Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with headteachers in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside local authority area and (c) Gateshead local authority area on (i) school funding and (ii) the effect of the new school funding formula on schools in those areas.

Officials from the Department have met with head teachers from across the country to discuss school funding, as part of our consultation on a schools and high needs national formulae.

We received over 25,000 responses to the consultation. We are grateful to all those who expressed their views on school funding and the proposed formula as part of this process. We will publish the response to the consultation in due course.

The core schools budget has been protected in real terms since 2010 and will be £41bn in 2017-18. We recognise, nevertheless, that schools are facing cost pressures and we will continue to provide support to help them use their funding in cost effective ways. This includes tools, information and guidance to support improved financial health and efficiency in schools, including School Workforce Planning Guidance to help schools make well-informed decisions about their staff structures. These can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/schools-financial-health-and-efficiency.