DfE to raid existing budgets for £1.3bn additional schools cash
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Schools in England will be given an additional £1.3bn over the next two years, with the money coming from existing Department for Education budgets, Education Secretary Justine Greening has said.
In response to ongoing concerns over funding shortages, Greening said the additional money will be provided in 2018/19 and 2019/20, but did not spell out where all of the cash will come from, prompting calls for clarification from the children and young people sector.
In a statement to parliament, Greening said the DfE will aim to make £420m in efficiencies and savings across its main capital budget.
The majority of this will be from healthy pupils capital funding, created to distribute money recouped from the government's "sugar tax" for new sports facilities from 2018, which has been earmarked for £315m of savings.
Meanwhile, savings of £280m have been earmarked from the budget for plans to create a further 140 free schools announced at the last budget.
The remaining £700m will be found from the DfE resource budget, which currently stands at around £60bn a year. Greening said she will "reprioritise" £250m from this budget in 2018/19 and £350m in 2019/20.
She added that she would redirect £200m from the department's central programmes, but did not specify which programmes would be cut.
"Although these projects are useful, I strongly believe that this funding is most and more valuable in the hands of head teachers," she said.
Richard Watts, chair of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, called for urgent assurances on where the money will come from.
"We are pleased that the government has committed to ensuring no school is worse off as a result of the national funding formula and has announced some additional funding, however we need urgent assurance that it is not coming at the expense of other education provision," he said.
"We look forward to receiving further details from the government about where the money is coming from and how it will be distributed.
Greening said that the government recognised at the general election that people "were concerned about the overall level of funding for schools as well as its distribution".
She said that, alongside the introduction of a new national funding formula for schools, the additional investment will "provide schools with the investment they need to offer a world-class education to every child".
"For this government, social mobility and education are a priority," she said.
"The introduction of the national funding formula - from which previous governments shied - backed by the additional investment in schools we are confirming today will be the biggest improvement to the school funding system in well over a decade."
A joint statement issued by the National Union of Teachers, Unison, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the GMB, said that while any extra money is welcome the amount announced would "not be enough to stop the huge cuts that schools are making".
"The government says it will ensure that no school faces losing funding in cash terms," the statement says.
"In fact, inflation will mean that most schools will be significantly worse off in real terms."
