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 announcement on school funding

Last Friday, the government made a substantial announcement on school funding, promising an ‘increase in school funding’ of over £14.4bn. It’s important to note that this represents the total cumulative cost over three years, not the additional sum that schools will receive.

This means that by 2022/23 school funding will be £7.1billion higher than it is now, and includes a promise of £700m of SEND funding for one year. The government has also committed £4.4bn over three years to fund the cost of increases to employers’ pension costs. The announcement includes a promise that all primary schools will receive minimum funding of £4,000 per pupil, and secondaries £5,000 per pupil.

This represents a very significant increase and is a result of the extensive lobbying and dogged campaigning by NAHT members. Our high profile campaign has included petitions, surveys, press releases, lobbying, pledges and negotiations. We have made sure that school funding has stayed at the very top of the political agenda.

NAHT has offered a cautious welcome. However, as always, the devil is in the detail. We have yet to see the ‘Red Book’ setting out the underlying analysis. Some of the additional funding is likely to be growth in pupil numbers, inflation and the cost associated with raising starting salaries for all new teachers to £30,000. We will be conducting a full review of the detail when this is available.

The Education Policy Institute have provided helpful initial blog and analysis on the announcement, and research on the impact of levelling up per pupil funding.

First published 04 September 2019

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Fix School Funding