PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Schools: Finance (6 October 2017)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the recent TES and NUT survey findings on the proportion of teachers reporting that they had been to pay for items or contribute cash on account of school funding shortages.

Asked by:
Mike Kane (Labour)

Standards are rising across our school system and our new fairer funding formula will ensure we can build on that success. It will replace the outdated funding system which saw children have very different amounts invested in their education purely because of where they were growing up. The introduction of the national funding formulae is supported by significant extra funding of £1.3bn across 2018-19 and 2019-20, in addition to the schools budget set at Spending Review in 2015. Core funding for schools and high needs will rise from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to £42.4 billion in 2018-19 and £43.5 billion in 2019-20. This will allow us to maintain school and high needs funding in real terms per pupil for the next two years.

We believe schools are best placed to make decisions about how to use their funding to deliver the best outcomes for their pupils. No teacher is required to make a financial contribution towards the education provided by their school and this includes the supply of any books, materials or equipment.

We recognise that many schools have worked hard up to this point to manage cost pressures on their budgets and we will continue to provide support, guidance and tools to help schools maximise their efficiency and long-term financial health.

Answered by:
Nick Gibb (Conservative)
16 October 2017