Academy funding levels to be increased after lobbying (From Gazette Series)

Academy funding levels to be increased in Gloucestershire after lobbying

9:30am Tuesday 28th February 2012 in News

GRANTS for Gloucestershire schools are to be increased after teachers, parents and councillors lobbied the government to bring funding levels in line with the national average.

Last month it emerged secondary school academies received just £156 per pupil, compared to significantly higher allocations in neighbouring counties Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset.

The Gloucestershire Schools Forum – a body made up of secondary, primary and special school head teachers and governors - recently met with MPs to discuss the disparity, which is calculated via the Local Authority Central Spend Equivalent Grant (LACSEG).

This is the government formula used by academies to buy services no longer received from Gloucestershire County Council but the authority and head teachers branded the system ‘deeply unfair.’ Concerned parents sent dozens of letters to education chiefs at Whitehall and Tewkesbury MP Laurence Robertson raised the issue in parliament after it was announced the government would not be updating the funding formula until 2013/14 – leaving academies out of pocket for at least another year.

However, the mounting pressure has prompted an early recalculation with the secondary LACSEG rate per pupil set to rise to £225.01.

The primary rate is also increasing to £205.53 and assurances have been made that no academy will see more than a 10 per cent funding drop per pupil for the remaining academic year.

Cllr Jackie Hall, cabinet member for education at GCC, said: "Any extra funding for Gloucestershire’s schools is good news and something we have been campaigning hard for.

"All of Gloucestershire’s MPs have been really active in raising this issue – in particular Laurence Robertson who raised it directly with David Cameron during Prime Minister’s Questions.

"Clearly that effort has got results. We do need to look closely at the detail for individual schools and I will be continuing to work with head teachers to keep raising these issues as we move towards a national funding formula."