FUNDING REFORM MUST SUPPORT ALL SCHOOLS

Government plans to reform the school funding formula must recognise the local needs of all schools and support equality of opportunity and achievement for every pupil, representatives at the Annual Conference of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, have heard today.

Representatives at the Conference, which is being held in Birmingham, have called on the Government to provide greater clarity and detail of how its plans to reform the funding formula will impact on individual schools and to ensure effective arrangements are in place to safeguard standards of educational provision in all schools during the transition to the new system.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:

“As a result of the Government’s failure to protect school budgets in real terms, jobs have been lost, vital support services on which school rely have been scaled back or withdrawn altogether and the range of educational options for young people have been curtailed.

“Now schools are facing further anxiety as a result of the Government’s plan to revise the national school funding formula.

“Given the Government’s track record of cuts to school budgets and at a time when further austerity measures are being planned, the NASUWT is concerned that the revised funding formula is likely to create winners and losers, with the consequent impact on children’s education.

“Diminishing further the role of local authorities is also likely to make it more difficult to deliver additional support to schools when they need it.

“A funding system for schools that is capable of recognising local needs and circumstances and which is democratically accountable must be the best way to ensure that the needs of children and young people across very different contexts and circumstances are met.

“The NASUWT believes that any change to the funding system must enable all schools to continue to deliver the best possible education for their pupils.”