DfE refunds £94m to councils for school support
Gabriella Jozwiak
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
The Department for Education is to pay £94m initially earmarked for academies back to local authorities to help fund school support services.
The amount will be distributed among 101 authorities to finance services such as behaviour support, school improvement and management of school assets.
The DfE took £148m from the Local Authority Central Services Equivalent Fund (Lacseg) in 2011/12, but repaid £58m in July 2012. The latest £94.16m refund is for a £265m cut made by the DfE in 2012/13.
The refund is the second made to local authorities following legal action taken by 31 councils in 2011. They called for a judicial review after claiming the amount taken by the DfE to fund schools that had converted to academy status exceeded how much they would save from no longer being responsible for them.
The local authorities argued this was because the cost saving of not having to provide services to academies is marginal, since the economy of scale gained through buying in bulk is lost.
Local Government Association chairman of the children and young people’s board, David Simmonds, said he was pleased that money "incorrectly taken" from councils in 2012/13 had been returned.
“This money is essential to providing vital support services to schools and students,” said Simmonds.
Association of School and College Leaders deputy general secretary Malcolm Trobe said the cuts had impacted local authority primary schools more than secondary schools.
“We’ve seen in a number of cases the local authority services have been decimated, therefore the amount of funding available for schools support has significantly decreased,” said Trobe.
“Hopefully this will enable local authorities to re-establish the appropriate level of school support where it is needed for local authority schools.”
London Councils, which represents the 33 London boroughs, said it was pleased the government had recognised the DfE's approach had been unfair.
“It is great news that this money is being returned to boroughs but of course it was a flawed approach that unfairly reduced funding available to maintained schools in the first place," a spokesman added.
Information published on the DfE’s website about the decision said: “We have refunded any local authority where the amount deducted from formula grant for 2011/12 and 2012/13 was greater than it would have been had the deduction been based on the number of pupils in academies in that authority over each of the two financial years.”
“Where the amount deducted was insufficient, no additional money has been recouped. This is in order to maintain stability in local authority budgets.”
From April 2013, Lacseg was replaced by the Education Services Grant, which provides local authorities and academies with £15 for each pupil towards educational support services.
