Recommendation 9

The Department said that the national funding formula had fixed a system that had become broken. It explained that, between 2005 and 2017–18, school funding had not been adjusted to reflect changes in pattens of need across the country. For example, while the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals nationally went up from 16% to 17% between 2005 and 2020, in Inner London, the proportion dropped from 38% to 25%.10