§ The Minister for School Standards (Mr. David Miliband)I am today announcing an increase to schools' budgets for 36 authorities that have received a low increase in their Education Formula Spending Share and a reduction in grant through the standards fund.
We have made radical changes to the formula for distributing general education funding for 2003–04, particularly for schools. The funding intended for schools and LEA central functions is separately identified through the schools and LEA block; there is a new formula for distribution; and, to smooth the introduction of the new education formula, all authorities will receive at least a 3.2 per cent. increase in Education Formula Spending Share (Education FSS) per pupil. At the same time, we have made changes to grants paid through the Standards Fund. The overall cash increase in general funding for LEAs and schools is £2.6 billion for 2003–04.
Authorities have been working hard to ensure that this extra funding reaches school budgets. However, the Government have received representations from local 15WS authorities, schools and head teacher representatives about the effects of the new financial system for a number of LEAs in the short term, and we recognise that in some authorities the combination of a low increase in Education FSS, coupled with reductions in grant through the Standards Fund may result in low budget increases for schools. In the light of this, we propose to pay an additional grant of £28 million to ensure that the effective increase in education funding for LEAs and schools between 2002–03 and 2003–04 is no less than 3.2 per cent. per pupil for all authorities. Education funding includes both Education FSS, School Standards Grant and certain Standards Fund grants: a detailed specification of the grant will be made available to all local education authorities; and a copy will be placed in the House Library.
The schedule below sets out the receiving authorities and their allocations: it is based on an estimate of the increase in School Standards Grant (SSG) for 2003–04, and will not be amended downwards when we have actual amounts of SSG paid to each authority. It will be a condition of the grant that authorities will have to pass it on in full to schools: we will expect authorities to allocate the grant to those schools that currently have the lowest increases in overall funding per pupil. We expect that this extra funding for school budgets will be of particular relevance in taking forward the workforce remodelling agenda.
16WS
Grant LEA (£m) Barking and Dagenham 1.128 Bedfordshire 0.135 Bexley 1.492 Bournemouth 0.140 Brighton and Hove 0.960 Bromley 0.815 Camden 1.168 Croydon 1.302 Dorset 0.318 East Sussex 0.110 Enfield 1.147
Grant Essex 1.162 Hammersmith and Fulham 0.886 Hampshire 0.278 Haringey 1.330 Havering 1.089 Hertfordshire 1.000 Isle of Wight Council 0.110 Kensington and Chelsea 0.288 Knowsley 0.736 Lambeth 1.282 Leicestershire 0.835 Medway 1.295 Norfolk 1.595 North East Lincolnshire 0.033 Plymouth 0.831 Portsmouth 0.891 Redbridge 0.903 Richmond upon Thames 0.152 Slough 0.376 Southampton 1.016 Southend 0.358 Suffolk 0.108 Sutton 0.503 Thurrock 0.308 Waltham Forest 2.140 Total 28.220