Schools: Finance

(asked on 3rd September 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including additional educational needs funding in the base budget for schools as part of the new funding formula.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 11th September 2018

Core schools funding is increasing to £43.5 billion by 2020, and within that total the high needs budget is £6 billion this year, the highest on record.

All the evidence shows that pupils from deprived families, those with low prior attainment, those who do not speak English as a first language, and those who start school part-way through the year are most likely to fall behind their peers. The national funding formula protects the £5.9 billion of funding directed towards pupils with additional needs, to help them catch up. This funding is provided to schools through their base budgets. In addition to the schools formula, the pupil premium will provide schools with over £2.4 billion to improve the support provided to children who have been in receipt of free school meals in the last 6 years. Beyond this, the national funding formula for high needs provides funding for local authorities to direct to the most vulnerable children and young people. In 2018-19, the high needs national funding formula totalled £6 billion; £140 million more than in 2017-18.

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