Minister for Childcare & Education Sam Gyimah today (17 July 2015) announced that the £390M earmarked for fairer schols funding would be committed to schools base budgets. Ivan Ould, lead member for Children & Families at Leicestershire County Council explains what this means for Leicestershire:
"Of the £390M national pot of funding announced last year, Leicestershire will receive £20.6M per year and the announcement from the Minister that it will be written into the future base budgets for schools means they can plan more effectively with better financial security. Let us not forget that Leicestershire remains one of the poorest funded local authorities for education in the country. In simple terms, we get an additional 6.1% increase, which raises the amount each schools gets in per pupil funding from £3,995 to £4,237."
"When you compare that to Leicester Citywho receive £4.697 per pupil, or to Nottinghamshire County Council, who receive £5,329 funding per pupil, you can see that we still have a long way to catch up."
"Nevertheless, I am really pleased that this Conservative Government has recognised there has been an historic anomaly to the funding Leicestershire receives and is prepared to do something about it. The f40 Group campaign (the 40 lowest funded local authorities for education) has lobbied Education Secretary Nicky Morgan MP long and hard about this and its proves actions have consequnces- Government has listened and most importantly, has acted."
ENDS
Notes
For a complete list of facts and figures and a breakdown by local authority area, please click on https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/fi…
For more comment from Ivan please call him 01827 881087 or 07721 426638
Attachment is a letter from parliamentary under Secretary of State for Childcare & Education, Mr Sam Gyimah MP, setting out the Governent's plans to deliver fairer funding for schools.