School Funding

Nick Gibb Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2020 Written Statements

[The Minister for School Standards (Nick Gibb)]

Today I am laying the School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2020, which ensure that in 2020-21 every secondary school will receive at least £5,000 per pupil, and every primary school at least £3,750 per pupil—on the path to £4,000 the following year. As I confirmed in my statement of 20 December last year, this additional funding is provided through the national funding formula (NFF) and included in local authorities’ dedicated schools grant allocations. The new regulations require local authorities to deliver the minimum per pupil funding levels to all schools in their area.

The change will level up the lowest funded schools across the country so that all schools are able to provide an excellent education for their pupils. It forms one part of the Government’s increases to school funding, which will see an extra £14 billion in total invested over the next three years—starting with an additional £2.6 billion in 2020-21 and rising to £7.1 billion more by 2022-23, compared to 2019-20 levels. That is on top of the £1.5 billion we are providing each year to fund additional pensions costs for teachers, bringing the total schools budget to £52.2 billion in 2022-23.

As well as delivering on a key Government pledge made during the general election campaign, the mandatory minimum per pupil levels mark an important step towards our commitment to deliver a “hard” NFF, whereby school funding is determined by a single formula, so that it is fair and equitable for every school in the country. We will consult on the further steps needed to complete this transition in due course.

The Department for Education has also launched a new website which allows the public to see the funding that has been allocated for individual schools through the NFF in 2020-21. The national formula directs money where it is most needed, based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics. Compared to 2019-20, every school is attracting at least a per-pupil increase in line with inflation, with an average increase of over 4% per pupil. The new, user-friendly tool is available to use from today at: https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/national- funding-formula/2020-2021/start.

In addition, today I am confirming that all pupil premium rates, which are funded outside the NFF, will increase in line with inflation in 2020-21. This will ensure that this targeted funding can continue to support the most disadvantaged children in our schools.

The Department has also published an official statistics report on school funding over the past decade on our website. This reaffirms our commitment to transparency and aims to support public understanding of school funding by providing a consistent and comprehensive set of statistics. The report shows school revenue funding for five to 16-year-olds for 2010-11 to 2020-21, and school-level funding allocations for 2019-20.

Finally, we have published a Government response to the consultation undertaken last autumn on clarifying the specific grant and ring-fenced status of the dedicated schools grant.

[HCWS78]