Extra £4.6m for Lincolnshire schools

Government plans to end the '˜historical postcode lottery' in school funding means Lincolnshire could be in line for an extra £4.6 million.
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Education

The extra funding for nurseries, primary, secondary and special schools across the county following a reform of the funding system announce by the Government, is due to take effect in 2018-19.

Education Secretary Justine Greening described reforms to its £85.2 billion education spending programme as ‘an end to historical unfairness and underfunding for certain schools’.

Under the reforms, more than 10,000 schools in semi-urban and rural counties such as Lincolnshire, could see an increase in education funding of up to three per cent.

Details of how schools funding would be shaken up were announced by the Government before Christmas, including moves to a ‘national funding formula’ whereby no school will see its annual cash pot per pupils cut by more than 1.5 per cent.

Based on estimates by eduation website www.schoolsweek.co.uk of how much the new National Funding Formula will either cost or benefit education authorities in England from 2018, Lincolnshire stands to gain an extra 2.3 per cent a year.

This figure, ranked by the website as the seventh biggest change upwards in England, would mean an extra £4.6 million to spend, based on the 2016/17 Dedicated Schools Grant figure of £497 million.

Coun Patricia Bradwell, executive member for children’s services at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “This is welcome news for our schools as we are one of the lowest funded authorities in the country.

“A fairer funding allocation is what our schools deserve.”