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Formula for disaster?

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By: Michael Lemin

Policy and Research Manager

Wednesday 18 January 2017

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The government made a commitment in its 2015 manifesto to overhaul national school funding. Since then, we’ve had a new Prime Minister and Education Secretary, and progress on the issue has been slow. We are starting to see firm proposals on how the new National Funding Formula will look.

The nature of what the government is seeking to achieve makes this a very technical and complicated issue. The Education Secretary said that 10,700 schools will benefit from more funding under the fairer funding formula, while 9,128 will be funded at a lower level. It’s anticipated that rural schools will be among the big winners, whilst those in London will be more likely to see reductions.

In a letter to the Guardian, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) claims that 98% of schools will have their per pupil funding cut, with an average loss per primary pupil of £339, and £477 per secondary pupil.

These figures will make many headteachers across the country uneasy, and it’s now reported that a growing number of Conservative MPs are unhappy with the proposals. This means that the proposal is nowhere near guaranteed to be approved by parliament. Justine Greening has had a turbulent start to her tenure as Education Secretary, coming under fire for the selective schools proposals; the challenge of convincing her colleagues to approve these funding changes may prove to be an even more difficult task.

In December, the government launched a consultation to seek views on the weighing, implementation and transition to the new system. The deadline for responses is 22 March 2017.

If you have any views on the proposals, it would certainly be worth responding; it looks like the evidence will come under a lot of scrutiny, given the strength of feeling and divisions on the issue. 

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