Fair Funding for Schools Briefing for MPs – 10 July 2017 Margaret Judd Sufficiency and Funding Manager Dorset County Council

Fair Funding and f40 f40 is campaigning for fair funding – a fair formula that enables equal chances for all children wherever they live in England. Our proposal involves an extra cost of £456m in the first year and approx. £2billion when the formula is fully applied. The NFF solution includes £150m of extra funding in year one. f40 costs are on top of this. F40 proposal assumes -1.5% MFG as presented in the NFF consultation (i.e. before new promises on no school losing out were announced by Ministers.

Fair Funding and f40 Quantum Fair formula Even if there is not enough money to go around, all that there is must be distributed fairly using a fair funding formula Quantum Much attention has been given to the total amount available for schools. Obviously it would help if there was enough to go around but the government’s consultation is only about distributing funding – not quantum.

Fair Funding, f40 and the NFF In the view of f40, the government’s NFF proposals introduced in the consultation do not provide a fair formula: It does not allocate enough to the basics It allocates too much to the ‘add-ons’ It protects too many schools at an artificially high level (the floor)

Not enough for the basics The f40 formula works out how much it costs to run a school: The cost of the class teacher in 2016-17 The cost of teaching assistants in 2016-17 The cost of exam fees and cleaning and IT and finance staff and leadership and electricity and resources and……..

Too much for the add-ons The f40 formula includes funding for deprivation, pupils falling behind and EAL. But it provides a realistic level of funding for those pupils. Whereas the NFF tries to replicate the total amount of money that currently exists in the system, especially for deprivation. But over the past 10-15 years, much of the additional funding that has been introduced for schools has been targeted to deprivation.

Too much for the add-ons It is the whole reason the current funding formula has become unfair: the amount for deprivation has been multiplied and then always increased by percentages which have cumulated it . AND Pupil Premium is then added on top!

Amount of funding per pupil allocated to pupils with the following characteristics under the national formula and Pupil Premium

The formulae compared

The Floor The floor is protecting schools that ought to have reducing budgets by ensuring that they never lose more than 3%..........ever So some schools will receive more than the formula says they should until inflation over takes them – whenever that may be. A national funding formula should be just that; a formula that controls funding for a all schools (after a reasonable time).

Schools due to move down to formula Schools due to move up to formula Old Formula Old Formula Cap yr 3 New Formula New Formula MFG Cap yr 2 MFG yr 2 Floor Floor MFG yr 3 Cap Cap New Formula Old Formula New Formula Institute of Fiscal Studies:   Proposed protections would prevent any school from losing more than 3% of funding per pupil in cash terms between 2017–18 and 2019–20. Since many schools’ budgets are a long way from those implied by the formula, only 60% of schools will be on the main formula in 2019–20. Around 5% of schools would have budgets over 7% higher than that implied by the formula in 2019–20. Old Formula

Quantum - Pressures Institute of Fiscal Studies estimated in 2015 that school funding would fall in real terms by 8% by 2019-20 The DfE estimate that schools will need to find £3bn to meet this 8% cut by efficiencies within the system. This will be through better procurement £1.3 bn and more efficient use of staff for the remaining £1.7bn The National Audit Office said in February 2017 that although overall spending on schools will increase between 2014/15 and 2019/20, increasing pupil numbers and staff costs mean they will need to spend 8% less per pupil.

Quantum - Campaigns School Cuts.org supported by NUT/ATL/NAHT/GMB/Unison/ Unite Fair Funding for all Schools (London boroughs and many other parts of the country,) • Increase investment in all schools by protecting per-pupil funding in real terms for the life of this Parliament • Provide the additional funding needed to implement the National Funding Formula that increases funding for maintained schools and academies in comparatively poorly funded areas of England without cutting funding per pupil for schools in any other part of the country, so that no school loses out. WorthLess? West Sussex Schools Campaign for Fairer Funding Save our Schools Brighton & Hove, Birmingham, Manchester, West Sussex and the Isle of Wight.

And Finally “No school will lose under the National Funding Formula” Should read – No MAINSTREAM school will lose under the National Funding Formula Special Schools, Bases in mainstream schools and Pupil Referral Units are not covered by the NFF. As things stand, the budget for them is set to be falling for many LAs. These schools, that educate our most vulnerable pupils are likely to see reductions in their budgets…..

f40 F40 has been campaigning for over 20 years. The group currently has 42 local authority members. Initial step - additional £390m in 2015/16. Now baselined. Stage 1 consultation on principles – March 2016. Anticipated implementation of revised formula delayed by London Mayoral election and EU Referendum. New Secretary of State delays implementation to 2018-19. Stage 2 consultation announced in December 2016. Stage 2 announcement due pre-recess (18 July).

Thank you Questions?