Greening pledges to add £1.3bn to budget for schools

SCHOOLS and high-needs programmes are to receive an extra £1.3bn over the next two years, Justine Greening announced as she confirmed plans to introduce a national funding formula.

The Education Secretary said the additional investment into the core schools budget would provide schools with “the investment they need to offer a worldclass education to every single child”.

Speaking in the Commons, Ms Greening said the Government had “recognised” people’s concerns during the General Election about the “overall level of funding in schools, as well as its distribution”.

Ms Greening said: “I’m confirming our plans to get on with introducing a national funding formula in 2018/19, and I can announce that this will additionally now be supported by significant extra investment into the core schools budget over the next two years.

“The additional funding I’m setting out today, together with the introduction of a national funding formula, will provide schools with the investment they need to offer a world-class education to every single child.

“There will therefore be an additional £1.3bn for schools and high needs across 2018/19 and 2019/20, in addition to the schools budget set at spending review 2015.”

But Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner said: “What the Secretary of State has announced today is nothing more than a sticking plaster.

“Per-pupil funding will still fall over the course of this Parliament unless further action is taken urgently.”

Ms Greening said that as a

result of the investment, core funding for schools and high needs would rise from almost £41bn in 2017/18 to £42.4bn in 2018/19 and £43.5bn in 2019/20.

“It will mean that the total schools budget will increase by £2.6bn between this year and 2019/20, and per-pupil funding will now be maintained in real terms for the remaining two years of the spending review period to 2019/20,” the Education Secretary said.

Ms Greening said this investment would increase the basic amount of funding for every pupil, with up to three per cent gain per year per student for underfunded schools and a 0.5 per cent increase per student for every school.

She added it would provide at least £4,800 per pupil for every secondary school.

Ms Greening said the extra investment would be funded entirely from savings that she had identified in the Department for Education.

She told MPs that £420m would be found from the main schools capital budget, the majority of which would come from healthy pupils capital funding.

Ms Greening said that while she “remains committed” to the free schools programme and delivering the 140 new schools announced at the last Budget, she said working more efficiently to deliver the programme could save £280m.

“This will include delivering 30 of those 140 schools through the local authority route, rather than the free schools route,” she added.

Ms Greening said she would redirect £200m from the department’s central programmes towards the core schools programme.

For the next two years the national funding formula will set indicative budgets for each school, and total schools funding for each local authority will then be allocated according to the fair funding formula.

Local authorities will continue to set a local formula to decide how much each school receives, before the full introduction of the national formula.

Ms Greening said efficiency experts would be sent into schools with the worst finances.