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The f40 Pupil Entitlement Model is an innovative funding model for determining the actual needs of individual education authorities and schools. This activity-led funding model offers:
- calculations based on needs based funding – what it actually costs to run a school
- opportunities to create and test budget models from the LEA and individual schools’ perspectives
- capability to adjust calculations to take account of different sized schools
- flexibility to enter variable data to test financial theories and examine alternative school budget opportunities.
The Model provides evidence that the present formula does not achieve fairness and equality in education provision. It also provides a critically important financial management tool for Local Education Authorities, which the Audit Commission states they currently lack.
Dedicated Support Grant
We believe the focus of the Dedicated Support Grant (DSG) should be on ensuring there is an adequate basic entitlement per pupil. The introduction of DSG should be an opportunity to discuss the balance between additional education needs and the basic entitlement. F40 believes the pupil-led element is key and deprivation measures should not be introduced until basic entitlement has been met. Any deprivation factors should be based on evidence of the link between deprivation and the need to raise educational standards. Deprivation should be pupil-based and not relate to conditions in the local area of the school.
A survey for an obesity project in East Riding revealed 70% of 11-year-old children in Withernsea had a low body mass index indicating they were under nourished. This highlights the unfairness of funding on a local authority rather than child basis. The ODPM Index of Multiple Deprivation allows us to target funding on identified children to the school they attend not the area they live. This should be done on a national basis as many of the children affected by deprivation live outside "deprived areas".
The future
We believe the model will help prove the existing formula is inadequate and it discriminates against many education authorities and pupils. Using the model, councils/local education authorities and individual schools, can calculate activity-led funding requirements and remove the existing anomalies that hamper accurate calculation of finance from authority to authority and from school to school.
How to order a copy of the Pupil Entitlement Model
Any Local Education Authority can buy a copy of the Pupil Entitlement Model.
- Price for f40 members - £750
- Price for non members - £1,500
Development of the Model is continuing, particularly to build a link into individual school 3-year budget plans. Authorities buying the existing model will receive an update including these developments. You can also develop the original model to suit your local needs.
To buy the Model please complete the order form and return it to:
Christine Atkinson, Senior Accountant,
Finance and IT Directorate,
East Riding of Yorkshire Council,
County Hall,
Beverley,
East Yorkshire, HU17 9BA.
Tel: 01482 394211
Email: christine.atkinson@eastriding.gov.uk
