Performance data for secondary schools was published last week, and there is an important difference between the latest figures and those that have been published in previous years. For the first time we are publishing separately the GCSE achievements of looked after children and children on free school meals at each and every school – the same group of young people who are eligible for the Pupil Premium.

With the Pupil Premium, funding is being specifically targeted at disadvantaged pupils, so that schools have the resources they need to make a difference. The new information will give us the opportunity to see the effect the Pupil Premium will have on the lives of those pupils that were routinely overlooked by the previous government: those from the poorest and most vulnerable backgrounds.

There are various reasons why these performance tables needed to be reformed. Under Labour, the way these tables were managed led to a perverse incentive for schools to concentrate solely on those students expected to achieve just above or just below a “C” grade. Schools were forced to desperately try and improve the fortunes of this narrow band of students in order to improve the overall performance of the school in the league tables.

For too long, pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds didn’t receive the support they needed. The new information will give us the opportunity to see for ourselves the positive impact the Pupil Premium has had on those pupils who need the most help.

Dan Rogerson is Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee on Education, Families and Young People and MP for North Cornwall.

* Dan Rogerson is the Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall.