Oral Answers to Questions

Giles Watling Excerpts

Monday 2nd March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gareth Bacon (Orpington) (Con)]

19. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that schools receive equitable levels of funding under the national funding formula.

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)]

22. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that schools receive equitable levels of funding under the national funding formula.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

23. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that schools receive equitable levels of funding under the national funding formula.

--- Later in debate ---

[Gavin Williamson]

The Department and the Government are working towards a hard national funding formula to ensure fair funding across the country in every single constituency. I know that my hon. Friend has been campaigning hard to raise the issue facing his schools, and we will listen closely.

[Giles Watling]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his earlier answer. The national funding formula is letting down some of Clacton’s schools financially because of the way Essex County Council is rolling it out. Can the Department not have oversight and work with the council to rebalance the books in favour of our hard-pressed schools in Clacton?

[Gavin Williamson]

I hope that Essex County Council will move towards the national funding formula as rapidly as possible and will see it as clear guidance on what per-pupil funding it should be giving at every school. Part of the reason we have introduced a basic minimum at primary and secondary school level is to ensure that those minimums are delivered to every school across the country, but I would be very happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss this in greater detail.