§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what(a) financial and (b) other assistance is available to help schools adapt to the change in funding they receive as a result of falling rolls. [152134]
§ Mr. MilibandThe minimum funding guarantee, which is part of the package of measures to restore stability and certainty to school funding over the next two years announced by the Secretary of State on 29 October, specifically recognises that schools with falling rolls have fixed costs for items such as cleaning, repairs and heating which do not reduce when pupil numbers go down. Such schools are guaranteed a per pupil funding increase in 2004–05 of more than 4 per cent., which is our guaranteed increase for schools where numbers do not change. In addition, LEAs can have safety nets in their local funding formulae to assist schools with falling rolls, and the mechanism which provides revenue support grant to authorities has one year data lag built into it designed to assist LEAs with overall falling rolls in their schools.