f40 adopts positive stance to education funding consultation

The government’s consultation on the method for distributing funding to schools is the best opportunity in a generation for England’s lowest funded authorities to get a new, fairer system for the allocation of education cash.

f40 chairman, Cllr Ivan Ould, who is also Lead Member for Children and Older People’s Services at Leicestershire County Council, firmly believes that the government has recognised the inadequacies and unfairness built in to the existing, discredited system.

He said, “After over a year of research and evidence gathering, the government has published a report that in many ways proves that it has realised how unfair the existing system has been for many authorities over a period of ten to fifteen years.

“Having analysed the content of the consultation material, we believe that there is plenty in the proposals that reflects our member’s demands and vindicates our campaign for change.”

One of the most important outcomes of the review is that for the first time the government has presented a clear definition of what basic entitlement is. The paper states:

Basic entitlement is intended to cover the general costs of running schools and is therefore the factor which allocates the most funding – notionally just less than three quarters of the current Dedicated Schools Grant allocation. It covers base funding before any additional amounts for Additional Educational Needs (AEN), separate funding for high cost pupils, sparsity funding for primary sector and the adjustments for area costs are added.

Cllr Ould said: “This is an important definition because there has been much confusion in the existing formula, where some AEN money was notionally included in the basic entitlement. This meant that some authorities with low average AEN needs were deemed to have sufficient money within the basic entitlement to cover all these needs.

“Where there are pockets of high deprivation within an authority, the only way these schools have been able to receive additional funding was from the basic entitlement for all schools. A ‘sticking plaster’ solution in the form of a grant for pockets of deprivation has been applied to this problem in the last three years, but overall the solution was not adequate.

“This new definition ensures that AEN will be added wherever it is needed. There will now be a much clearer definition of the basic level of educational entitlement in our schools before we add in additional support for those pupils who require it.”

F40 believes that the consultation has many good points that if contained in the new allocation system, will be beneficial to children attending schools in the lowest funded authorities. These are:

• A return to a formula distribution.
• That the formula will be based on the original Schools Formula Spending Share (SFSS), with some alterations to cover changed circumstances, some important changes to data used and the use of better proxy indicators.
• A clear understanding of the purpose and coverage of the basic entitlement.
• Important options for data and proxy indicators used for additional and special needs.
• A clearer definition of the differences between support for additional and special needs.
• A better way of measuring sparsity.
• A clear explanation of the need for an area cost adjustment.
• Inclusion of a large number of grants in the DSG – ultimately to form part of the local authority formula to its schools.

On the other hand, f40 is disappointed that the consultation ignores or fudges a few important issues, including:

• It fails to use an activity-led formula for calculating the basic entitlement.
• It fails to deal with the link between the national basic entitlement and a school level basic entitlement - the issues around the central expenditure from the schools budget have been ducked.
• The costs of the very few very high cost pupils, particularly for very small authorities.

“In our response to the consultation we will emphasise the importance of creating a system that is fair to all”, says Cllr Ould. “We will continue to make our case and fight for what is right.”

The three month consultation closes on 7 June 2010. F40 will make a submission and will also be encouraging and supporting its member authorities to do the same.

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