by Alan Quick

CENTRAL Devon MP Mr Stride met with Devon County Council Leader John Hart in Westminster on Wednesday, January 25, to discuss changes to the per pupil funding formula which calculates how much authorities receive to spend on education.

Devon has historically been one of the lowest funded authorities in the country, but received a boost of £16 million in 2015, meaning schools now receive £290 per pupil less than the England average rather than £480 less.

Mr Stride says the new formula currently being consulted on would result in the majority but not all of the schools in Mr Stride’s Central Devon constituency benefiting.

Mr Stride has campaigned for fairer funding for Devon’s schools since before becoming an MP in 2010.

He said: “The extra funding Devon received in 2015 was a step in the right direction but it is essential that any further adjustment to the funding formula results in all schools benefiting.

"I have recently visited two of the three secondary schools in my constituency, in Okehampton and Ashburton, specifically to discuss this issue and know the difficulties that any reduction in funding would cause.

"This is an issue I have raised with Education Secretary Justine Greening and I will be meeting with Schools Minister Nick Gibb shortly.”

Leader of Devon County Council John Hart added: “The historic inequality of national funding for education in our county needs further reform but Mel is absolutely right that adjustments to the formula must not result in any schools losing out.

"I am very proud of the standards in education achieved by schools in Devon and the good partnership that exists with the County Council, but they deserve better in terms of national funding to support their efforts.”

QE SCHOOL CALL FOR HELP

At the end of January, the Principal at Queen Elizabeth’s School in Crediton, Rupert Poole, wrote to all parents about the funding crisis facing Devon Schools and urging them, and all members of the community, to muster all the letter writing, awareness raising and campaigning possible to try and stop nationally driven reductions in school funding proposals from going ahead.

In his letter Rupert explains the historical context for the proposed changes, explaining that for many years Devon has been one of the lowest-funded education authorities in England.

£290 LESS IN DEVON

He wrote: “In 2016-17 this resulted in Devon schools receiving £290 less for every child in their care than the national average.

“This difference in funding for us means that we receive £332,340 less than the average school with the same number of students.

“This significant funding shortfall has a direct impact on the quality of education provision we are able to provide equating as it does to seven less teachers than a similar school elsewhere.

“Devon has been campaigning for a number of years for a fairer funding settlement which would bring the money allocated to Devon children closer to the national average. As a result of the campaigning by Devon and other low funded authorities, the government committed to creating a national fairer funding formula in this parliament”.

He goes on to explain the disappointed felt by many Devon Schools when they learnt the proposals would actually reduce funding for many Devon schools like QE.

“Just before Christmas the Department for Education announced a consultation on this promised national funding formula.

“We had obviously expected that this announcement would result in additional funding for us and other Devon schools in order to bring us in-line with the national average and provide a fairer system of funding for Devon children.

SHOCKED AND DISAPPOINTED

“However, we were shocked and hugely disappointed to find out that it would actually reduce our funding by £80,000. In fact, nearly two thirds of Devon Secondary schools will see their funding cut as a result of this ‘fairer’ funding formula.”

Rupert also explained the additional impact of Devon’s decision to reduce the per pupil funding it allocates to schools “as Devon is not able to afford the support required by children with special needs and disabilities, a decision was recently taken by Devon County Council to reduce school funding by a further £33 per pupil to pay back the council’s deficit. This reduces our funding by another £37,620.”

He continued: “The cumulative impact of reducing funding and rising costs is that we are faced with making savings of around £500,000 between now and 2019.

“We are very concerned that trying to save this amount of money is bound to have a negative impact on what we do. As you will be aware we have already had to make very difficult decisions last year to ensure we could operate as efficiently as possible and manage within the already reduced levels of funding we receive.

FAIRER

“We had expected the National Funding Formula to make funding levels for Devon schools fairer but these recent announcements mean that we will have to reduce our costs still further. The vast majority of the expenditure in all schools goes on staffing costs, and whilst we will try very hard to mitigate the impact of any cuts they will inevitably have, an impact on the level of support that we are able to provide to the children in our care.

“We are working hard to provide an environment in which all our students thrive and we are determined to minimise the impact of these funding cuts on the educational outcomes of our students. Inevitably however, if we have less funding then we have little choice but to reduce still further our ability to deliver the service we want to.”

Rupert finishes by urging parents, and the wider community, to take action to try and stop the proposals going ahead.

He concludes: “As a school community, we are therefore seeking your support in raising awareness of this urgent situation facing schools in Devon and to petition on our behalf to the Secretary of State, Justine Greening, and our local MP, Mel Stride.

“Beyond the immediate budgetary challenges, we cannot emphasise enough the vital need to respond to the national funding formula consultation to redress the inequalities, deficiencies and flaws in the funding of education for children in Devon. We would welcome all the letter writing, awareness raising and campaigning you could muster - Thank You.”

HOW TO RESPOND

Mr Poole asked if people could help lobby for a change to the funding proposals:

Write to: Mel Stride, MP for Central Devon, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA or email: [email protected] .

Justine Greening MP, Secretary of State for Education, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA or email: [email protected] .

• What do you think of the nationally driven reductions in school funding? Why not send a copy of your letter to Mel Stride or Justine Greening to the “Courier” for other “Courier” readers to see? Or, do you have a view about school funding?

Share your views with fellow “Courier” readers. Write a letter to The Editorial Manager, “Crediton Courier”, 102 High Street, Crediton EX17 3LF or email your letter to: [email protected] .