New funding formula means £400,000 cut for Sunderland schools

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has analysed the impact of the new National Funding Formula for schools nationwide.

The figures show Sunderland would receive £161,343,153, a cut of £395,263 on the current figure and the equivalent of a 0.2% budget cut.

A Sunderland City Council spokesman said: “Sadly, under this Government’s austerity programme there are some schools that could be funding losers.

“Children and young people are the future of this country and when it comes to spending on education there should not be winners and losers, only winners.”

Government consultation on the introduction of the new formula closes on March 22 and the EPI Policy Institute has looked at what the impact will be.

The organisation says there are unlikely to be any schools in England which will avoid a real terms cut in per pupil funding by 2019-20, and up to half of primary schools and around half of secondary schools will be faced with significant real cuts in funding per pupil of between 6 and 11 per cent by 2019-20, the equivalent of losing almost two teachers across all primary schools and six across all secondary schools.

EIP executive director Natalie Perera, who co-authored the report, said: “For too long school funding has been inconsistent across the country, with similar schools receiving different funding levels to teach similar pupils.

“The Government is right to propose a new and more rational funding arrangement for schools despite a challenging economic climate.

“While the NFF is broadly welcome, our research highlights that the wider financial pressures on schools mean that all schools in England are set to experience real terms per pupil cuts in spending over the next three years, even after the new formula is introduced.

“The Government also needs to be clearer about its funding plans beyond 2019-2020, to give schools time to plan for further changes in funding.

“If the DfE fails to secure additional funding beyond 2019-20, then it can only continue to deliver the new funding formula for “under-funded” schools by making further, large, cuts to the budgets of over 5,000 schools.”