HC Deb 28 March 2000 vol 347 cc71-2W
Mr. Gray

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on funding for schools in respect of post-16 education reforms. [116527]

Ms Estelle Morris

The £35 million that the Government have identified as the cost to LEAs in 2000–01 of implementing its post-16 curriculum reforms was added to Education Standard Spending (ESS) for that year. It is for local education authorities to decide how much funding to allocate through their individual schools budget to each of their schools to allow them to implement the reforms successfully. In addition, schools will receive £290 million in special grant for 2000–01. Secondary schools will receive between £30,000 and £50,000, depending on their size. This funding will be part of their delegated budgets: those with sixth forms will therefore be able to use it if they wish to supplement funding received through their local authority's allocation formula to implement the post-16 reforms.