of where they are born.

The Coalition Government is now consulting on the way in which the Pupil Premium should be implemented. The consultation includes options for how deprivation should be calculated

• in relation to children on Free School Meals
• in relation to tax credits
• by using marketing classifications like MOSAIC or ACORN

While operating in slightly different ways, it is clear that any of these mechanisms will mean the Pupil Premium will bring significant benefit to schools in Acocks Green.

The consultation also includes questions about other groups who might benefit, such as children in care or children of those serving in the armed forces, and raises the issue of how it could be extended to cover children in the early years.

As Sarah Teather MP, Lib Dem Children’s Minister said “We are determined that the pupil premium has the best possible impact and I urge you to get involved in the consultation and to give the Department for Education your views.” The consultation runs until 18 October and there is a link to it here.

This week the Coalition Government’s Academies Bill will also become law. It wouldn’t be my priority for legislation at the moment, but by working within the Coalition, Liberal Democrat members of the House of Lords have been able to secure important protections for the most vulnerable, such as children with Special Educational Needs, that could not have been achieved from the Opposition benches. This is what coalition is all about – the Academies Bill is a flagship Conservative policy and the pupil premium is a flagship Liberal Democrat policy – and they are both part of the Coalition’s programme for Government. If we had a majority Conservative Government we would almost certainly have the Academies Bill (with fewer Lib Dem amendments) and no Pupil Premium. Similarly we would have no Pupil Premium under Labour. So this is another case where residents of Acocks Green will soon be able to see very tangible benefits from having a Lib Dem MP – benefits that will improve local schools and would not have been delivered by the Tories or Labour running the country on their own.