Schools will not see a real-terms drop in per-pupil funding next year, a coalition of unions has admitted, after wrongly claiming that they stand to lose an average of £59.
The School Cuts coalition, which includes the National Education Union and leadership unions ASCL and the NAHT, claimed yesterday that the government had “broken its promise” to schools by failing to protect per-pupil funding next year.
But the group said today that it had not factored £450 million of central school services block (CSSB) funding for 2018-19 into its calculations.
The CSSB, which was created to replace the education services grant, “should have been included in our most recent calculations” to accurately compare like-for-like, a spokesperson said.
Their revised calculations show school funding per-pupil will remain stable, they confirmed.
Last July, the former education secretary Justine Greening promised that an additional £1.3 billion of investment in schools would mean that “per-pupil funding will now be maintained in real terms” in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said in response to the original figures that they were “completely false”.
“We are – in no uncertain terms – protecting funding in real terms per pupil.”
They added that independent analysis from the Institute of Fiscal Studies show real terms per-pupil funding will be 50 per cent higher in 2020 than in 2000.
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