Recommendations & Conclusions
5 items
3
Recommendation
Twenty-First Report - School Funding
Rejected
It is not possible to tell whether individual academy schools are receiving the government’s guaranteed minimum per-pupil funding levels. In 2018–19, the Department introduced minimum levels of schools block per-pupil funding for all schools in England. In January 2020, the Prime Minister guaranteed that every school would receive minimum funding …
Read more
It is not possible to tell whether individual academy schools are receiving the government’s guaranteed minimum per-pupil funding levels. In 2018–19, the Department introduced minimum levels of schools block per-pupil funding for all schools in England. In January 2020, the Prime Minister guaranteed that every school would receive minimum funding of £3,750 per primary pupil and £5,000 per secondary pupil in 2020–21. Local authorities are legally required to ensure that their maintained schools receive the minimum per-pupil funding levels. By contrast, multi-academy trusts are allowed to pool funding centrally, and do not have to provide each of their individual academy schools with the minimum per-pupil funding. We asked how parents would know whether their child’s academy school 6 School Funding has received the minimum funding levels. The Department says that the schools financial benchmarking website provides a range of data on income and spending for individual academy schools. However, we note that the website combines funding from a range of sources, and does not show specifically the schools block per-pupil funding that each academy receives. Recommendation: The Department should publish each year, starting with the year ending 31 August 2021, details of the schools block per-pupil funding that each academy school has received.
Show less
Government response AI summary
The government rejects the recommendation, stating it does not collect this information and it would not be practicable to do so. It suggests existing data on the Schools Financial Benchmarking website is sufficient for analysis.
Read full response →
HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
Twenty-First Report - School Funding
Rejected
In 2018–19, as part of the national funding formula, the Department introduced minimum per-pupil funding levels for all schools in England in support of the government’s aim of ‘levelling up education funding’.17 In January 2020, the Prime Minister guaranteed that every school would receive minimum funding of £3,750 per primary …
Read more
In 2018–19, as part of the national funding formula, the Department introduced minimum per-pupil funding levels for all schools in England in support of the government’s aim of ‘levelling up education funding’.17 In January 2020, the Prime Minister guaranteed that every school would receive minimum funding of £3,750 per primary pupil and £5,000 per secondary pupil in 2020–21.18
Show less
Government response AI summary
The government disagreed with an implicit recommendation to collect information on minimum per-pupil funding levels from academy trusts, stating it does not collect such data and it would not be practicable. It instead pointed to the Schools Financial Benchmarking website as the best source for …
Read full response →
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
Twenty-First Report - School Funding
Rejected
Local authorities can apply local funding formulae in deciding funding for maintained schools and academy trusts. However, the Department limited the extent of local authorities’ discretion from 2020–21 by requiring them to include the minimum per- pupil funding levels in their local formulae.19 By contrast, academy trusts are not required …
Read more
Local authorities can apply local funding formulae in deciding funding for maintained schools and academy trusts. However, the Department limited the extent of local authorities’ discretion from 2020–21 by requiring them to include the minimum per- pupil funding levels in their local formulae.19 By contrast, academy trusts are not required to provide their schools with the minimum per-pupil funding levels. The Department allows multi-academy trusts to pool funding centrally, and they can also re-distribute funding between their schools based on their own assessment of need.20
Show less
Government response AI summary
The government disagreed with an implicit recommendation regarding multi-academy trust funding distribution, stating it does not collect information on how trusts provide minimum per-pupil funding to their schools, and it would not be practicable. It advised using the Schools Financial Benchmarking website for expenditure analysis.
Read full response →
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Twenty-First Report - School Funding
Rejected
We asked why multi-academy trusts had more freedom in how they distributed funding. The Department replied that academy trusts and local authorities had different roles: local authorities were responsible for distributing funding between schools, whereas academy trusts had direct responsibility for the provision of education in the schools that they …
Read more
We asked why multi-academy trusts had more freedom in how they distributed funding. The Department replied that academy trusts and local authorities had different roles: local authorities were responsible for distributing funding between schools, whereas academy trusts had direct responsibility for the provision of education in the schools that they ran. The Department explained that there were some circumstances, particularly where an academy trust had taken on a challenging school, where the trust might pool funding in order to do things across the academy chain that had benefits for all the schools but might, for a period, help one school more than another.21
Show less
Government response AI summary
The government disagreed with an implicit recommendation regarding multi-academy trust funding freedoms, stating it does not collect information on how trusts distribute funding to their schools in this form, and it would not be practicable. It advised using the Schools Financial Benchmarking website for expenditure …
Read full response →
HM Treasury
16
Recommendation
Twenty-First Report - School Funding
Rejected
We asked how the parent of a child in an academy school could establish whether the school was receiving the minimum per-pupil funding levels that they were promised. The ESFA said that the most accessible source of information was the schools financial benchmarking website, which contains income and expenditure information …
Read more
We asked how the parent of a child in an academy school could establish whether the school was receiving the minimum per-pupil funding levels that they were promised. The ESFA said that the most accessible source of information was the schools financial benchmarking website, which contains income and expenditure information on every school in the country, along with additional detail on academy accounts.22 We understand, however, that this website combines income figures from a number of different funding streams, and that it is not possible to see whether a school is receiving the minimum per- pupil schools block funding specifically.23 The Department said that it strongly supported transparency and that it was happy to look at whether there were improvements it could make to the financial benchmarking website to make it more helpful.24 16 Qq 70–73 17 C&AG’s Report, para 13 18 Government press release, PM guarantees minimum funding levels for all schools, 30 January 2020 19 C&AG’s Report, para 2.26 20 C&AG’s Report, para 2.29 21 Qq 81–82 22 Q 79 23 Qq 92–93 24 Q 94 School Funding 11 Funding for sixth forms
Show less
Government response AI summary
The government rejects the recommendation to publish specific per-pupil funding details for academy schools, stating it is not practicable to collect this information but will continue to review the Schools Financial Benchmarking website for transparency.
Read full response →
HM Treasury