Schools minister Nick Gibb has rejected calls from unions to restore per-pupil funding rates to levels calculated before a mistake was discovered.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the NEU teaching union, the NASUWT teaching union and the NAHT school leaders’ union wrote to the Department for Education yesterday calling for it to honour a commitment made over summer to increase school funding through the national funding formula (NFF) by 2.7 per cent for 2024-25 compared with this year.
The DfE revised the NFF allocation increases down to 1.9 per cent last week after an error was discovered in the processing of pupil numbers. Union leaders said the estimated £370 million that schools would be down through the NFF as a result of this change should be reinstated.
But Mr Gibb reaffirmed in a letter today: “We will deliver an average 1.9 per cent increase in funding per pupil in 2024-25 via the NFF, compared to this year - as per the republished allocations.”
He reiterated that the total core schools budget for 2024-25 remains unrevised at £59.6 billion, and the Teachers’ Pay Additional Grant (TPAG) remains the same. This means total mainstream school funding will increase by 2.6 per cent per pupil in total for 2024-25 compared with this year.
“This has, of course, been a very unfortunate error, and comprehensive measures are being put in place to ensure that it is not repeated. I hope this letter helps to clarify that, nonetheless, this error has not undermined the record levels of funding totals that the department has promised,” Mr Gibb added.
School funding plea turned down
He also wrote that the republished funding rates would be used to deliver final allocations regardless of actual pupil numbers in the 2023 October census.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU; Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT; Geoff Barton, general secretary of ASCL; and Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT, said in their letter yesterday that they had taken Mr Gibb’s statement to the House of Commons promising 2.7 per cent through the NFF “as a commitment to schools and parents”.
They added: “Schools are already having difficulty balancing their books; some will now face the very real prospect of cuts to provision.
“Sustained investment in the nation’s schools is desperately needed after years of austerity.”
Commenting on Mr Gibb’s letter this afternoon, Mr Barton said: “The mistake that was made in calculating these allocations was not the fault of schools, and yet they are left having to pay the price.
“It seems perfectly reasonable to ask the government to honour the funding commitments it made in July. It is a sad reflection of its priorities that it cannot manage to do even this.”
Mr Kebede told Tes the letter from Mr Gibb raised concerns about future pay awards. “We can assume, judging by that funding envelope, that the recommendations from the government to the STRB [School Teachers’ Review Body] will be a pay award of 1 or 2 per cent for 2024-25.
“That will not take any steps to the correction in pay that is desperately needed to solve the recruitment and retention crisis, if that’s what is the government’s intention. I think the government should really take steps to make sure there is an improved funding settlement for our schools and colleges.”
Education secretary Gillian Keegan has asked Department for Education permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood to carry out an independent evaluation of the quality assurance process of the NFF following the mistake.
Mr Kebede said last weekend that potentially there were grounds to reopen the NEU’s pay dispute following the NFF recalculations.
