Campaigners hail school funding ‘turnaround’ but fears remain
Staying vigilant: protestors at London Fields earlier this year. Photograph: Carlota Calderon
Parents who campaigned for school cuts to be scrapped have welcomed the extra £1.3 billion in funding announced by Education Secretary Justine Greening yesterday.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the rethink means school budgets will stay at current levels for the next two years, but concerns have been raised over where the cash is coming from.
Greening admitted the money has to be plucked from other areas in the Department for Education, with £280 million coming from the free schools budget and £315 million from “healthy pupils” schemes.
Parent-led group Fair Funding for All Schools (FFfAS), which ran a huge campaign in Hackney, said there was “much to welcome” in Greening’s announcement, but urged supporters to stay “vigilant”.
A spokesperson for the group said: “Ministers spent the last two years consistently dismissing the concerns of parents, school leaders and teaching unions. Campaigns like ours have forced them to change direction.
“We are concerned that this is not new Treasury money. It will be a heroic task for the DfE to find savings of that order without impacting on schools somewhere down the line.
“Is it a complete remedy? Far from it. We need to be vigilant. We need to press the case for investing in our schools. And while we clearly persuaded education ministers, we may still need to change minds at the Treasury.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan echoed these concerns, saying: “£1.3billion extra added to the core education budget over two years may sound like good news – but it is not new money and will come from existing budgets.
“As a Mayor for all Londoners, I want to see all our young people get the best possible start in life. We need to work together and fight for a fairly funded school system that will work for our youngsters for generations to come.”
Greening also revealed plans to delay the full implementation of a new National Funding Formula until 2020, which she said would help schools “transition”.
The formula divvies up funding between local authorities across the UK, and the reform will see schools in London lose out.
Campaigners say Hackney will be one the hardest hit boroughs, with an estimated £25 million wiped from school budgets.
Khan added: “I have said for many months that the government’s proposed changes to the National Funding Formula will result in an education crisis for London. Schools in every single one of the capital’s 33 local authorities will lose funding and London pupils are losing out.”
Commenting on the additional investment, Justine Greening said: “It will mean an increase in the basic amount that every pupil will get, protected funding for those with high needs and will ensure every local authority is in a position to give schools a cash increase through the new formula.
“This means that, with teachers and schools across the country, we can continue to raise standards and give every child the best possible education, and the best opportunities for the future.”
Without saying what is being cut from the education budget to pay for this Greening is just trying to score political points and save face with a financial sticking plaster. She has also totally failed to say that budgets will be protected per pupil in real terms. Until we see the £26k cuts for Hackney from the government stopped and reversed and budgets for Hackney’s inclusion team protected by the Labour council the fight continues. The real victory here is that the Tories have been shaken and are scared of potent parent people power. We mustn’t stop now.
This £1.3bn is a political sticking plaster to take the heat of the besieged Tory Government.
Schools have already been asked to find ‘efficiencies’ and are struggling, so the fact that this is not new money means, it might take the heat of the Tories for two years, but eventually the failure to protect budgets in real terms will lead to deep cuts that will harm every child’s chance at a good education.
If the Prime Minister is still in the mood to take ideas from other parties then I suggest she read the Lib Dem manifesto pledges to invest £7bn in schools, reverse all cuts to frontline school and college budgets, protect per pupil funding in real terms, triple early years premium and protect the Pupil Premium which targets extra help at disadvantaged children.