Commenting on the school funding consultation published by the
Department for Education today, Geoff Barton, General Secretary
of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:
“This consultation is about how funding is distributed to schools
in England. While we support the direction of travel, our bigger
concern is that there is not enough money being put into the
system in the first place. The cake is too small, no matter how
it is sliced. We recognise that the government is currently
investing more money in schools but we do not think this is
enough to repair the damage done by years of underfunding and we
are concerned that much of the new money will be simply eaten up
by rising costs. This is even more critical because of the havoc
wreaked by the pandemic and the pressing need for significant
investment in education recovery.
“On the detail of this consultation, the government has rightly
addressed the postcode lottery which has existed in the funding
system for many years with the introduction of a National Funding
Formula. However, local authorities can still adjust allocations
to schools and this means that similar schools can receive
different funding depending on where they are in the country.
This next move could remove local authority flexibilities and
make allocations more consistent.
“There is a massive risk of creating winners and losers and the
government is right to set out in this consultation a cautious
and phased approach to this adjustment. However, as long as the
overall amount of funding continues to be inadequate, schools
will remain short of the money needed to educate children.”
