Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the adequacy of funding for schools in South Yorkshire.

Funding for schools is at a record high. Per pupil funding is 50% more in real-term than in 2000.

The introduction of the national funding formulae is supported by significant extra investment of £1.3 billion across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above the budget announced at the 2015 spending review. Core funding for schools and high needs will rise from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to £42.4 billion this year and £43.5 billion in 2019-20. This will allow us to maintain school and high needs funding in real terms per pupil for the next two years, and figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies show that real terms per pupil funding in 2020 will be at least 50% higher than in 2000.

The following table shows the impact of the fully implemented national funding formula for the four metropolitan boroughs in South Yorkshire. These figures are calculated as if the national funding formula had been implemented in full in 2017-18, with no transitional arrangements.

The Government recognises that many schools have worked hard to manage the impact of cost pressures on their budgets up to this point. The department provides support, guidance and tools to help schools get the best value from their resources, further details of which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/schools-financial-health-and-efficiency.