School Funding Reform
In April 2011 the Secretary of State launched the ‘Consultation on School Funding Reform: rationale and principles’. The consultation closed on 25 May. F40 submitted its own response to Stage 1 of the consultation.
Then, in 19 July 2011, the government launched a three month detailed consultation, which closed on 11 October 2011. F40 submitted its own response to Stage 2 of the consultation.
Joint Lead Members letter to Secretary of State
On the 30 November 2011 tweny four Lead Members from the poorest funded local authorities sent a letter to the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Education, to highlight the problems inherent in the existing system and emhasising the importance of achieving a more appropraie system in the future. Read the full text here.
Maintaining the pressure on government
f40's Briefing Paper was updated in March 2012 and circulated to Ministers, the DfE, Members of Parliament representing f40 authorities, Lead Members in f40 authorities and trade unions representing school interests. The aim was to ensure that f40's case is kept high on the agenda as the responses to the Schools Funding Review consultation were examined and new proposals for a fairer system are developed. Click here to read the latest Briefing Paper.
In the run up to an announcement on the School Funding Reform consultation, many f40 authorities and MPs have been involved in activities to help get our argument across to Ministers and the media. Some councils have passed special Motions at full council and then communicated the detail to the Secretary of State. Many others have arranged meetings with Ministers, or taken their own form of action to support f40's case.
At its meeting on 21 April 2012, f40's Executive Committee agreed an updated campaign action plan. f40 has also produced a Timeline to show how long its campaign for fair funding has taken. This will be used to argue that we cannot wait years for a new scheme to be introduced: we must have it in place as quickly as is possible.
The announcement
The government's announcement came on the after noon of 26 March 2012...and was a great disappointment. Whilst accepting f40's argument about the unfairness of the current arrangment, nothing will be done to fund a change until after the next election in 2015. See f40's news release issued in response to the announcement.
The Secretary of State met a delegation of f40 members at the DfE on Wednesday 28 March 2012. Read the notes of the meeting here.
At this meeting f40 representatives took the opportunity to voice their anger at the delay in implementation of a fairer system. We asked why the Secretary of State had not offered a financial gesture to the worst funded local authorities and were invited to submit our proposals. A set of options was submitted on 10 April 2012. Also see an associated news release issued on 23 April.
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