f40

The campaign for fairness in education funding.

f40 seeks fairness and equal opportunities in education for all children, regardless of where they live. We wish to see all schools properly funded to enable them to provide a quality education that enables children and young people to reach their potential. The basic funding should be enough to run a school before extra money is added on for any additional needs specific to a school or its pupils.

Historically, education funding has been unfair in England for many years. While good progress has been made with the introduction of the National Funding Formula, there are still too many discrepancies locked into the system, with some schools still receiving far less per pupil than others.

Government has acknowledged the unfairness and is attempting to level up without reducing funding for the better funded schools, but it is a slow process to address the historic disproportionate funding. Many areas, especially large rural communities and ‘shire’ local authorities, still receive inequitably less funding.

f40, made up of its 43 local authority members from across England, is campaigning for fair funding in all areas of education, including primary and secondary schools, Early Years, 16-19, and High Needs up to age 25.

Fair funding for all schools

Equitable funding should be provided to all schools to allow them to deliver a high-quality education and to enable them to safeguard all children and young people.
Further funding should be provided to meet additional needs of pupils, and school and area living costs, without the need for historic protections or top-ups, such as a minimum level of funding per pupil.

Sufficiency of funding for all schools

Funding should be sufficient to ensure effective and enriched learning for all pupils.
Funding should address historic shortfalls, where budgets have not matched inflation.
Funding should reflect rising demands on schools, such as policy changes/needs for extra support/cost of living.
Funding should provide for long-term Covid impacts (mental/emotional/physical /health and catch-up).

SEND

The number of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and their complexity of need, continues to rise. This, coupled with more young people accessing support for longer (19-25), without sufficient funding, is putting great pressure on the system. Funding is also currently based on historic need, which is very different to the requirements of SEND today.

Local authorities and schools should receive enough revenue annually so they can deliver high quality services to all children with ‘high needs’, recognising the rising demand, increasing complexity of need, and wider implications from policy changes.
Additional funding should be provided specifically to help local authorities settle the huge deficit budgets in High Needs stemming from changes to the Code of Practice in 2014.