23 November 2007
The 2.1% minimum funding guarantee for schools is not enough to meet cost pressures, school and teaching leaders have warned.
The school funding settlement, published on November 12, gave schools a minimum per-pupil increase of 2.1% in each of the next three years – significantly lower than the 3.7% rise they received this year.
Ministers claimed the funding level was affordable and based on a realistic assessment of the pressures schools are likely to face over the period.
Schools minister Jim Knight said: 'The settlement provides for the first time three years of funding allocations, and will help schools to plan how they will meet the range of cost pressures they face from pay and non-pay over this period as a whole.'
Head teachers had been bracing themselves for a tough settlement but were nonetheless unhappy with the result.
John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 'We are disappointed at the low level of the minimum funding guarantee, which is below cost pressures and will put some schools in a very tight financial situation.'
Teaching unions also expressed concern at the tightness of the settlement. Chris Keates, general secretary of The National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers, warned that the union would oppose any attempt by schools and local authorities to make efficiency savings at the expense of teachers' pay, working conditions and jobs.
'The funding settlement may be tighter but it certainly does not warrant such measures by schools,' she said.
Keates and Dunford agreed that the government would need to scale back the demands it places on schools. 'Since the government has cut back on funding, it likewise must cut back on the number of initiatives it expects schools to implement with this money,' said Dunford.
But there was a welcome for the £40m funding targeted at schools in pockets of deprivation. The F40 Group, which represents English education authorities stuck at the bottom of the funding table, said the money would help to close the gap between the best and worst-funded authorities.
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