FAIRER funding for schools in Worcester is ‘moving in the right direction’ the city’s MP has said after the Government announced plans which could see cash for the city’s schools raised by £500 per pupil.
Robin Walker has welcomed the announcement made by the Education Secretary Justine Greening last week that the minimum funding per secondary school pupil will be set at £4,800 from 2018/19.
Currently the average per pupil funding in Worcester is £4,300 and many secondary schools will be boosted by the promised cash injection.
For decades schools in the city and across Worcestershire have been chronically underfunded and headteachers and county MPs have for years been lobbying the Government for more cash.
“It is fantastic to see that we have taken another step forward in terms of delivering a fair funding formula that raises the funding for the lowest funded schools in our country,” Mr Walker said.
“This announcement sets the new floor of funding per pupil for secondary’s at £4,800, some £254 more per pupil than the average of what currently being received locally which can make a substantial difference to our secondary schools. They were all set to benefit from changes proposed before the allocation of this extra funding, but I hope they will see even greater benefit after this week’s announcements.
“Whilst most stood to gain, a small proportion of local primaries stood to lose out under the previous proposals and will be pleased to see that no school will be losing funding as a result of these changes. I am glad to have arranged meetings to brief ministers directly on the concerns of all the schools that stood to lose funding and I am delighted those appear to have been heeded.
“It is important that we scrutinise this further when the details are published in September, but for now it is certainly the case that we are moving in the right direction.”
