Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for (a) secondary schools and (b) primary schools in (i) Jarrow constituency, (ii) South Tyneside and (iii) the North East.

The Government has made a significant extra investment of £1.3 billion in the core schools budget across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above the budget announced at the 2015 spending review. This means that funding will be maintained in real terms per pupil.

The national funding formula, supported by this extra investment, has allocated up to 3% more funding per pupil for underfunded schools and it will allocate further gains of up to 3% per pupil in 2019-20. Under the formula, every school attracted at least 0.5% for every pupil in 2018-19 and will attract at least 1% more funding for every pupil by 2019-20, compared to the 2017-18 baselines.

The Department has also introduced minimum per pupil funding levels in recognition of the challenges faced by the lowest funded schools. Under the national formula, in 2019-20 all secondary schools will attract at least £4,800 per pupil, and all primary schools will attract at least £3,500 per pupil. In 2018-19, as a step towards these minimum funding levels, secondary schools attracted at least £4,600, and primary schools £3,300. The minimum per pupil funding levels are not subject to the gains cap, and so allocate faster gains to the very lowest funded schools.

The Department has published information about the impact of the national funding formulae at school and local authority level at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-for-schools-and-high-needs.