North East schools to get greater share of funding – up 0.0058%!

20th January 2017

• Primary school funding gap narrows, but the average North East school still set to get around half of what the average London primary receives
• Funding gap for North East secondary schools to widen with the average school receiving nearly 1/5th less money than the average London secondary
• Affluent schools in the south will receive as much as £1m+ extra funding than northern schools due to flawed Area Cost Adjustment multiplier in new formula

THE Government’s attempt to more fairly redistribute school funding will be worth c.£1,500 per school in the North East, despite the region lagging national average funding by £45m a year.

SCHOOLS NorthEast analysis of the change in the proportion of schools’ budget if the National Funding Formula (NFF) is implemented in its current form shows that our region will only benefit from 0.0058% more of the national share of funding.

Of the six regions which will see their share of the national budget increase, the North East’s would increase the least. London sees the biggest decrease, getting 0.24% less of the national budget, whilst the South East will see the biggest increase, getting 0.17% more of the national budget.

The table below shows the regional breakdown of the proportion of the national budget each area currently receives and how this would change under the NFF.


 

SCHOOLS NorthEast welcomed the decision to create a National Funding Formula, but has argued strongly against the Government’s plans to add a multiplier – called the Area Cost Adjustment (ACA) – which will give additional money to schools in more expensive areas – as much as 18.63% more in affluent areas such as Kensington & Chelsea and Islington.

As an example, this would be the equivalent of an additional £838,350  for a 1,000-pupil school in Islington compared with one in the North East where both schools attract a basic of £4,500 per pupil.

The Government is currently consulting on the latest version of the formula. To have an impact, we urge every school in the North East to make their voices heard.

You can do this by:

• Responding directly to the consultation here
• Writing to your local MP
• Writing to the Education Select Committee
• If all school leaders make a joint effort in raising concerns of serious underfunding to the Government it will add to the representative work SCHOOLS NorthEast is doing on your behalf. You can read our response to the first stage of the consultation here.