WORCESTER’S MP Robin Walker has issued a rallying call to the city’s schools to make sure their voice is heard ‘loud and clear’ on a radical overhaul of the school funding system.
A new National Funding Formula will be brought in from 2017, with the Education Secretary Nicky Morgan scrapping the current system which has under-funded schools in Worcester by nearly £1,000 per pupil compared to their counterparts in Birmingham.
Following her visit to the city last year, Ms Morgan did vow to end the system and later announced a multi-million pound fund to top-up the lowest funded areas, in which Worcestershire received £6.7million from to help close the funding gap.
Now the Education Secretary has launched a consultation on the new formula and schools from across the city are being urged to have their say to make sure the new system benefits Worcester’s schools as much as possible.
When introduced in 2017, the funding formula will hand the cash straight to schools, bypassing local authorities in a move which the Government said would ‘give headteachers far more certainty over future budgets.’
And schools in Worcester with a similar profile of pupils will all get the same amount of funding, ending of years of unfairness.
Robin Walker, Worcester’s MP, has long campaigned for fairer funding and hailed the announcement as a chance to usher in a new era of fair funding.
“I cannot overstate the importance of this opportunity to fix the formula once and for all and to bring in a new era of fair and transparent funding,” Mr Walker said.
“The announcement is the culmination of not just years, but decades of work by local teachers, headteachers, governors and parents as well as the cross party f40 campaign- I am delighted that their voice has now been heard.
“However the campaign must not end here. I need the help of local schools, their heads and their governors to respond to the consultation and make clear the basis on which they feel the new formula must work.
