Education chief fights for more funding
An education chief has said he will continue to fight for a fairer funding deal after figures revealed that schools faced a real-terms budget cut of three per cent.
Councillor Nick Bardsley, cabinet member for children and young people at Shropshire Council, said the authority had one of the lowest levels of education funding in the country.
His comments came after new figures revealed that funding per pupil, when adjusted for inflation, had fallen by three per cent the Shropshire Council area over the past year, and five per cent in Telford & Wrekin.
Councillor Bardsley said: “Shropshire Council, together with its Schools Forum, continues to lobby for additional resources for the counties schools, both maintained and academies.
"As a member of the f40 - the group of local authorities receiving the lowest level of education funding in England - Shropshire continues to work with partner authorities in seeking to secure an increased level of national funding for schools, together with a fairer allocation and share of the funds available."
Russell Griffin, of Telford & Wrekin Council, said mainstream schools in Telford & Wrekin had benefited from the National Funding Formula, which aimed for a more even distribution of funding across the country.
He said this represented an increase in funding per pupil of just under three per cent in 2018/19 and a similar increase forecast for 2019/20.
"Among local authorities, this is the 12th highest increase nationally," said Mr Griffin.
"It should be noted nevertheless, that Telford schools have been underfunded for many years and the adjustment through the National Funding Formula merely addresses the historical inequity in funding.
"The overall picture of school and education spending being under significant pressure, is familiar to us.
"Much of the increase in mainstream school funding is required just to meet inflationary pressures."
He added that the rapid escalation of high needs costs, driven in part by the Government’s extension of potential support from age 19 to age 25, had not been matched by sufficient funding.
The figures revealed this week showed that real terms funding per pupil had fallen from £4,623 in Telford last year, to £4,237 – a cut of just over five per cent.
In the rest of Shropshire, the figure fell from £4,482 to £4,341, down 3.1 per cent.
The 2017/18 figures are notional calculated by taking the actual allocations per pupil and retrospectively adjusting them for inflation.
