Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the budgetary pressures on schools in Lancashire.

This government continues to deliver, year on year, real terms per pupil increases to school funding with the total core schools budget increasing to £56.8 billion by financial year 2024-25 (compared to £49.8 billion in the 2021-22 financial year).

Future increases in funding have been frontloaded to rapidly get money to schools. In the financial year 2022-23 alone, core schools funding will increase nationally by £4 billion compared to 2021-22, a 5% real terms per pupil boost. This includes an additional £1.2 billion for schools in the new schools supplementary grant for financial year 2022-23.

In Lancashire, funding through the dedicated schools grant and the indicative figures for the schools supplementary grant for mainstream schools combined, is forecast to see an extra £53.6 million for schools in financial year 2022-23, an increase of 5.6% per pupil. This per pupil funding increase excludes “growth” funding, which is additional funding provided for schools seeing significant increases in pupil numbers. This takes total funding for 2022–23 in Lancashire to over £903 million. This will help schools rise to the challenges of COVID-19, increase teacher pay, and meet the cost of the Health and Social Care Levy, while continuing their work to raise attainment.

On top of the core funding uplift for schools, at Spending Review 2021 the department has announced a further £1.8 billion of new funding nationally, specifically for recovery for those the department knows will need it most. This takes overall investment specifically dedicated towards pupils’ recovery to almost £5 billion.

The department pays close attention to the financial health of the sector. The latest published data on schools’ revenue reserves shows schools on average have been able to add to their reserves in the 2020-21 financial year. At the end of the 2020-21 financial year, 92% of maintained schools were in cumulative surplus or breaking even, compared to 88% the previous year. The percentage of maintained schools in Lancashire operating with a cumulative surplus by the end of 2020-21 increased to 95%, compared to 92% at the end of financial year 2019-20. All schools continue to be able to access a wide range of school resource management tools. Schools in serious financial difficulty should contact their local authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

The department’s analysis of the cost pressures schools face are published annually in the schools’ costs technical note which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-costs-technical-note.

Analysis for financial year 2021-22 will be published shortly.