Debate on fairer funding for schools

The Government announced last month that £350m extra would be used to help end major imbalances between the amount of money going into schools, per pupil, in different parts of the country.

But East Riding Council – one of the lowest funded areas nationally – has questioned why it is only set to receive an extra £500,000 when other similar parts of the country are getting millions of pounds.

Consultation on the plans for funding schools in 2015/16 ends on Wednesday and MP Robin Walker will lead a Westminster Hall debate tomorrow on the issue of fairer schools funding.

The Worcester MP is also the vice-chairman of the f40 group which has campaigned for a new funding system for more than 10 years on behalf of the worst funded authorities in the country. The group includes the East Riding, North Yorkshire, Wakefield, York and North Lincolnshire.

The group welcomed a £350m announcement by School Minister David Laws last month which it says will benefit 62 areas of the country and help to move toward a fairer system. But it wants to secure a firm commitment from the next Government that a new fair national funding formula and a clear timeline – three to five years – will be fully delivered in 2016-17.

It has also voiced concerns some traditionally badly funded areas are not receiving much extra cash. In a statement, it said the methodology proposed for 2015/16 “produces some anomalies, with many low-funded authority areas receiving little benefit”.