National funding formula delayed by another year
The Department for Education has delayed the full roll-out of the “hard” national funding formula for schools for another year.
A document published yesterday afternoon revealed that local authorities would continue to allocate school budgets until at least 2021. Previously, the “soft” formula that gave flexibility to local authorities was set to continue only to 2019-20.
The document states that 73 local authorities have brought their local formula closer to the national formula, while 41 are “mirroring the NFF factor values almost exactly”.
It adds that: “…In light of this significant progress in the first year of the NFF, and to continue to support a smooth transition, local authorities will continue to determine local formulae in 2020-21.”