Education secretary pledges more money per pupil under school funding reforms

Under the biggest overhaul for decades, a new "national funding formula" (NFF) will be introduced, the Education Secretary confirmed, which will see money distributed according to the individual needs of each school.

In a statement to MPs, Ms Greening said "minimum funding levels" would be brought in, announcing that this would be set at £3,500 per primary school pupil in 2019/20 and confirming that the amount for secondaries would be £4,800 per pupil.

She told the Commons: "Not only will the national funding formula direct resources where they are most needed, helping to ensure that every child can get the high quality education that they deserve, wherever they live, it will also provide that money through a transparent formula."

The NFF is an attempt to allocate money to schools in a fairer way. Each school will get a basic amount of funding per pupil, and then additional funds based on factors such as deprivation and low prior achievement of pupils.

While the move has been broadly welcomed, there have been concerns from some quarters that simply not enough money is being pumped into education, and that more needs to be found.

Ms Greening announced in the summer that an extra £1.3 billion would be found for schools from existing budgets, but some unions have suggested this will not be enough to plug growing funding gaps.

The Education Secretary said during the statement that this additional funding would mean that overall budgets rose by around £2.6 billion in total from almost £41 billion in 2017/18 to around £42.4 billion in 2018/19 and £43.5 billion in 2019/20.

"I am increasing the basic amount of funding that every pupil will attract," Ms Greening said.

"We recognise the challenges of the very lowest funded schools so will introduce a minimum per pupil funding level.

"Under the national funding formula, in 2019/20 all secondary schools will attract at least £4,800 per pupil.

"Today I can announce that all primary schools will attract at least £3,500 per pupil through the formula in 2019/20."

She added: "I will also provide a cash increase in respect of every school.

"Final decisions on local distribution will be taken by local authorities, but under the national funding formula every school will attract at least 0.5% more per pupil in 2018/19, and 1% more in 2019/20."

There will also be a £110,000 lump sum for every school to help with fixed costs and an additional £26 million to rural and isolated schools to help them manage their unique challenges.

Ms Greening said: "The new national funding formulae will redress historic inequities in funding that have existed for too long, whilst also maintaining stability so that schools and local areas are not disadvantaged in the process.

"After too many years in which the funding system has placed our schools on an unfair playing field, we are finally making the decisive and historic move towards fair funding."

Labour's shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said the National Audit Office had found schools had already lost nearly £2.7 billion since the Conservatives pledged in 2015 to protect funding in real terms.

Ms Rayner asked: "Will she (the Education Secretary) admit to the House that her announcement today does nothing to reverse those cuts and keep that promise?"

She added that the funding formula would mean a "real terms cut in school budgets" because of inflation pressures, and accused Ms Greening of "simply cutting elsewhere to fill in the black hole that the Government itself has created".

Ms Greening accused Ms Rayner of not being able to do "anything other than rant and produce rhetoric, and there is not a lot of thought behind that rhetoric as to what actually the right thing to do is".

She also defended the efficiency savings being made by the Department for Education to find the £1.3 billion in extra funding.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the union welcomed the commitment to a new funding formula, and stressed it was "essential" schools were funded fairly.

"Setting minimum funding levels for schools is also a welcome move, but we need to examine whether the levels announced today by the Secretary of State are sufficient," he said.

"We fear they are still way too low to allow schools to deliver the quality of education they want to provide and which pupils need.

"The fundamental problem is there is not enough funding going into education."

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Education Select Committee chairman Robert Halfon welcomed the announcement, describing it as "social justice in action".

Richard Watts, chairman of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, said: "The Local Government Association has long called for fairer funding for all schools and for councils to be able to work with schools to set budgets that reflect local need.

"We are therefore pleased that the Government has recognised the important role councils can play in the introduction of the national funding formula by giving councils and schools the flexibility to set budgets locally. This will help schools and local areas adapt to the new formula in the long term."

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