Dec. 19 2023
Source Page: Government funding for schools in England at a record highFound: Government funding for schools in England at a record high
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of ending funding for employers' contributions to the teachers' pension scheme for music teachers employed by music hubs unattached to schools on costs to the public purse.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
In March 2024, the department announced an additional £1.1 billion in the 2024/25 financial year to support schools and local authorities with the increased Teachers’ Pension Scheme employer contribution rate. This additional funding will be distributed in 2024/25 via the new teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG) 2024.
The department is providing additional funding through the TPECG 2024 to local authorities in respect of teachers categorised as centrally employed on the schools’ workforce census 2023. The department expects local authority-based Music Hub teachers to be recorded on the schools’ workforce census, and so to be in scope for this grant.
The department has also committed to providing funding to cover the increase in employer contribution rates for existing non-local authority hubs for the current academic year, until August 2024, and officials are working to agree the precise amount. Further details, including funding rates and allocations, will be provided soon.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has issued recent guidance to schools on the proportion of their funding that should be allocated to the teaching of (a) religious education and (b) other subjects.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This year, core school funding will total over £57.7 billion, which is an increase of £3.9 billion compared to the 2022/23 financial year. All schools have the freedom to choose how to spend their core funding according to their own unique circumstances and priorities, providing that all expenditure ultimately benefits their students. The department does not provide specific funding for religious education; it is for schools to decide the allocation of resources across different subject areas.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support London’s schools and local authorities with falling school rolls.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department recognises the challenge some schools face with falling rolls, particularly in London. London is attracting an additional £75.1 million of funding for schools in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24 through the schools Dedicated Schools Grant, which is an increase of 1.6% per pupil excluding growth funding. This takes the total funding for 2024/25 in London to over £7.4 billion, based on current pupil numbers.
In the 2024/25 financial year, the department is changing how ‘growth and falling rolls funding’ is allocated to local authorities, so that this is based not only on increases in pupil numbers, but also decreases. This methodology will ensure that local authorities in which schools are experiencing significant decreases in pupil numbers will attract additional funding to support those schools. The restriction that schools must be judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ in their last Ofsted inspection to be eligible for falling rolls funding has also been removed.
The department is also broadening the scope of growth funding to allow local authorities to use growth funding to meet the revenue costs of removing surplus places. Such funding could support local authorities to repurpose space to create Special Educational needs and Disability (SEND) units, resourced bases, or wraparound childcare provision in mainstream schools. This is activity which we know many local authorities are already undertaking.
More information is available in published guidance at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pre-16-schools-funding-local-authority-guidance-for-2024-to-2025/growth-and-falling-rolls-fund-guidance-2024-to-2025.
Estimate memoranda Mar. 05 2024
Committee: Education Committee (Department: Department for Education)Found: Department for Education Supplementary Estimate Memorandum 2023-24 Estimate memoranda
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of not increasing pupil premium funding in line with inflation on disadvantaged students.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Pupil premium funding is rising to over £2.9 billion in 2024/25, an increase of around £90 million from 2023 to 2024. In 2024/25 the pupil premium funding rate for primary pupils is £1,480, and £1,050 for secondary pupils. Looked-after, and previously looked-after, children attract a higher rate of £2,570.
These rates for 2024/25 were an increase of 1.7% on those for 2023/24. This increase was in line with inflation as measured by the GDP deflator forecasts when the rates were announced for 2024/25. As the inflation forecast for 2024/25 has since reduced, the increase in pupil premium rates of 1.7% is now higher than the latest inflation forecast.
This increase ensures that this target funding continues to help schools to support disadvantaged pupils and close attainment gaps.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide COVID-19 catch-up learning for most disadvantaged pupils following the cessation of the National Tutoring Programme in August.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department acted swiftly in helping all children to recover from the impact of the pandemic and made available almost £5 billion for its ambitious multi-year programmes to support education recovery. These programmes were principally targeted at disadvantaged pupils, supporting the narrowing of the disadvantage gap to pre-pandemic levels as quickly as possible. Crucially, they were also designed to have a legacy beyond the multi-year period of exceptional and additional support.
