The issue

There has been 15 years with no overall growth in school spending. This squeeze on school resources is effectively without precedent in post-war UK history.
Schools are now facing new and significant cost pressures e.g. surging energy prices, covid-related costs, falling primary pupil numbers, the National Insurance increase, and pressures due to significant underfunding of SEND.
Changes to the government’s national funding formula (NFF) have seen a redistribution of funding away from schools serving the most deprived communities in recent years.
Funding for pupils with special educational needs (SEND) is in crisis, with overall High Needs budget deficits estimated to be more than £2billion and growing
The value of pupil premium funding designed to support the most disadvantaged pupils has fallen in real-terms since 2015.
The government has only invested a small fraction of the covid recovery funding that its own recovery commissioner said would be required.
Between 2009-10 and 2021-22, capital spending declined by 25% in cash terms, and 29% when adjusted for inflation.
Specific types of schools including small schools and maintained nursery schools remain under extreme financial pressure and many of facing the real risk of closure.

What we want to see

The government needs to be more ambitious for schools and set out a proper funding plan that addresses the 15 funding squeeze.
The government needs to offer more support for schools experiencing severe financial pressures as a result of rising energy costs.
The government should set out a proper long-term capital funding plan to bring all schools up to ‘good’ condition.
The government should commit to a truly ambitious recovery plan based on the work of its own recovery commissioner.
The government should commit to at least restoring pupil premium funding in real-term terms, and increasing the Early Years Pupil Premium to reach parity with the primary pupil premium.
A consultation on the long-term future of the approach to maintained nursery school funding should be launched without delay.
The government must use the ling-awaited SEND review to develop a truly needs-led approach to SEND funding.
Sufficient and sustainable funding for small schools.

What we want you to do

Convene an MPs roundtable in your region (see our briefing document on how here)
Write to your MP using our template letter
Share the PowerPoint and other resources (see below) with your school leader networks and governing body
Let us know when you plan to run local campaign activity so that we can help you promote the event and support you
Promote your campaigning work across Twitter using the campaign hashtags (#) and including @NAHTnews
Get active in your NAHT branch
If your colleagues aren’t members of NAHT already, encourage them to join

Our conference motion

“Conference instructs National Executive to develop a national fair funding campaign to press government to provide a sufficient overall level of funding to meet the needs of all pupils, through the national funding formula and the high needs national funding formula. This is required now to enable schools to set budgets from 2022-2023. It would allow them to meet all their statutory responsibilities and provide an extended curriculum offer that supports all children and young people to thrive academically, socially, physically and spiritually.

Conference further instructs National Executive to campaign for an increase in capital funding that will address the nation’s decrepit school estate, to ensure that school buildings and grounds are safe, fit for purpose and appropriate for the needs of the 21st century.”

Useful links

MP roundtable resources

Relevant articles and reports

Government responds to consultation on changes to payment process for school business rates

The Government has released their response to the consultation on changes to the payment process of schools' business rates.

It confirms that the payment of school business rates will be centralised going forward. Essentially, this will involve the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) paying billing authorities directly on behalf of state-funded schools from April 2022. This will replace the current system in which schools typically receive funding in respect of their rates bill in their budgets, via the NFF, and pay business rates directly to billing authorities.

While there wont be any changes to schools' formal liability for ensuring business rates are paid, ESFA will pay any penalty charges for missed or late payments that are a result of ESFA error. This is a welcome change from the original proposals and mirrors what we pressed on in our formal response. However, schools will continue to be responsible for paying for penalty charges in instances where they are considered 'at fault', such as when a new school fails to inform their billing authority of their rateable value, or when an academy converter fails to inform their billing authority of their conversion. The government intends to adopt a similar approach with local authorities for community and voluntary controlled schools.

To ensure transparency, schools and local authorities will be given access to the new online business rates portal so they can access their data. This will allow schools to remain informed of their bill amount and when this has been paid, including any adjustments made and paid during the reconciliation window.

From 1 April 2022 the functionality for academies to submit historic claims for previously unclaimed years will be removed. Academies have until the end of March 2022 to submit any outstanding historic claims relating to the 2015/16 financial year onwards via the NNDR portal. From 1 April 2022, ESFA will no longer accept, process or reimburse academies for historic claims relating to unclaimed years.

For backdated adjustments which come to light after April 2022 and result in a decrease in rates bills, the responsibility to reclaim any overpayments rests with the liable party (ie. schools, or the local authority for community and voluntary controlled schools).

Where local authorities already offer discretionary relief to schools in relation to their business rates, or wish to do so in the future, this will continue.

To note: When the new system comes into force, ESFA will not be funding rates associated with buildings that are not being used to deliver education. They are therefore encouraging schools with multi-use sites to register buildings which are not used to deliver education for pupils at the school as a separate entity on the Valuation Office Agency's (VOA) rating list. This will ensure that two individual bills are generated - one for the school (which will be paid by the ESFA) and one for any other buildings which are not used to deliver education for pupils at the school, which can then be settled by the appropriate ratepayer

Despite NAHT pressing in our response, the government has decided that maintained nursery schools are out of scope at the present time. However, they have suggested that they intend to explore the feasibility of extending the scheme to maintained nursery schools in the future, and will keep this under review.

Access the full details of the consultation response.

First published 23 August 2021

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