DAPH Update: RESPOND NOW: Support Devon's response to the National Funding Formula Consultation - Stage 2

DAPH UPDATE

  Special Edition  |  9 March 2017

Funding

R E S P O N D  N O W

Support Devon's response to the

National Funding Formula Consultation - Stage 2

DAPH & DASH representatives have been working closely with the Local Authority to consider the proposals announced on 14 December 2016 within Stage 2 of the government’s Schools National Funding Formula Consultation.

A Devon  R E S P O N S E  T E M P L A T E  has been produced for schools to use as guidance when submitting their own responses to the Consultation which closes in just under a fortnight on 22 March 2017.

Visit this  L I N K  to the Schools National Funding Formula (NFF) Stage 2 Consultation documents and Online Response form

Whilst the template is aimed to provide guidance and to assist with understanding, schools are encouraged to tailor individual responses and include specific examples to evidence the potential impact of the suggested proposals within your setting.   

By way of summary:

  • Devon has always welcomed a national fair funding formula as it has constantly been amongst the poorly funded authorities in the country.
  • However, the unintended consequences of these proposals still see Devon schools being £22 million worse off than the national average.
  • Nearly 54,000 pupils (61.9%) of the pupils are placed in schools where they will lose funding under the proposed formula.
  • The remaining 38.1% of pupils are placed in typically smaller primary schools where they will only gain until the age of 11 before moving on to large, lower funded secondary schools.
  • Based on the funding formula of 16/17 the allocation directed to AWPU was 80.9% but will now be 72.5% under the new funding formula.
  • The proposals are being introduced at a time when the National Audit Office is predicting a 8.0% reduction in mainstream school budgets by 2019-20.

There are key elements of the government’s proposals that Devon would like to see amended, namely:

  1. The proportion of weighting given to AEN rather than basic entitlement
  2. Weakness of evidence for proposals and continued use of averages
  3. The 3% funding floor, which locks in historical difference
  4. Spending cuts and other funding pressures

Any revised formula will ultimately dictate the overall level of funding coming into Devon and will have a fundamental effect on all children in our care; not just now but into the future. As such, this is a collective, Devon-wide issue and therefore we would strongly urge stakeholders from all Devon schools to submit responses to include school leaders, staff, governors, parents and other members from the wider education community.

Paul Walker             Matthew Shanks
DAPH Chair              DASH Co-Ordinator

Minutes from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) meeting
23 February 2017

APPG logo


Matthew Shanks (DASH Co-Ordinator) and Lorraine Heath (DASH Executive Committee member) attended the APPG meeting on Education Governance and Leadership, held 23rd February in the House of Commons.  The theme of the meeting was school funding and it was hosted by Neil Carmichael MP and the National Governors’ Association with members of the school governance and leadership sector.

Minutes from the meeting are now available  |  READ MORE

f40 logo

f40’s draft response to the NFF Consultation (Stage 2)

Read  f40’s draft response to the NFF Consultation (Stage 2) Version 5  |  5 March 2017READ MORE

f40 has commissioned some work to update the original f40 modelling presented to the DfE in March 2016, to establish the total figure that would be required to achieve a true fair funding settlement and to establish notional figures for the running of a primary and secondary school. It is quite likely that f40 will wish to reflect the outcome of this research in the final submission to the DfE.