Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much additional funding her Department would require in order to ensure that no school saw a cut in its budget for 2017-18 as part of the Schools National Funding Formula.

In December 2016 the Department confirmed dedicated schools grant (DSG) funding settlements for 2017-18 to local authorities. For all local authorities, funding has been protected in cash terms per pupil. Further details are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2017-to-2018.

In 2017-18, individual schools’ funding is decided at a local authority level. The Department allocates funding to each local authority, who then allocate this funding to their schools using their local formulae. The Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) ensures that the maximum any individual school can lose is 1.5% per pupil. Local authorities are now finalising and will shortly be confirming their 2017-18 funding to schools. Further information is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/school-revenue-funding-settlement-for-2017-to-2018.

We are currently consulting on our proposals for a National Funding Formula, which will come into force in 2018-19. The consultation will run until March 22^nd and is available at https://consult.education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/schools-national-funding-formula2/.