Midland rural-based MPs have welcomed an extra £350 million for their schools – but urged the Government to speed up the introduction of a new funding formula designed to end what they see as decades of unfairness.
Worcestershire members including Robin Walker (Con Worcester) and Karen Lumley (Con Redditch) welcomed promises to end what they called a deeply unfair funding system.
Schools in their county currently receive almost £1,000 less per pupil each year than schools in neighbouring Birmingham.
But Labour warned pupils in major towns and cities were likely to lose out as a result of the changes.
Shadow Schools Minister Kevin Brennan said reforms were needed, but accused the Department for Education of hiding plans to cut funding for education authorities which currently receive above-average grants.
The MPs were speaking in a Commons debate on the complex school funding system, which currently ensures some local councils receive far more than others.
Schools in Birmingham receive £5,218 per pupil and those covered by Sandwell council receive £4,771 per pupil, while those in Worcestershire receive £4,231.
The disparities are supposed to reflect the different needs of different areas, and councils serving areas of high deprivation tend to receive higher funding. As a result, urban areas tend to receive more than rural areas. However, the specific sums are largely based on what councils have received in the past without any direct connection to the circumstances in each local authority area. All the major parties agree that change is needed, and underfunded local authorities have been demanding reform for many years.
Ministers have now announced plans to distribute an extra £350 million to many of the worst-funded local authorities, as the first stage to the introduction of a new national funding system.
Worcestershire schools will receive a windfall of £71 per pupil in 2015-16, and Warwickshire schools get an extra £188 per pupil. Staffordshire County Council, which argues it is underfunded, will not receive any extra money, to the disappointment of local MPs. Authorities which don’t receive extra funds, including well-funded councils such as Birmingham, aren’t affected at all in 2015-16. Ministers are considering the results of a consultation into what should happen in future years.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Walker said the funding changes must go further.
He said: “Although there is little link between funding and overall attainment, there is a link between funding and raising the attainment of the most deprived cohorts.”
He added: “Clearly, there is much further to go in the process of providing fairer funding. What has been done is a down payment. I want our party to set down clearly in its manifesto our commitment not only to a fair, transparent funding formula in years to come, but to its rapid implementation.”
Sir Peter Luff (Con Mid Worcestershire) said: “It is only an initial breakthrough... as long as schools such as Prince Henry’s school in Worcestershire face significant real-terms funding cuts, despite those achievements, much more work needs to be done.”
Ms Lumley said: “Having studied the figures across the different local authorities, however, I am concerned that Worcestershire is still not getting as good a deal as others.
“There is real concern that without more funding they will still continue to meet their responsibilities.”
Mr Brennan warned: “The Government should not hide the fact that there will be losers in the process or pretend that there will not be, just because we are a year away from a general election.”
He added: “A national funding formula will result in losers as well as winners. We must be open and honest about that.”
But he said Labour accepted change was needed.
“There are undoubtedly wide disparities among different areas. Some of those disparities can be explained by levels of deprivation or by things such as London weighting, but it remains true that pupils in schools with essentially similar characteristics can be funded very differently depending on where in the country they are.”
