Pupils: Per Capita Costs
(asked on 21st May 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the difference in average per pupil funding was between (a) 5 to 16 year olds and (b) 16 to 19 year olds in each of the last five years.
The Department publishes statistics on school revenue funding annually. The latest publication, from January 2021, covers the financial years 2010/11 through to 2021/22 and is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-funding-statistics#dataBlock-10b3bbd5-58b1-401d-9aaf-9daaa184a6df-tables.
The publication shows the average per pupil funding to schools for 5 to 16 year olds.
Table 1 - average per pupil funding, in cash terms, to schools for 5 to 16 year olds. | |
Financial year | Average per pupil funding, cash terms |
2017-18 | £5,590 |
2018-19 | £5,730 |
2019-20 | £5,920 |
2020-21 | £6,280 |
2021-22 | £6,490 |
Table 2 uses the published 16-19 funding allocations [1] to derive the average funding per student for all types of school and college for the last 5 academic years. Funding allocations for further education colleges of 16 to 19 education for the 2021/22 academic year have yet to be finalised.
Table 2 - average per student funding, in cash terms, for 16 to 19 year olds | |
Academic year | Average per student funding, cash terms |
2016/17 | £4,488 |
2017/18 | £4,481 |
2018/19 | £4,504 |
2019/20 | £4,516 |
2020/21 | £4,958 |
5 to 16 year old pupils in schools are funded differently from 16 to 19 students, using two separate systems with different methodologies. The numbers of hours young people spend in learning is also different between the two phases of education, and published data for the 5 to 16 phase is by financial year, and for the 16 to 19 funding by academic year. The figures for 5 to 16 education include high needs funding and additional grants, such as grants to provide help with teacher pay and pension costs, and to support free meals for students, when the equivalents have not been included in the 16 to 19 figures. Therefore, direct comparisons cannot be applied.
[1] The 16 to 19 per student funding calculation only includes institutions that have students receiving total programme funding. Some institutions receive only high needs funding – their students are not included in this calculation. In addition, the Condition of Funding adjustment for English and maths and the Advanced Maths Premium have been incorporated in total programme funding in 2019/20 to make this consistent with the definition in 2020/21. The condition of funding adjustment for English and maths has been incorporated into the total programme funding in 2016/17 to 2018/19 to make this consistent with the definition in 2019/20 and 2020/21.