Feb. 29 2024
Source Page: Evidence to the STRB: 2024 pay award for teachers and leadersFound: Evidence to the STRB: 2024 pay award for teachers and leaders
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to (a) enable partnership working and (b) increase collaboration between schools, youth organisations and sport providers.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the importance of encouraging partnership working between schools, youth organisations, and sports providers to provide opportunities for young people. Our current Enrichment Partnerships pilot, which was a joint bid with the Department for Education, is working closely with schools, youth organisations, councils and enrichment and sports providers to test whether greater coordination locally can enhance school enrichment offers and remove barriers to participation, create efficiencies (reducing the burden on school staff resources) and unlock existing funding and provision.
The Government-funded network of 450 School Games Organisers (SGO) works directly with local schools and sports providers to coordinate inclusive sport competitions across 40 different sports and activities. In the 2022/23 academic year, the SGO network provided over 2.2 million opportunities for children to take part in local, inclusive sport and physical activity.
Our updated statutory guidance and peer review programme for Local Authorities aims to encourage best practice of local youth provision and advice on how to create a sufficient and unified approach to out of school provision for young people. We also are providing £320,000 to Regional Youth Work Units across England (RYWUs) over the next two years, to build upon their current practices and ensure a consistent minimum level of regional leadership. The funding will support RYWUs to influence youth policy, develop partnerships, support and grow the youth workforce, ensure young people's voices are heard, and improve collaboration across the regions.
Working with the Young People Foundation Trust, DCMS also encourages and supports local youth partnerships through the Local Partnerships Fund. The fund is designed to encourage productive connections between youth services and councils, schools, local sporting and smaller community based organisations, as well as local businesses and funders so they can provide a more holistic experience for young people.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the real term changes in funding for schools in Portsmouth South constituency between 2023-24 and 2024-25 on a) educational attainment of pupils b) classroom sizes and c) classroom resources.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to providing a world-class education system for all children and has invested significantly in education to achieve that.
Nationally, funding for both mainstream schools and high needs, including additional funding for teachers’ pay, is over £1.8 billion higher in 2024/25, compared to 2023/24. The overall core school budget will total over £59.6 billion in 2024/25. This is the highest ever in real terms per pupil.
Through the schools National Funding Formula (NFF), the department calculates and publishes notional funding allocations for each mainstream school. These are aggregated at local authority level and, following an update in pupil numbers, are used to calculate each local authority’s Dedicated School Grant (DSG) allocations. Each local authority then determines individual schools’ final funding allocations through their own local formula.
Through the 2023/24 notional NFF, schools in Portsmouth South are allocated an average £5,814 per pupil. Through the 2024/25 notional NFF, schools in Portsmouth South are allocated an average £6,135 per pupil. This is a cash increase of 2.0% compared to 2023/24. This increase is after taking into account the mainstream schools additional grant (MSAG), which the department has rolled into the schools NFF in 2024/25, to ensure that this additional funding forms an on-going part of schools’ core budgets.
These constituency figures are based on an aggregation of school-level allocations. Schools’ actual allocations are based on local authorities’ funding formulae.
The figures do not include the additional funding the department is providing through the Teachers Pay Additional Grant (TPAG). Nor do they include other grants, such as the Pupil Premium.
The government provides these increases to school revenue budgets so that schools can cover cost increases in the year ahead. However, schools have autonomy over their own spending and should use this to raise attainment as well as to manage their classroom resources.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to take steps to provide additional funding for SEND placements in alternative provision.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
High needs funding supports local authorities with the costs of provision for the increasing number of children with Education, Health and Care plans, those who require specialist services and those in alternative provision (AP), including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) placed in AP.
In the 2024/25 financial year, the department is increasing high needs revenue funding to over £10.5 billion, which will be an increase of over 60% from 2019/20. The City of York Council is due to receive an allocation of £28.5 million in 2024/25, which is a cumulative increase of 27% per head over the three years from 2021/22.
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for pupils with SEND, sits with local authorities. The department allocates funding to support local authorities to meet this duty and has provided over £1.5 billion of high needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. This funding can be used to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the real term change in average per pupil spending was in Portsmouth South constituency between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to providing a world-class education system for all children and has invested significantly in education to achieve that.
Nationally, funding for both mainstream schools and high needs, including additional funding for teachers’ pay, is over £1.8 billion higher in 2024/25, compared to 2023/24. The overall core school budget will total over £59.6 billion in 2024/25. This is the highest ever in real terms per pupil.
Through the schools National Funding Formula (NFF), the department calculates and publishes notional funding allocations for each mainstream school. These are aggregated at local authority level and, following an update in pupil numbers, are used to calculate each local authority’s Dedicated School Grant (DSG) allocations. Each local authority then determines individual schools’ final funding allocations through their own local formula.
