Professor Sue Buckley:

It does not work like that in the United Kingdom. Nothing is easy to do, but I think the Senator will find I am correct in stating it is allocated on the basis of free school meals as a crude indicator of deprivation. In the United Kingdom, the starting point is to look at the number of children in school and how many qualify for free school meals, which is a poverty indicator. The Senator is correct that it should not be merely based on a head count because a primary school in a really deprived area may have the same number of children as a primary school in a well-to-do area where there will be probably fewer children dropping behind. The Department would be wise to try to refine that a little.