PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Schools: Finance (28 February 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authorities have (a) been granted permission to move (i) up to 0.5 per cent, (ii) between 0.51 and 1 per cent and (iii) over 1 per cent of schools block funding to high needs block funding, (b) been denied permission to move schools block funding to high needs block funding and (c) made a request to move schools block funding to high needs block funding but no decision has yet been made; and what criteria his Department uses to determine those requests.

Asked by:
Mike Kane (Labour)

In total, 25 local authorities submitted a request to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, to move schools block funding to high needs block funding. All schools block movement requests are reviewed against the criteria set out in paragraphs 261-286 of the ‘Schools revenue funding operational guide: 2020 to 2021’, which is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pre-16-schools-funding-local-authority-guidance-for-2020-to-2021.

Of these 25 requests, the following were granted permission to move funding from the schools block to the high needs block:

• no requests to move up to 0.50%;
• one request, from Kent County Council, to move between 0.51% and 1%; and
• two requests, from Rotherham and South Gloucestershire local authorities, to move 1%.

The remaining 22 requests to move funding away from the schools block were denied.

All decisions have been made as advised in Table A.

Answered by:
Nick Gibb (Conservative)
4 March 2020