School Funding

Julian Sturdy Excerpts

Thursday 5th November 2015 Westminster Hall

[Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Walker.

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Graham Stuart) and to you, Mr Walker, for all the hard work on this issue. I think it was some eight years ago that my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness first had a debate on fairer funding for schools. They say that some things in Parliament take time to mature. I know my hon. Friend is maturing with distinction, but let us hope that his eight-year campaign is drawing to a close. Since he first raised the issue eight years ago, sadly, an entire generation of schoolchildren in York have been short-changed on the education funding they deserve.

Although I initially welcomed the Government’s additional £390 million of funding in June 2014, the announcement was fatally undermined by its frankly woeful and simplistic implementation. Restricting the additional funding solely to the schools block element failed to recognise the position of many poorly funded local authorities, such as mine in York, which have historically been greater users of special educational needs resources. The result of this implementation is that some schools that already receive generous per-pupil funding have received yet more. I know that the Minister is well aware of that, and I really do have confidence that, over the coming weeks, he and the Department for Education will deliver the much-needed new funding formula, which we have to deliver.

I want to illustrate what this means for schools across my constituency. How is it fair that schools in the City of London receive block funding of well over £8,000 per pupil, whereas schools in York receive barely over £4,000 per pupil? Schools in York receive less than half of the amount received by those London schools. York has dropped from being the 23rd worst-funded local authority in the country to the 7th—a situation that is simply manifestly unfair.

I wanted to focus on the situation faced by two schools in my constituency, Fulford school and Manor Church of England academy, but in the interests of time I will focus on Fulford school. Fulford is a co-educational comprehensive school, taking pupils from across the south of York. Despite having excellent GCSE and A-level results, Fulford is one of the worst-funded schools in the local authority. The school also receives a very low level of pupil premium funding, which, as hon. Members will know, is calculated on the basis of deprivation and low achievement. The same factors are taken into account in the local authority’s funding formula, as dictated by national guidelines. That further compounds the problem, as some schools receive double funding for such criteria while others receive less. This also serves to reduce the resources available to schools such as Fulford, and has an impact on the materials that can be provided to pupils, as well as limiting the courses available to them. Teacher contact time and staffing ratios have also been affected, placing greater pressure on teachers’ workloads, particularly in high-achieving schools such as Fulford.

The school’s headteacher, Ms Savage, has concerns that this will impact on the retention of her best teachers, who have worked so hard to help my constituents’ children achieve exceptional results. Fulford has been able to avoid redundancies and more serious cuts through additional funding allocated for rising pupil numbers. However, that is simply unsustainable in the long term. As a result, Fulford is heading towards a budget deficit, despite being recognised by The Sunday Times as one of the best financially managed schools in the country. This story is not unusual. The headteachers I have had the pleasure of meeting across my constituency are struggling with the unfairness of the funding formula. This cannot continue.

Children come from all walks of life, but the one thing they have in common is the right to a good education. The only fair way to achieve that is through a national funding formula. I hope that the Government will deliver on their manifesto pledge.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Gyimah]

I thank my hon. Friend for his third intervention so far. The good news is that there is consensus on the need for reform, and support for how we plan to get there. Devising the new system will be a big, difficult job. There is no other way of describing it. We are being encouraged to move quickly, but also to listen; the best thing to do as we set out our proposals, soon after the spending review, is consult carefully and widely with local authorities and schools. That will be our approach.

Also, I received the letter sent to the Prime Minister from over 100 Members, led by my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness.

[Julian Sturdy]

The Minister is doing an excellent job, as I knew he would, in setting out his case. On timing, many of the excellent schools in my constituency of York, which he mentioned, are having to dip deep into their reserves to get through these years. They simply will not have the time if we do not act sooner rather than later.

[Mr Gyimah]

I share and understand my hon. Friend’s need for urgency, but the first thing is to build consensus for reform. It is good that the National Association of Head Teachers supports reform; it recently said:

“The level of unfairness in school funding has been staggering”,

and that it welcomes the move towards fairer funding. That is echoed by the Association of School and College Leaders, which says that reform is

“long overdue and very welcome.”

Parents know that education should not be a postcode lottery. There is a lot of work to do, and I would like to see the Opposition join the NAHT, and all the other organisations calling for reform, in supporting our building of consensus for what would be a historic achievement for our schools and for constructing an excellent education system.