Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the real terms net change in funding per pupil will be for schools in Birkenhead under the new national funding formula.

The introduction of the national funding formula means that our funding will, for the first time, be distributed on the basis of the individual needs and characteristics of every school in the country. The former system is completely out-of-date, based on data and decisions from over a decade ago.

As the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has confirmed, overall schools funding is being protected at a national level in real terms per pupil over the next two years. At the same time, our historic improvement of the school funding system – backed by an additional £1.3 billion of extra funding – will replace the postcode lottery which saw huge differences in funding between similar schools in different parts of the country.

The new formula will allocate a cash increase of at least 1% per pupil to every school by 2019-20, with much higher gains for underfunded schools. Schools across Birkenhead will see, on average, a cash funding increase of 1.6%, or £779,000 through our formula.