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Fix School Funding

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

 

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

Other useful links

Relevant articles and reports

 

 

The government responds to the consultation on the financial transparency of LA maintained schools and academy trusts

At the end of 2019, the government consulted on proposals for the current academy transparency measures to be adapted and implemented across the maintained school sector which were intended to strengthen the arrangements for maintained schools.

NAHT was generally supportive of the proposals but stressed that any extra resource needed to support the new processes must be properly funded and that the impact on workload is fully considered.  You can read NAHT's full response to the consultation here (members will need to be logged in to access this link).   

The government has now confirmed they will be implementing the following proposals:

1.     From the start of 2020/21, the Department for Education will publish the names of local authorities (LAs) on gov.uk if they have missed three (or more) deadlines for returns to the Department.

2.     The following changes to the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) assurance statement return for the return for the financial year 2020-21 will be implemented:

  1. They will collect the number of schools with suspended budgets and notices of financial concern through the existing DSG assurance statement.
  2. They will add a new section to the DSG assurance statement that captures the amounts that LAs have recovered from investigating fraud.
  3. They will collect information on the number of recovery plans in each LA through the DSG annual assurance return from the CFO. 
     

3.     The Department will make it a requirement for maintained schools to provide LAs with three-year budget forecasts. Schools will be required to submit their forecasts between 1 May and 30 June of each year, starting in 2021-22.

4.     Schools will be required to append a list of related party transactions (RPTs) to their response to the question in the schools financial value standard (SFVS) about their arrangements for managing RPTs. Changes to the SFVS will be made for the 2021-22 return. 

5.     Schools will be required to submit a recovery plan to their maintaining authority when their deficit rises above 5%. This will apply when deficits are measured as at 31 March 2021.

6.     As of 1 January 2021, all LA maintained schools will be required to publish annually on their websites the number of individuals (if any) earning over £100K in £10K bandings.

7.     As of 1 January 2021, all LA maintained schools will be required to publish a link to the schools financial bench-marking website, to highlight the consistent financial reporting (CFR) statement of income, expenditure and balances.

8.     The government will formalise their approach to working with LAs. This could involve:

  1. Sharing published data on the school balances in each LA. 
  2. Using this data and evidence-based requests from LAs to ensure support is focused where it is needed. 
  3. Requesting high level action plans from LAs in which the number or proportion of school revenue deficits over 5% is above a certain level.

Following concerns raised, the government has decided not to a minimum three-year audit cycle requirement on schools.

To support LAs in implementing these changes, the Department will provide a grant to each LA based on the proportion of maintained schools they have. 

First published 20 August 2020
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