Ministers will proceed with plans to allow schools rated ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ to claim funding to manage “significant declines” in pupil numbers.
But schools will need to show that places will be required within five years to qualify for the extra cash, and the expansion will only apply from September 2024.
It comes as falling pupil numbers are starting to hit primary schools. Schools Week analysis of government data showed plummeting pupil numbers will wipe out the need for the equivalent of 80 per cent of the new school places created since 2010.
Recent statistics reveal 1,161,976 school places have been created since 2010, most of them in primary schools. They were needed to accommodate a population bulge caused by a baby boom in the 2000s.
But the bulge is starting to move out of the school system, and the latest government pupil number predictions anticipate the population of primary and secondary schools will fall by 935,753 between 2022 and 2032.
Falling pupil numbers are already creating problems for primary schools, especially in areas like London where Brexit and rising housing costs are driving emigration.
A government consultation on moves towards a “direct” national funding formula for schools proposed removing the rule that only ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ schools can receive falling roll funding.
In its response, published today, the department reported “widespread support” and said it would proceed.
Officials “concluded that the use of robust data on falling rolls” through the DfE’s school capacity survey would “ensure that this funding is targeted only at schools where places will
be needed in future”.
“We intend, therefore, to remove the Ofsted restriction for 2024-25, and to require local authorities to use SCAP data in taking decisions and only provide funding where SCAP data shows that school places will be required in the subsequent three to five years.”
New minimum requirements for growth funding
The DfE also consulted on new rules for growth funding, which is used to support schools gaining extra pupils.
From 2024-25, it will introduce minimum requirements on how much growth funding councils should provide when schools agree to host an additional class to meet basic need. These minimum funding rates will be published in July.
Councils will not be required to provide growth funding where growth is as a result of parental choice or academies admitting more than their published admission number “by their own choice”.
However, it will not proceed with proposals to nationally standardise the system, which would have given councils no say at all.
Councils will also be able to use growth and falling rolls funding to repurpose or reduce school places, for example by creating SEND units in mainstream schools.
And the government will “ensure equivalence” between maintained schools and academies in funding issued for pupil number growth due to popularity.
Other proposals put forward in the consultation have also been approved, though some have been amended. The DfE said last year it expected its reforms to take another five years, meaning full implementation of the “direct” formula from 2027.
‘Funding guarantee’ and SEND changes
The DfE will proceed with plans for a single “minimum funding guarantee” based on schools’ actual funding from the previous year.
This was proposed because the guarantee currently set by councils to protect schools from large year-on-year losses and the amounts issued to councils through the NFF “floor” had “drifted apart”.
As part of its SEND reforms, the government had proposed setting an indicative SEND budget for each school.
In its consultation response, the DfE said it would consider the design of such budgets alongside plans for new “national standards” for SEND and alternative provision.
At the moment, councils can transfer funding between their schools and high needs budgets, though transfers of more than 0.5 per cent or those without the backing of local schools forums have to be approved by the education secretary.
The DfE confirmed today it will proceed with plans to develop a “menu of options” for how mainstream budgets could be adjusted following transfers to high needs. This would replace councils’ freedom to propose how the adjustments are made.
Government “will continue to engage with local authorities and other stakeholders on the precise options to be included in the ‘menu'”.
‘Split sites’ funding change from 2024
The consultation also proposed a national formula for funding for schools split actoss multiple sites, with a basic eligibility criteria that attracts a lump-sum payment, and a distance eligibility criteria for another payment. This will go ahead from 2024.
The government also consulted on a “significant” reduction in funding for “exceptional circumstances” relating to schools’ premises, and a switch to a new national application process.
It had proposed raising the threshold from the current 1 per cent of a school’s budget up to 2.5 per cent.
The switch to a national system will go ahead, but the threshold will remain at 1 per cent “for now”, while the DfE reviews “what safeguards we can put in place to ensure that our approach to funding exceptional circumstances is fair”.
Currently, the DfE usually publishes details of the way NFF funding will be distributed in July. Councils then prepare their own local formula during the autumn and confirm final allocations in the spring.
Under the hard formula, councils will no longer prepare their own local formulae, but the DfE said it would keep the other elements of the timetable the same, publishing the NFF in July each year, giving schools “earlier knowledge of the final formula which will apply to them”.
This will go ahead.
The government need to realise that huge numbers of parents are unhappy as are teachers with the unrealistic expectations of the NC! They are creating a very stressful situation for our children, with unprecedented levels of anxiety due to demanding education standards. Its good to challenge, but not to the point that our children lose confidence and their behaviour is affected. Making it very tough for millions to learn effectively, from the knock on effect. Be real! Be kind! Be fair! I trained as a teacher in 2005 at Oxford Brookes. If only we had a compassionate government with the wisdom to listen to professionals!