BRADFORD schools facing the financial burden of assisting pupils who arrive as immigrants from eastern Europe are missing out on vital funding due to a quirk in regulations, it has emerged.

When children qualify for free school meals, that acts as an automatic trigger to other sources of income for the school they attend, including the 'pupil premium'.

But many of the Roma and Slovakian immigrants who have recently arrived in Bradford do not qualify for benefits, which means their children do not get free school meals.

So even though they frequently need intensive help to settle into education in this country, schools lose out on income they would get for other children in similar circumstances.

As a result, Bradford Council's children's services overview and scrutiny committee is to write to the Government asking them to address the issue.

Members agreed that chairman Cllr Malcolm Sykes should write to the Education Secretary Nicky Morgan after hearing details of how schools in some parts of the city were particularly affected by the arrival of children from overseas.

George McQueen, the Council's assistant director for access and inclusion, told councillors on the committee "it can be a challenge for schools to integrate them".

"When at school they don't qualify for free school meals and that triggers a lot. We have a lot come in particularly high needs but they don't trigger financial help, that is a challenge," he said.

The EU's freedom of movement rules mean it is impossible to judge exactly how many children from those backgrounds are in Bradford and difficult to be sure that all are known to the authorities and getting the support they need.

While official figures show there about 1,280 children from a Roma background in the city, it is accepted the figure could be as high as 2,000 because some families might describe themselves differently.

Success in children settling into schools varies, with younger children tending to make progress in language and attendance better than some older children.

Records show low attendance figures, currently at 83 per cent but recently as low as 75 per cent, which officials concede is too low for pupils to make adequate progress at school.

However, one secondary school which has employed a member of staff able to speak east European languages has seen strong progess because of the improved dialogue with parents.

Elsewhere, the Council uses interpreters who are employed as needed to work in the schools environment and individual schools also have measures in place to try to integrate families into the community