f40 gives cautious support to Education White Paper

The f40 Group of authorities, which represents the poorest funded authorities and schools in England, has given a cautious welcome to the government’s recently issued White Paper.

However, there are some key issues that continue to give f40 authorities cause for concern and it is hoped that these will be discussed at an early meeting requested with Schools Minister, Lord Hill.

F40 chair, Cllr. Ivan Ould, who takes the political lead on children’s services at Leicestershire county council, said that the broad sentiments expressed in the White Paper are welcome as they have the potential to offer a fairer and more equitable funding formula for all. That said.

“F40 has consistently argued for a fairer distribution of funding and we believe that a move to a national funding formula may be a mechanism by which this could be achieved. We are keen to be active partners in helping the government to develop the proposals in to an acceptable system and have recently asked for a further meeting with Schools Minister, Lord Hill, to discuss matters that continue to cause concern.

“There is danger that a ‘simple’ national formula may continue the unfairness if it fails to take account of issues such as sparsity, the nature of school sites and the situations within which different schools have to work.

“In addition, a simple distribution based on per pupil funding would fail to recognise the key issue in schools where costs are determined by the number of classes taught and not the number of individual pupils.

“We are worried that some senior politicians are continuing to imply that an increase in the DSG is something more than just an allowance for growth in primary school numbers. Such comment will merely lull schools into a false security, when in fact what they receive in April 2011 may be a major shock!”

“We are also concerned about the proposed Pupil Premium and the impact of the White Paper proposals on post-16 education provided by schools. These relate to the proposal to reduce funding to bring schools in line with FE colleges – the so-called leveling of funding. This proposal needs to be examined really carefully to ensure that the proposed modeling works. Our initial impression is that the resulting financial imperative for a school will be to increase the required class size at post-16 to beyond that which a small rural sixth form can sustain. Coupled with the change in Educational Maintenance Allowance, the implication for students, particularly in areas of sparsity, could be significant.”

Another concern surrounds the potential impact of the Pupil Premium on rural and shire local authorities. Without new money, the £2.5 billion for the pupil premium will be achieved by top slicing the DSG thus reducing funding for all schools on the one hand and giving it back to schools that already have the lion's share of funding.

Cllr Ould added: “Many rural and shire areas have high numbers of small schools with low take-up of free school meals (FSM) which is the key factor proposed for assessing deprivation. Many head teachers and governing bodies in these places are facing a budgetary nightmare, and potential school closure.”

There is also some concern about the impact of the removal of ring-fenced grants, particularly those relating to specialist school funding. The government says that the funding will still be there but f40 believes that many of its members will have no choice but use it for core activities as their budget reduces. This will not only impact on pupils and staff in secondary schools, but also on the outreach available to primary schools, some of which use it to cover for their PPA.

Cllr Ould added: “All of these suggested changes come at a time when the government’s Value for Money consultancy service to schools, which was extremely good and free to schools, has been closed down. Losing a service which has been valued and used by many schools would be unfortunate. It would be greatly welcomed if the government were to consider an extension to cover the strategic planning for the forthcoming budget- setting round”

The f40 Group is committed to working with the government to find a better and fairer system of school and pupil funding and will continue to help develop the proposals in the White Paper during the coming months and particularly as part of the proposed consultations during 2011.

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