Request
Can the Department provide information of the funding provided to a primary school for each child per term i.e. the cost given for each child in UK mainstream school along with those in SCE (Service Children’s Education)?
Also with regards to Service children’s boarding school allowance (CEA), are these monies recouped from the DfE to offset the amount that would have been claimed by the SCE/mainstream school anyway?
Release
There is no single national figure which would accurately reflect the level of funding provided to a primary school for each child in UK mainstream school. Not only is it the case that education issues are devolved in the United Kingdom and so responsibility for funding rests with a number of different bodies but, for England, funding to schools is allocated to local authorities and they take local decisions on funding levels.
The responsibility for education matters outside England, including funding matters, rests with the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland Assembly. The funding they provide for their pupils will be different, representing their own national priorities.
For England, the Department for Education, which has responsibility for maintained schools in England, divides the money designated by the Government as spending for schools into numerous grants, the core element of which is the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). The DSG is the main source of funding for teacher and support staff salaries, school running costs, and other non-pay items such as books and equipment.
The Department apportions this grant to local authorities applying a national funding methodology. The amount of DSG that each local authority receives and therefore the level of funding per pupil will be different, reflecting differences in the number of pupils between authorities and in differences in such issues as the level of educational disadvantage in each area, area costs, and sparcity.
On top of the core funding provided through DSG, additional funding is provided from central Government through range specific grants, the main ones being:
- the School Standards Grant
- Schools Standards Grant (Personalisation) and
- School Development Grant. This funding goes directly to schools and not to local authorities.
Each local authority, of which there are 152 in England, then uses a locally agreed distribution formula to share its level of DSG amongst its schools. Each school will receive a different level of funding for its pupils depending on the application of the local formula, including the split of funding between its primary and secondary pupils.
While a primary per pupil figure from the DSG is not meaningful, it is possible to work out an average of what local authorities are allocating to their primary schools. This would cover the main element of recurrent school funding but not all, as LAs hold back on average 10% of their funding for centrally provided services. By aggregating the Individual School Budgets (ISB) for primaries for all local authorities in England for 2009-10 and dividing this national figure by the national number of primary pupils, an England average of £3,317 per pupil per annum, is derived which works out to just over £1,100 per primary pupil per term.
In addition, around £418 per primary pupil was provided in 2009-10 through the main specific grants mentioned above, around £140 per pupil per term. This would give a figure of some £1,250 per term per primary pupil.
This will not reflect what individual LAs are providing to their schools through their different formulae and would also not include some areas of spending local authorities provide on behalf of primary schools.
For example, any elements of capital spending on primary school buildings, which would benefit primary pupils is not included. Nor is funding for high cost pupils, in most cases those pupils with special educational needs. Some local authorities retain funding to provide school meals to the school rather than allocate the funding to the school and local authorities also provide insurance cover centrally for their schools.
Service Children’s Education (SCE) schools are funded by the Ministry of Defence and not the DfE. Although SCE allocates funding to schools by the mechanism of an age weighted unit (AWPU) funding formula, it is not possible to directly compare the funding of SCE schools and English mainstream schools, due to the unique circumstances pertaining to operating Service schools in an overseas Military Garrison environment.
The total current funding provided direct to the 28 SCE primary schools for this financial year is £26.939 million (adjusted for the impact of overseas allowances). There are currently some 6777 pupils within the 28 SCE primary schools. Therefore, the average cost per primary pupil is £3,975 for the academic year. There are three terms per year, producing a figure of £1,325 per term.
HQ SCE acts as a quasi-local authority providing specialist education support (social workers, psychologist, career advisors, special educational needs, pupil and family services and specialist teachers, as well as inspector advisors). The HQ also centrally manages such costs as ICT and estates, as well as provides the full range of corporate services associated with being an agency (finance, HR etc) and children’s services. In addition, the various overseas commands and garrisons contribute a significant amount of resources encompassing such areas as housing, transport costs, catering and cleaning. SCE also has additional costs associated with the impact of exchange rate variations.
The Continuity of Education (CEA) allowance is made available by the MOD to entitled Service men and women to ensure continuity of education whilst the Service family is mobile. The cost of CEA is funded by the MOD and does not need to be recouped from the DfE.
