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Our aim is to influence a change in the way the government allocates funding to local education authorities and schools. The allocations for primary and secondary pupils in the authorities in the f40 group are the lowest in the country.
Whilst f40 has welcomed the extra money allocated to education in recent years, it believes that adjustments to the formula have failed to address the fundamental problems inherent in the old system. The Group feels that it has been left with no choice but to maintain its campaign for further change that will be meaningful and fair to its member authorities and children being educated by them.League tables showing the funding of all education authorities in England clearly show that the disparity has got worse year on year. The gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is widening and there is no agreement about the basic entitlement for each pupil.
We believe that if the government, through LSCs, can provide exactly the same allocation per student across the country, it should be able to do the same at primary and secondary levels.
f40 wants to see a new system which recognises the special needs of all LEAs whether they are in urban, rural or inner London locations. We do not believe in taking anything away from authorities more highly ranked in the funding league tables but we want a system which allows the lowest funded councils to catch up.
We see the DSG Formula Review, launched by the government in 2008, and subject to consultation between March and the 7th June 2010, as the best chance in a generation of achieving a fairer funding system. The intention is to have a new formula in place for the 2011 – 12 settlement.
