GOVERNMENT plans to level the playing field on school funding were today broadly welcomed by SCHOOLS NorthEast.
The Chancellor announced in his Autumn Statement today that he was introducing a National Funding Formula for schools that would replace the current Dedicated School Grants payment system which sees some London schools receiving double the amount per pupil than the North East.
However, the demise of the Education Services Grant which supports academies and the lack of inflation protection for funding streams such as pupil premium will hit school budgets in other areas.
Current average funding nationally equates to £4,732 per pupil – but in the City of London it is as high as £8,595. The average for the North East is £4,616. Middlesbrough and South Tyneside are the two local authority areas that currently receive above average payments.
If all school pupil places in the region were funded at current national levels, this would be equivalent to £45.6m. At current levels, Northumberland would experience the greatest overall benefit (£8.3m) were pupil places funded equally.
Mike Parker, Director of SCHOOLS NorthEast, said: “The current schools funding formula is broken. If North East schools were funded at the same level as London schools we would have an additional £360m/year to spend on education. Just having national parity would be equivalent to an extra £45.6m for the region. It is vital, however, that the Government focuses the new formula on need so those areas that have the greatest hill to climb are given the resources to do so.”
TOTAL £45,626,179
(City of London is the English LA in receipt of the highest per pupil funding; Wokingham is the lowest)
The Chancellor announced a consultation will begin in early 2016.
Response to other Spending Review announcements:
Further education funding – “Post-16 providers will have woken this morning in dread of a horror Spending Review. The cash terms protection of core adult skills funding will have come as a welcome relief. Colleges still face fierce financial headaches but this announcement is a victory for efforts to mitigate budget cuts.”
6th form academies – “Offering sixth form colleges the freedom to become academies is an obvious extension of the Government’s current academisation programme. The detail of this announcement will determine how many sixth form colleges choose to take this route but the resulting VAT exemption and the greater autonomy will be attractive.”
