School funding

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 5 Jul 2021 Closed: 14 Dec 2021 Parliament page
A recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that a new national schools funding formula has led to to a shift in funding from more deprived schools to better off schools. Government funding per pupil has remained virtually unchanged since 2014. The Department for Education (DfE) implemented a … Read more
11 Recommendations
27 Conclusions
1 Report
1 Oral session
2 Letters
1 Event
Activity timeline 5 events
14 Dec
2021
Report published
29 Nov
2021
Correspondence
22 Oct
2021
Report published
10 Sep
2021
Correspondence
15 Jul
2021
Oral evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1 session
15 Jul 2021
View on parliament.uk
School funding
Julia Kinniburgh · Department for Education Susan Acland-Hood · The Department for Education Tony Foot · Department for Education Warwick Sharp · Education and Skills Funding Agency
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Twenty-First Report - School Funding HC 183 22 Oct 2021 38 Responded
Recommendations & Conclusions
5 results
Clear
3 Recommendation Rejected
Twenty-First Report - School Fundi…
It is not possible to tell whether individual academy schools are receiving the government’s guaranteed...
It is not possible to tell whether individual academy schools are receiving the government’s guaranteed minimum per-pupil funding levels. In 2018–19, the Department introduced minimum levels of schools block per-pupil funding for all schools in England. In January 2020, the … Read more
Government Response
The government rejects the recommendation, stating it does not collect this information and it would not be practicable to do so. It suggests existing data on the Schools Financial Benchmarking website is sufficient for analysis.
HM Treasury
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13 Conclusion Rejected
Twenty-First Report - School Fundi…
In 2018–19, as part of the national funding formula, the Department introduced minimum per-pupil funding...
In 2018–19, as part of the national funding formula, the Department introduced minimum per-pupil funding levels for all schools in England in support of the government’s aim of ‘levelling up education funding’.17 In January 2020, the Prime Minister guaranteed that … Read more
Government Response
The government disagreed with an implicit recommendation to collect information on minimum per-pupil funding levels from academy trusts, stating it does not collect such data and it would not be practicable. It instead pointed to the Schools Financial Benchmarking website as the best source for analysing academy expenditure.
HM Treasury
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14 Conclusion Rejected
Twenty-First Report - School Fundi…
Local authorities can apply local funding formulae in deciding funding for maintained schools and academy...
Local authorities can apply local funding formulae in deciding funding for maintained schools and academy trusts. However, the Department limited the extent of local authorities’ discretion from 2020–21 by requiring them to include the minimum per- pupil funding levels in … Read more
Government Response
The government disagreed with an implicit recommendation regarding multi-academy trust funding distribution, stating it does not collect information on how trusts provide minimum per-pupil funding to their schools, and it would not be practicable. It advised using the Schools Financial Benchmarking website for expenditure analysis.
HM Treasury
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15 Conclusion Rejected
Twenty-First Report - School Fundi…
We asked why multi-academy trusts had more freedom in how they distributed funding.
We asked why multi-academy trusts had more freedom in how they distributed funding. The Department replied that academy trusts and local authorities had different roles: local authorities were responsible for distributing funding between schools, whereas academy trusts had direct responsibility … Read more
Government Response
The government disagreed with an implicit recommendation regarding multi-academy trust funding freedoms, stating it does not collect information on how trusts distribute funding to their schools in this form, and it would not be practicable. It advised using the Schools Financial Benchmarking website for expenditure analysis.
HM Treasury
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16 Recommendation Rejected
Twenty-First Report - School Fundi…
We asked how the parent of a child in an academy school could establish whether...
We asked how the parent of a child in an academy school could establish whether the school was receiving the minimum per-pupil funding levels that they were promised. The ESFA said that the most accessible source of information was the … Read more
Government Response
The government rejects the recommendation to publish specific per-pupil funding details for academy schools, stating it is not practicable to collect this information but will continue to review the Schools Financial Benchmarking website for transparency.
HM Treasury
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Government Response AI assessment · 34 of 11 classified
Accepted 11
Accepted in Part 1
Acknowledged 5
Deferred 9
Not Addressed 3
Rejected 5
Total 11 recs + 27 conclusions
Correspondence 2 letters
29 Nov 2021 Correspondence from Susan Acland-Hood, Permanent Secretary, Department for Education, re 21st PAC Report of Session 2021 – School Funding, dated 19 November 2021
Parliament page
10 Sep 2021 Correspondence from Susan Acland-Hood, Permanent Secretary, Department for Education, re School Funding in England, dated 12 August 2021
Parliament page