Through the 2023/24 notional NFF, schools in Portsmouth South are allocated an average £5,814 per pupil. Through the 2024/25 notional NFF, schools in Portsmouth South are allocated an average £6,135 per pupil. This is a cash increase of 2.0% compared to 2023/24. This increase is after taking into account the mainstream schools additional grant (MSAG), which the department has rolled into the schools NFF in 2024/25, to ensure that this additional funding forms an on-going part of schools’ core budgets.
These constituency figures are based on an aggregation of school-level allocations. Schools’ actual allocations are based on local authorities’ funding formulae.
The figures do not include the additional funding the department is providing through the Teachers Pay Additional Grant (TPAG). Nor do they include other grants, such as the Pupil Premium.
The government provides these increases to school revenue budgets so that schools can cover cost increases in the year ahead. However, schools have autonomy over their own spending and should use this to raise attainment as well as to manage their classroom resources.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the availability of (a) SEND and (b) alternative provision placements.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities are responsible for providing enough school places for children in their area.
The department supports local authorities to provide sufficient school places through capital funding and has published over £1.5 billion of High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. This funding is allocated to local authorities to support them to deliver new places and improve their existing provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) as well as those who require alternative provision (AP). This funding forms part of the department’s transformational investment of £2.6 billion in new high needs provision between 2022 and 2025 and is on top of its ongoing delivery of new special and AP free schools.
Last summer, the department began collecting data from local authorities on available capacity in special schools, SEND units and resourced provision, along with corresponding forecasts of demand for these places. This data will help the department to more effectively support local authorities to fulfil their statutory duty to provide sufficient specialist places.
High needs funding to help local authorities with the ongoing costs of provision for children and young people with complex SEND and those in AP is increasing to over £10.5 billion next year, which is an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2024 to Question 19580 on Music: Education, what assessment her Department has made of the ability of non-local authority Music Hubs to pay for employer contribution rates after August 2024.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
In light of the increase in employer contributions to the Teacher’s Pension Scheme (TPS) from April 2024, the department will take steps to determine the level of employer liability across all the newly appointed Music Hub Lead Organisations from September 2024. This has not been possible until recently, as applicants were informed of the outcome of the Music Hubs Investment Programme on 8 April 2024. The department will then work with Arts Council England in giving due consideration to the additional pension pressures due to the increase in employer contribution to the TPS. The outcome of this assessment will be published in the coming months.
The department has already secured £1.25 billion to support eligible settings with the increased TPS employer contribution rate in the 2024/25 financial year. This will mean additional funding of £9.3 million to local authorities for centrally employed teachers, including those employed in local authority based music hubs. The department has now published the details of the additional funding for mainstream schools, high needs and local authorities with centrally employed teachers.
The department has also committed to providing funding to cover the increase in employer contribution rates for non-local authority hubs for the current academic year to August 2024 and Arts Council England has communicated allocations to the relevant hub lead organisations.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that the National Funding Formula for schools reflects the needs of children in Hampshire.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The National Funding Formula (NFF) distributes funding fairly, based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics. The NFF includes proxy factors through which pupils with additional needs attract additional funding to their school, such as low prior attainment, socio-economic status, and English as an Additional Language.
Hampshire is attracting an extra £19 million for schools in 2024/25, an increase of 2.0% per pupil (excluding growth funding) through the schools NFF compared to 2023/24, and an increase of 13.3% per pupil compared to 2021/22. This takes total funding for 2024/25 in Hampshire to over £986 million, based on current pupil numbers. Final allocations for 2024/25 will be announced in December 2024.
All schools will receive additional funding, beyond that provided through the NFF, through the Teachers Pay Additional Grant (TPAG) in the 2024/25 financial year. A typical primary school with 200 pupils might be receiving around £20,000 through the TPAG in 2024/25, and a typical secondary school with 900 pupils might be receiving around £100,000.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help support local authorities that have an increasing number of children requiring (a) education, health and care plans, (b) specialist services and (c) alternative provision.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
High needs funding supports local authorities with the costs of provision for the increasing number of children with Education, Health and Care plans, those who require specialist services and those in alternative provision (AP), including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) placed in AP.
In the 2024/25 financial year, the department is increasing high needs revenue funding to over £10.5 billion, which will be an increase of over 60% from 2019/20. The City of York Council is due to receive an allocation of £28.5 million in 2024/25, which is a cumulative increase of 27% per head over the three years from 2021/22.
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for pupils with SEND, sits with local authorities. The department allocates funding to support local authorities to meet this duty and has provided over £1.5 billion of high needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. This funding can be used to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.