Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the level of funding in the new funding formula for schools that have a large number of pupils with additional needs and those that do not.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The national funding formula allocates the majority of funding, 72.9%, through the basic per-pupil allowance, while protecting the funding directed towards children with additional needs, with a total spend of £5.9 billion and overall weighting of 17.8%.
Funding will be distributed according to the individual needs and characteristics of every school in the country. This will direct resources where they are needed most, and provide transparency and predictability for schools.
The attached table shows the unit values, total funding and proportion of funding for each factor in the formula.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the Government's policy is on secondary school inclusion; and how that policy has been taken account of in the new funding formula.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We are committed to an inclusive education for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and progressively removing the barriers to education and participation in mainstream education. The Children and Families Act 2014 secures the general presumption in law of mainstream education in relation to decisions about where children and young people with special educational needs should be educated; and the Equality Act 2010 provides protection from discrimination for disabled people. The 2014 Act also requires local authorities to ensure the views, wishes and feelings of children, young people and parents are taken into account when deciding what support children and young people with SEND need.
The introduction of national funding formulae for schools and high needs is supported by significant extra investment of £1.3 billion across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above the budget announcement at the 2015 spending review. We are therefore able to provide additional funding for every school and allocate extra high needs funding to every local authority, both of which will support schools in providing for their pupils, including those with SEND. Both schools and high needs national funding formulae reflect the number of children and young people with SEND who are attending mainstream or specialist provision.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has plans to provide additional school places in (a) Stroud constituency and (b) Gloucestershire.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Supporting local authorities to create sufficient school places is one of the Government’s top priorities. Since 2015 we have committed £5.8 billion to deliver new school places, on top of our investment in the free schools programme.
Gloucestershire County Council has been allocated £85.1 million in basic need funding allocations for the period 2011 to 2020 to create new school places, and has created 3,339 places between 2010 and 2016.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-school-places-scorecards-2016
The Department has opened two free schools in Gloucestershire since 2010, and we have plans to open a further two free schools and one university technical college up to 2018. These schools are providing approximately 1451 additional school places in the area.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-schools-open-schools-and-successful-applications