Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the impact of inflation on school budgets in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry.

Cost pressures should be seen in the wider context of funding for schools. The department is delivering a £7 billion cash increase in schools and high needs funding nationally by the 2024/25 financial year, compared to the 2021/22 financial year. Increases in funding have been frontloaded, so that in the 2022/23 financial year core schools funding will increase by £4 billion compared to the 2021/22 financial year.

Coventry is attracting a further increase of £5 million for mainstream schools in the 2023/24 financial year through the schools national funding formula (NFF). This will take total school funding for the 2023/24 financial year in Coventry to £284.4 million, based on current pupil numbers. This represents an average increase of 7.5% across two years to 2023/24, compared to 2021/22. Final allocations for 2023/24 will be announced, as usual, in December.

Schools in Coventry North East are attracting an extra £1.8 million in the 2022/23 financial year through the schools NFF. On top of this funding through the NFF, schools in Coventry North East are seeing £2.9 million through the schools supplementary grant.

Schools in Coventry North East are attracting a further increase of £3.1 million in the 2023/24 financial year through the schools NFF. This will take total funding for the 2023/24 financial year for schools in Coventry North East to £106.2 million, based on current pupil numbers. This represents an increase of 7.3% per pupil for their pupil-led funding across two years to 2023/24 compared to 2021/22.

Schools’ actual allocations will be based on local authorities’ local funding formulae.