Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has his department made of the effect of trends in the level of school funding on the number of (a) Ofsted rated outstanding schools that have been assessed as (i) good, (ii) requires improvement and (iii) inadequate by Ofsted and (b) stuck schools.

The Department has a responsibility to ensure that inspection arrangements are proportionate and achieve an appropriate balance between school autonomy and assurance. That is why we have asked Ofsted to increase the number of outstanding schools it inspects this year, based on its risk assessment, so that those most at risk of decline are inspected.

Given Ofsted inspects outstanding schools where it has specific concerns, it is to be expected that in some cases school performance will have declined. This demonstrates that the risk assessment process is working. Nevertheless, of the 305 risk based inspections of exempt schools undertaken by Ofsted between September 2018 and 31 March 2019, 70% were found to be outstanding or good.

Since 2017, the Department has given every local authority more money for every pupil in every school, and has allocated the biggest increases to those that have been most underfunded. The Department recognises the budgeting challenges schools face and continues to support schools to make the most of their budgets by reducing non staff costs such as energy, water bills and materials.