Asked by: Lord Taylor of Goss Moor (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government in real terms what was the average per pupil funding for secondary schools in (1) England, and (2) Cornwall, (a) this year, and (b) for each year since 2005 for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
I refer the Noble Lord to my answer of 24 November 2023 to Question HL257.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Goss Moor (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the average real-terms, per-pupil funding for primary schools in (1) England and (2) Cornwall in each year since 2005.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The table below provides per pupil funding units from 2013/14 to 2023/24, which represent the funding provided by the government for schools in Cornwall each year.
The school funding system changed significantly between 2012/13 and 2013/14, which is when the schools block was first introduced. The department does not have comparable data for primary schools from 2005 to 2012/13.
From 2013/14, the department has supplied data on the “schools block per-pupil unit of funding”. This covers both primary and secondary schools together. The department does not have separate data for primary pupils for this period.
The funding system changed again in 2018/19 when the National Funding Formula (NFF) was introduced. With the introduction of the NFF, funding was provided by reference to primary and secondary schools separately. The table below shows both per primary and per secondary pupil funding amounts.
The scope of the per pupil figures pre and post-2018 in the table below are not directly comparable. In particular, the central services provided by local authorities was split out from the schools block funding in 2018/19, and instead funded separately through the central school services block from that year onwards.
The figures in the table below are provided on a cash basis. The department also published real-terms statistics on schools funding at the national level which does not distinguish by phase. The department used the GDP deflator to calculate real-terms funding levels. Further information can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-funding-statistics, and the GDP deflator can be found online at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/methodology/school-funding-statistics-methodology.
Year | DSG | England | Cornwall |
2013-14 | Schools Block per-pupil Unit of Funding | £4,550.54 | £4,396.58 |
2014-15 | Schools block per-pupil unit of funding | £4,555.02 | £4,396.58 |
2015-16 | Schools block unit of funding | £4,612.11 | £4,464.04 |
2016-17 | Schools block unit of funding (SBUF) | £4,636.43 | £4,467.43 |
2017-18 | Schools block unit of funding (SBUF) | £4,618.63 | £4,428.26 |
2018-19 | Schools block primary unit of funding | £4,057.87 | £3,957.13 |
Schools block secondary unit of funding | £5,228.74 | £4,992.96 | |
2019-20 | Schools block primary unit of funding | £4,098.82 | £3,989.71 |
Schools block secondary unit of funding | £5,294.78 | £5,030.28 | |
2020-21 | Schools block primary unit of funding | £4278.92 | £4,218.40 |
Schools block secondary unit of funding | £5495.88 | £5,187.28 | |
2021-22 | Schools block primary unit of funding | £4,610.68 | £4,573.43 |
Schools block secondary unit of funding | £5,934.86 | £5,623.44 | |
2022-23 | Schools block primary unit of funding | £4,731.72 | £4,751.53 |
Schools block secondary unit of funding | £6,100.01 | £5,784.42 | |
2023-24 | Schools block primary unit of funding | £4,954.27 | £4,988.31 |
Schools block secondary unit of funding | £6,421.94 | £6,117.31 |
The NFF takes account of a wide range of factors that affect the costs schools face, including the particular challenges faced by small schools in rural areas through the sparsity factor. This recognises that some schools are necessarily small because they are remote and do not have the same opportunities to grow or make efficiency savings as other schools, and that such schools often play a significant role in the rural communities they serve.
In recent years, the government has made changes to the sparsity factor which have seen the total amount allocated, nationally, increase from £26 million in 2020/21 to £97 million in 2023/24. In 2023/24, 108 of Cornwall’s 268 schools (40.3%) are in receipt of this funding. The change in Cornwall’s schools’ sparsity funding over time is illustrated in the table below:
Financial Year | Total Sparsity Funding Allocated to Cornwall Through the NFF |
2018/19 | £1,094,868 |
2019/20 | £1,144,828 |
2020/21 | £1,161,341 |
2021/22 | £1,884,761 |
2022/23 | £4,196,307 |
2023/24 | £4,265,424 |
Note: In financial year 2022/23 the sparsity calculation was changed
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Goss Moor (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government in real terms what was the average per student funding for further education colleges in (1) England, and (2) Cornwall, (a) this year, and (b) for each year since 2005 for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Since the 2020/21 academic year, the department has made significant increases in funding per student for 16–19 year-old education. The 2021 Spending Review made available an extra £1.6 billion for 16-19 education in the 2024/25 financial year compared with 2021/22.
In July 2023, the department announced that it will be investing £185 million in 2023/24 and £285 million in 2024/25 to drive forward skills delivery in the further education sector. This funding will help colleges and other providers to continue to deliver high-value technical, vocational, and academic provision needed to power economic growth and prosperity. This investment will be delivered via core 16-19 year-old funding, including through boosting programme cost weightings for higher-cost subject areas, as well as increasing the per-student funding rate. This investment is on top of £125 million the department announced in January 2023 for 16-19 education in the 2023/24 financial year.
In October 2023, the government announced that, in the future, students retaking English and mathematics GCSE while studying at Level 2 or below will attract the same funding that those studying at Level 3 already receive.
The department does not record the real terms changes to funding as requested and therefore does not hold this information.
The table below uses the published 16-19 funding allocations to derive the average funding per student, in both England and Cornwall from 2014/15 and the subsequent nine academic years, in cash terms. This includes all 16-19 funded students, including those in further education colleges, school sixth forms, and other types of provider. The figures are not available for 2005/06 to 2013/14.
Average total programme funding per student[1] England | Cornwall | |
2014/2015 | £4,432 | £4,200 |
2015/2016 | £4,489 | £4,326 |
2016/2017 | £4,488 | £4,396 |
2017/2018 | £4,514 | £4,393 |
2018/2019 | £4,504 | £4,410 |
2019/2020 | £4,516 | £4,447 |
2020/2021 | £4,958 | £4,783 |
2021/2022 | £4,994 | £4,878 |
2022/2023 | £5,469 | £5,321 |
2023/2024 | £5,923 | £5,779 |
[1] This calculation only includes institutions that have students receiving total programme funding. Some institutions receive only high needs funding – their students are not included in this calculation.
The department is continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB). This resulted in £1.34 billion of investment in the 2023/24 Funding Year.
In 2023/24, the government has devolved approximately 60% of the AEB to 9 Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and the Greater London Authority (GLA). These authorities are now responsible for the provision of AEB-funded adult education for their residents, allocation of the AEB to providers, and for reporting funding in devolved areas. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is responsible for the remaining AEB in non-devolved areas. In ESFA AEB areas the department applied a 2.2% increase to the final earnings for all AEB formula-funded provision (excluding associated learner and learning support) in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years. In addition, the department also applied a 20% boost on top of earnings for all AEB formula-funded provision in 6 sector subject areas: Engineering, Manufacturing Technologies, Transport Operations and Maintenance, Building and Construction, ICT for Practitioners, and Mathematics and Statistics.
Spend by the department on further education is reported through publication of the Annual Report and Accounts, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dfe-annual-reports. The department is unable to provide average funding per learner as funding is determined by a combination of factors including funding rates, funding formulas, earnings method and support funding.