Fairer Funding Campaign Will Deliver Cash Boost For Local Schools

East Riding schools are set to benefit from a new National Funding Formula (NFF) in 2018 after years of campaigning by local MP, Graham Stuart. Graham founded the national Fair School Funding Campaign and organised a long series of Parliamentary events, debates, meetings and photo calls to highlight the issue and pressure the Government into action.

He has worked closely with local heads and the East Riding Council to demand a fairer system. The formula, which will come into effect from 2018, will give every local school a cash boost and provide a more transparent system for educational funding.

The Department for Education have said that every school will benefit from the new formula. Had the NFF been in place for the 2017/18 academic year, schools across Beverley and Holderness would have seen a 4.9% increase in their income on average.

While the NFF will give specific assistance to schools and pupils in deprived areas, the funding is designed to help every single schoolchild. Particularly important is the introduction of a minimum spend of £4,800 per child in secondary schools in 2019-20, and £3,500 in all primary schools. This would mean more than 10% extra cash for the three most deprived primary schools in the area, for example.

Graham Stuart said: “I am delighted that all schools and every pupil in Beverley and Holderness will benefit from the new National Funding Formula – a campaign that I have worked on for many years. For too long, some areas have received an unfair share of the education budget, and it is welcome that the Government is continuing to redress the balance.

“The previous broken system meant the ten best-funded areas of England received an average of £6,300 per pupil of schools block funding, compared to just £4,200 in the ten worst-funded areas.

“Having campaigned at length for better funding in our schools, I am therefore pleased we are getting a more transparent, fairer, and more generous deal for our pupils. Coming after the Secretary of State’s promise of an extra £1.3bn being invested into schools over the next two years, this new formula promises more vital money and better resources for our teachers and pupils in the years to come.”

As former Chair of the Education Select Committee and Vice Chairman of the f40 Group for under-funded educational authorities, Graham has been an ardent champion of fair investment in schools. He founded and led the Parliamentary Fair School Funding Campaign and helped to persuade the Government in 2014 to give an additional £390 million to schools of which the East Riding received £1.8 million.

In 2015 Graham’s campaign helped persuade the Government to introduce a new national funding formula, another important milestone on the road to ensuring children in Beverley and Holderness were funded properly. Previously the East Riding has consistently featured amongst the worst-funded authorities across the country.