As Hornchurch & Upminster residents may be aware, last year the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, announced the biggest cash boost to school funding in a decade, worth a total of £14.4 billion over three years. Schools are already benefitting from a £2.6 billion increase this year, which will rise to £4.7 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20. The Government continues to fund the recent increase in pension costs for teachers, worth £1.5 billion a year.
The Education Secretary yesterday wrote to all MPs confirming the second year of that funding commitment and I have attached his letter at the bottom of this article. The Government has published provisional school and high needs funding allocations for 2021-22, and I have included a table below highlighting the individual increases in National Funding Formula (NFF) per pupil funding for all schools in Hornchurch and Upminster.
The Education Secretary has also shared a table highlighting the increase in each schools’ funding by local authority, should constituents prefer to compare without individual searches - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2021-to-2022
I am pleased that schools within Hornchurch and Upminster will receive £93,597,483 in total funding in 2021-22, an increase of 4.2%. Constituents may be aware that I have been pushing for fairer funding for our schools since I was elected in 2017 and I hope that this increased funding will help school leaders address the kinds of challenges they have highlighted with me and my team on our visits. The Government is delivering on its pledge to level up school funding and deliver resources for where they are needed most.
The minimum per pupil funding levels will ensure that every primary school receives at least £4,000 per pupil, and every secondary school at least £5,150 per pupil, delivering on the pledge I stood on at the last election to level up the lowest funded schools. The Government wants every school, no matter their circumstances or location, to have the resources to deliver the high-quality education that all parents expect. I hope that yesterday’s announcement will be welcomed by schools across the Borough and that it will drive further improvement across schools in Havering.
I have highlighted special educational needs funding with Ministers, so I am also pleased that the Education Secretary confirmed that the additional investment includes an increase of £730 million in high needs funding next year. This is on top of the £780 million increase which local authorities are already receiving in 2020-21 and brings the total high needs budget to over £8 billion.
The Government has made extra funding available for schools to claim for exceptional costs incurred due to the COVID-19 outbreak, such as additional cleaning required and increase premises costs. I am also pleased that further details of the 'catch up' package for the next academic year have been announced, which will help support children and young people to catch up after the recent period of disruption to their education.
Finally, the Education Department has announced a new £350 million national tutoring programme for disadvantaged students. This should increase access to high quality tuition for disadvantaged and vulnerable children.
