Special schools will still be faced with an “extremely challenging financial picture”, despite being guaranteed to receive some uplift in funding from the Autumn Statement next year, sector leaders have said.
The Department for Education has revealed further details of how extra funding for schools will be allocated after the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, revealed a £4.6 billion cash uplift over the next two years.
A total of £400 million of the £2 billion 2023-34 funding is earmarked for high needs and will be allocated to local authority budgets. But councils will then be required to pass on a portion of this to special and alternative provision schools, which the DfE said today is equivalent to at least a 3.4 per cent increase in their total current funding per place.
The exact amount that each school receives will not be determined by the DfE, as it will depend on how much funding special and AP schools are currently receiving from their authorities, and how much councils choose to pass on.
Previously, special school leaders have warned that discretion given to councils about how much funding they pass on has created a “postcode lottery”.
Leaders have warned that special schools are under “huge pressure” and that “much more” investment is needed.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that the further detail on the funding allocation was “helpful” but that the uplifts “do not help schools afford the soaring costs that are hitting them now and are unlikely to be sufficient to cover future costs either”.
He added: “In particular, special educational needs provision is under huge pressure. The number of children who need support has been rising for several years, and the mechanisms for getting money to the front line are complex, burdensome and bureaucratic.
“The system is in crisis, and much more investment and urgency over system reform are needed”.
Rob Williams, senior policy adviser at the NAHT school leaders’ union, added: “We are concerned that even with this additional funding, many special schools and alternative provision settings will still be faced with an extremely challenging financial picture.”
Special schools have faced an array of financial pressures that have sometimes been more acute than mainstream settings because of high staffing numbers and extra facilities that require a large amount of energy, such as hydrotherapy pools. Special school leaders have warned that cost pressures are putting them on a “fast track to unviability”.
The vast majority (£1.45 billion) of the remaining £1.6 billion per year funding is going through a new grant to mainstream schools.
The remaining £180 million will go to increasing pupil premium funding, which the DfE said will ”support schools to continue using high-quality tutoring as a key means of targeted support for the children who need it most, and embed tutoring in schools long-term”.
How mainstream schools will get extra cash
Extra cash for state schools next year will come via a “mainstream schools additional grant”. Exact school-level allocations will be published in May, but local authorities and academies will receive their payments in two tranches.
Payments will be made in May 2023 for local authorities, and June 2023 for academies, to cover April 2023 to August 2023; and in October 2023 for local authorities, and November 2023 for academies, to cover September 2023 to March 2024.
The uplift for the following year will be rolled into the core schools budget allocations.
The funding rates consist of three elements, which are based on factors already in the schools national funding formula:
- a basic per-pupil rate (with different rates for primary, key stage 3 and key stage 4)
- a lump sum paid to all schools, regardless of pupil numbers
- a per-pupil rate for pupils who are recorded as having been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years (FSM6), with different rates for primary and secondary pupils
These will work out as follows:
- a basic per-pupil rate of £119 for primary pupils, including pupils in Reception
- a basic per-pupil rate of £168 for key stage 3 pupils
- a basic per-pupil rate of £190 for key stage 4 pupils
- a lump sum of £4,510
- an FSM6 per-pupil rate of £104 per eligible primary pupil
- an FSM6 per-pupil rate of £152 per eligible secondary pupil
More schools chosen for rebuilding programme
As well as providing extra details about funding allocations, the DfE has also announced that it has selected an additional 239 school buildings to be “transformed” as part of its School Rebuilding Programme.
The new projects follow the 161 previously announced, and mean that 400 out of the planned 500 schools and sixth forms have now been selected for rebuilding works within the 10-year scheme.
But the announcement was criticised by shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson, who said it was ”merely a re-announcement of what little spending has already been committed for school rebuilding after a decade of budget cuts, with no timetable for delivery”.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan said: “Education is a top priority for this government. That is why, despite facing challenging economic circumstances, we are investing a record amount in our schools and colleges. Today’s announcement will transform hundreds of schools across the country and ensure they are fit for the future.
“The additional funding, alongside fantastic new facilities, will mean our brilliant teachers can get on with what they do best - and inspire the next generation.”
