school funding | Schools Week

£10m ‘levelling up’ support will come from existing DfE budgets

None of the £10 million pledged today to improve the quality of teaching in four areas of England is new cash from the Treasury, and up to half of it will be given to expanding academy trusts, it has emerged. Boris Johnson announced today that the government’s “levelling up” agenda would include “more support” to […]

Gibb brushes off £125m pupil premium ‘stealth cut’ complaints

Nick Gibb brushed off growing complaints about a “stealth” pupil premium cut leaving schools £125 million out of pocket. Two leading education charities this week urged ministers to reverse a change to how the funding is calculated. A Sutton Trust poll revealed a third of schools now rely on pupil premium cash to plug budget […]

Schools face new checks to ensure pupil premium spending ‘backed by evidence’

Schools will have to show their pupil premium spending is “backed by evidence” under new requirements announced by the Department for Education. The DfE confirmed schools face new conditions attached to the £2.5bn expected in funding to support disadvantaged pupils for the next academic year. Grants now depend on pupil premium spending strategies being published […]

Free school meals: 300k more pupils became eligible in first 7 months of Covid

The number of children eligible for free school meals surged in the first seven months of the Covid-19 pandemic, official figures show. Census data published by the Department for Education shows an additional 302,397 pupils became eligible for free school meals between the first nationwide lockdown in March and the October school census. During the […]

How the big academy trusts managed to ride out Covid finance hit

Some of the biggest multi-academy trusts have managed to ride out Covid’s toll on their finances – using savings, donations and reserves to pump millions into catch-up schemes and laptops. Analysis by Schools Week revealed trusts with cleaning bills of £1m, IT costs doubled and falling catering income as the pandemic rocked school finances. But […]

School funding: ‘Serious questions’ for government over £100m bailouts

Ministers have “serious questions to answer” over school funding bailouts for five councils, Labour has said, with calls for transparency over funding deals and other authorities demanding cash. Last week the Department for Education revealed that deals totalling almost £100 million had been struck with Bury, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames […]

Schools in minister’s own constituency £130k worse-off under pupil premium change

Schools in Nick Gibb’s own constituency face being £130,000 worse off under his department’s controversial change to how it calculates pupil premium funding. Rising deprivation amid the pandemic has fuelled a 6.2 per cent jump in pupils who would typically receive top-up funding in Gibb’s Bognor Regis and Littlehampton seat. But controversial reforms to use […]

DfE to spend £7m on hundreds more school cost-cutting consultants

The Department for Education will spend £7 million expanding its army of cost-cutting consultants by up to 600 – with a similar “mentor” scheme now to be rolled out for chief finance officers. Tender documents show the government will soon invite bids from organisations to train 200 school resource management advisers (SRMA) a year until […]

Councils in deficit told to find SEND savings in exchange for £100m bailouts

Five councils have been told to cut special needs and disabilities (SEND) spending and reform services in exchange for government bailouts totalling almost £100 million to fill black holes in their budgets. The Department for Education has reached deals with five local authorities which have some of the largest dedicated school grants deficits in England. […]