School leaders say £2bn more a year is needed to off-set real-terms cuts

The new National Funding Formula (NFF) for schools in England will not be enough to off-set the real-terms cuts that education budgets have seen in recent years, it was claimed this week.

After two public consultations, education secretary Justine Greening last week unveiled the long-awaited reforms to school funding set to be introduced from April 2018.

The changes are designed to iron out disparities in the old funding system which saw similar schools receiving vastly different amounts per-pupil.

Under the new system, primary pupils will attract basic per-pupil funding of £2,747, key stage 3 pupils £3,863, and key stage 4 pupils £4,386.

In a bid to protect schools where pupils do not attract as much funding via additional needs factors, there is an additional factor in the formula, which will provide a minimum per-pupil funding level over the next two years. For secondary schools this will be £4,800 in 2019/20 with a transitional amount of £4,600 in 2018/19, and for primary schools this will be £3,500 in 2019/20 with a transitional amount of £3,300 in 2018/19.

During the transition to the new system, local authorities will continue to set local formulae for determining individual schools’ budgets in 2018/19 and 2019/20 in consultation with schools in their area. However, from 2018/19 the schools block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) is to be ring-fenced to stop local authorities from moving funding between blocks as they have been able to in the past.