Yesterday the government announced that it will push ahead with plans to address the current imbalance in the school funding system.
The announcement signals a transition into new reforms after Mark Garnier MP, alongside other MPs, successfully campaigned to get rid of the old funding formula. This was backed by local schools and parents through a petition which Mark Garnier presented in the House of Commons at the start of December last year. The old formula meant that per pupil less well funded areas such as Worcestershire could receive half of what was given to better funded areas- with no objective basis for the difference.
Under new proposals, the Government has started the process of introducing a national funding formula for 2017-18. This will ensure that funding is consistent and fair.
A single national formula for schools will ensure that pupils with similar needs attract the same level of funding to their school, regardless of their background and where they live. Yesterday's announcement marks the first stage of the government's education funding reform process.
The consultation proposes that the following factors are considered as part of allocating schools funding:
- Basic per pupil funding - ensuring a core allocation for the costs of teaching pupils.
- Funding for additional needs - including deprivation, low prior attainment and English as an additional language.
- School costs - including fixed costs and those related to schools serving rural communities.
- Area costs - ensuring more funding goes to areas that face the highest costs.
The reforms follow years of campaigning by the F40 Group of poorly-funded local authorities, and a concerted Parliamentary campaign to make the issue a top political priority. In October, Mark was one of 111 MPs who wrote to the Prime Minister to call for fairer funding to be introduced, and on 5 November he demanded action in a debate on the issue in Westminster Hall.
Mark Garnier MP said: ''Fair funding is crucial to ensuring that children have the best environment in which to succeed so I'm very happy that the Government has announced these changes. I have always maintained that outdated political calculations should not determine how much funding future generations receive, and these new reforms will end the postcode lottery that has previously imbalanced the system. The campaign locally and nationally has truly achieved something and I look forward to seeing future generations in Wyre Forest benefit from these changes.''