School Funding

Mary Robinson Excerpts

Thursday 5th November 2015 Westminster Hall

[Mary Robinson (Cheadle) (Con)]

I add my thanks to those that have been offered to my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Graham Stuart) and the right hon. Member for Exeter (Mr Bradshaw) for securing the debate. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the critical issue of fairer funding for schools.

The fair funding campaign deserves recognition for its valuable and important work, lobbying relentlessly for almost 20 years to close the historical gap between the highest and lowest-funded local authorities. My constituency has some fantastic schools, many of which I have had the pleasure of visiting, but Stockport receives rather less funding per pupil than the national average, as the hon. Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey) said—£4,229 compared to the national average of £4,550.

When I have talked to school leaders in my constituency, many have voiced concerns about the financial implications of the current funding model, which has left them facing budget shortfalls. An example is Hursthead infant school in Cheadle Hulme, which is a three-form entry school with 270 children on the roll. I had the immense pleasure of visiting the school in September and meeting some of the staff and pupils. The headteacher, Jane Driscoll, and the entire governing body team do a fantastic job of leading the school. Hursthead is rated outstanding by Ofsted, but its delegated budget is £892,000, with a total income per pupil, excluding the pupil premium, of £3,304. That is £1,246 per pupil less than the national average, and significantly less than other figures that have been mentioned.

Hursthead is an example of an excellent school working hard to do more with less, but members of the governing body have contacted me to outline the significant cost pressures that the school, like many in the area, faces. Those include repayment of loans that were urgently needed to replace temporary classrooms, and the costs of repairing a leaking roof—a problem common in many primary schools of a certain age. We should remember that excellent schools rely on excellent teachers and that they, too, come at a cost. It is vital that schools are able to retain them. My hon. Friend the Member for Chippenham (Michelle Donelan) was right when she said that an inspirational teacher can change lives. That is why we need to make sure there is funding for them.

When the school governors spoke to me, they said that the current levels of income and expenditure are not compatible with a budget surplus. There are significant pressures on schools that are attempting to manage a growing budget deficit. Measures to balance the budget by limiting expenditure on IT equipment and postponing the purchase of a range of vital resources could be entirely avoided if the fair funding disparity were addressed. My concern is that if the funding position does not improve, those are the types of measures that many schools may need to take.

It is vital that the high level of education provided by that school and many others is not compromised, but that school is just one example of a school in my constituency that is constantly fighting the entrenched, historical imbalances in the education funding model. Other schools across Cheadle are facing similar pressures—indeed, that is the situation faced by schools across the constituencies of all the Members who are here in Westminster Hall today. We all share the same ambition—to see those imbalances addressed—because ultimately, if they are not addressed, it will be pupils and their education that will suffer.

I am here today because I believe that it is imperative that the Government address this disparity. I am heartened by the Secretary of State’s reaffirmation of her commitment to close the funding gap. I urge the Minister, along with his colleagues at the Department for Education, to maintain their momentum on this issue. I welcome the news that the Department is to begin a consultation—I believe it will start next year—and I know that it is currently engaged with the Treasury on the spending review. I urge Ministers from both Departments to look favourably on school funding, not only for the sake of Hursthead infant school but for the sake of all the schools in my constituency and across the country.