Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding of schools in the Halton constituency.

School funding is at its highest ever level with core funding for schools and high needs having risen from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to £42.4 billion this year and £43.5 billion in 2019-20.

The Department primarily allocates revenue funding for schools at local authority level. Schools in Halton will attract 4.7% more funding, compared to their 2017-18 baselines, under the national funding formula. Local authorities will continue to set local formulae to determine individual schools’ budgets in 2018-19 and 2019-20. It remains the Department’s intention that every school’s budget should be set on the basis of a single, national formula, but the Department believes a period of transition will provide greater stability for schools.

The Department will publish notional funding formula allocations for 2019-20 later this year after updating calculations using the latest autumn census data.