PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Pupils: Per Capita Costs (30 August 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make a comparative assessment of the adequacy of funding per pupil in (a) Stratford-on-Avon constituency, (b) Warwickshire and (c) nationally.

Asked by:
Manuela Perteghella (Liberal Democrat)

The overall core schools budget will total £61.8 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. The average per pupil funding in England, as allocated through the schools block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), is £5,957.

In the 2024/25 financial year, the average per-pupil funding for Warwickshire, as allocated through the schools block of the DSG, is £5,634.

The DSG is allocated at local authority level, and as such the equivalent figures are not available for the Stratford-on-Avon constituency. The allocations that schools within a constituency receive are determined by the local funding formula in their area.

The figures provided include premises funding but exclude growth funding. The figures do not include the additional grant funding that schools across the country have received to support pay and pensions increases in 2024/25.

One reason why the per pupil funding figure in Warwickshire is lower than the average in England is that schools in Warwickshire have a lower proportion of pupils who attract deprivation funding through the NFF than the national average.

The department continues to consider the various funding formulae used at national and local levels to ensure that we have a fair education funding system that directs funding to where it is needed.

Answered by:
Catherine McKinnell (Labour)
9 September 2024