Over £1 billion has been invested in tutoring over four years through the National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has seen nearly 5 million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over 2 million in each of the last two academic years. In the current academic year, 346,000 courses have started up to 5 October 2023.
The department anticipates that tutoring will continue to be a staple offer from schools, with schools using core budgets and pupil premium funding to provide targeted support for those children who will benefit.
Raising attainment for pupils is at the heart of this government’s agenda. The department knows that disadvantaged children have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and are committed to narrowing the attainment gap.
The department is continuing to support pupils’ needs by investing an extra £2 billion into core schools funding both this year and next year, over and above what it had already announced at the 2021 Spending Review. The department has also announced an additional £525 million this year to support schools with the teachers’ pay award, with a further £900 million in 2024/25. This means that by next year, school funding will be more than £59.6 billion, which is the highest ever level in real terms per pupil.
Schools receive the pupil premium to enable them to provide extra support to improve disadvantaged pupils’ academic and personal achievements. Pupil premium funding will rise to over £2.9 billion in 2024/25, which is an increase of £80 million from 2023/24. This represents a 10% increase in per pupil rates from 2021/22 to 2024/25.
Additionally, the department is investing in 55 Education Investment Areas, where outcomes in literacy and numeracy are the poorest, including £86 million in trust capacity funding to help strong trusts to expand into areas most in need of improvement.
Furthermore, students in 16-19 education during the 2024/25 academic year will continue to receive the additional 40 learning hours that the department is funding to help them catch up on the vital teaching and learning they need to progress. It is estimated that the additional hours will support the recovery of approximately one month of lost learning per academic year.
Take action to increase support for people with allergies
- 522 Signatures
(Estimated Final Signatures: 563 - 1 added in the past 24hrs)
We want the Government to increase education in schools on allergies, provide funding for schools, restaurants, hotels, etc to have emergency epipens, and provide funding for additional support through the NHS for people with allergies, including for advice and support from dietitians.
Found: Paying for epipens in schools, restaurants, hotels, etc, and increased NHS support for people with allergies
Found: Preparations to extend early years entitlement for working parents in England
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide one-to-one and small group tuition in education settings following the conclusion of the National Tutoring Programme in August.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department acted swiftly in helping all children to recover from the impact of the pandemic and made available almost £5 billion for its ambitious multi-year programmes to support education recovery. These programmes were principally targeted at disadvantaged pupils, supporting the narrowing of the disadvantage gap to pre-pandemic levels as quickly as possible. Crucially, they were also designed to have a legacy beyond the multi-year period of exceptional and additional support.
Over £1 billion has been invested in tutoring over four years through the National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has seen nearly 5 million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over 2 million in each of the last two academic years. In the current academic year, 346,000 courses have started up to 5 October 2023.
The department anticipates that tutoring will continue to be a staple offer from schools, with schools using core budgets and pupil premium funding to provide targeted support for those children who will benefit.
Raising attainment for pupils is at the heart of this government’s agenda. The department knows that disadvantaged children have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and are committed to narrowing the attainment gap.
The department is continuing to support pupils’ needs by investing an extra £2 billion into core schools funding both this year and next year, over and above what it had already announced at the 2021 Spending Review. The department has also announced an additional £525 million this year to support schools with the teachers’ pay award, with a further £900 million in 2024/25. This means that by next year, school funding will be more than £59.6 billion, which is the highest ever level in real terms per pupil.
Schools receive the pupil premium to enable them to provide extra support to improve disadvantaged pupils’ academic and personal achievements. Pupil premium funding will rise to over £2.9 billion in 2024/25, which is an increase of £80 million from 2023/24. This represents a 10% increase in per pupil rates from 2021/22 to 2024/25.
Additionally, the department is investing in 55 Education Investment Areas, where outcomes in literacy and numeracy are the poorest, including £86 million in trust capacity funding to help strong trusts to expand into areas most in need of improvement.
Furthermore, students in 16-19 education during the 2024/25 academic year will continue to receive the additional 40 learning hours that the department is funding to help them catch up on the vital teaching and learning they need to progress. It is estimated that the additional hours will support the recovery of approximately one month of lost learning per academic year.