£500 million will be made available to speed up the introduction of the new funding formula for schools, Education Minister Sam Gyimah has confirmed.
I called on the Government to make sure that schools with particularly unfair funding could benefit from the new arrangements as soon as possible in my response to the consultation over the new funding formula. You can read what I wrote here.
The Minister replied, saying that, "We want to see that schools that are due to gain funding, and who need it most, benefit from fairer funding as soon as possible. That is why, at the Budget, we announced that we will provide an extra half a billion pounds over the Spending Review period to speed up this historic reform."
He added that the Government is proposing to introduce a national minimum funding guarantee, which will limit the extent to which a school can lose funding from one year to the next. He also addressed other points I raised in my response to the consultation about an area cost adjustment, lagged funding and the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index. You can read his letter here.
More broadly I’m delighted that fair funding for schools was included in the Queen's Speech, which means it will be at the heart of this Government’s reform agenda for the next year.
Schools in Kent were missing out under the old, unfair funding system. I campaigned for it to be scrapped because I believe every child should have the chance to succeed – and that starts with a good education.
I intend to be closely involved with the Education for All Bill as it passes through the Houses of Parliament to make sure we get a good deal for Kent’s schools.