Agenda item

Motion F: School Funding

Proposer: Cllr Liz Morris

Seconder: Cllr Pippa Connor

This council notes that the Liberal Democrats in Government introduced the pupil premium which saw schools in Haringey benefiting with:

• An extra £13 million on top of their usual budgets. 

• Each primary and secondary school in the borough received an extra £900 per pupil that had been registered for free school meals.

This council also notes that following Lynne Featherstone and Haringey Lib Dems campaign for fairer funding for local schools, Haringey schools received an extra £5.3million of government funding to tackle deprivation.

This council notes that Lib Dem MP, Sarah Olney, recently asked the Prime Minister at question time to review free school funding and allocate more funding to other schools. This council is concerned that the National Audit Office report estimates that there is £2.5bn overspend by the Conservative Government on land for free schools.

This council notes that due to the Conservative Government’s changes to school funding Haringey schools will lose approximately £664 of funding per pupil by 2020. This is equivalent to 581 teachers on the average salary of £37,250.

This council is against the phasing out of the Education Services Grant and its impact on schools and the council.

This council calls upon the Conservative Government to increase the schools budget in order to prevent a serious detrimental impact on class sizes, support for pupils with special needs or valuable extra-curricular activities.

This council requests that the Leader of the Council to write to both of Haringey’s MPs, urging them to raise the council's concerns with the Secretary of State for Education.

Councillor Morris introduced her motion, which reflected the crisis in education funding. She regretted the cuts to funding for schools in the borough, which came at a time of increased demand on schools’ budgets. She also opposed  the cut to the Education Services Grant, which also would represent further challenges for schools after a period of increasing funding to schools that had accompanied improvements to schools in the borough.

The motion seconded by Councillor Connor, who, as a local school governor, had been concerned at education cuts that forced schools to take very difficult choices.

Proposing her amendment, Councillor Weston supported the principle behind the motion and sought, with the amendment, to provide more detail and ensure it could be supported across the Chamber. 

Seconding the amendment, Councillor Mitchell set out some of the impact of the proposed changes, which undermined the Government’s stated aspirations.

The Mayor then opened the debate, which included contributions from Councillors Hare and Wright.

Responding to the debate, Councillor Morris thanked Members for their contributions, and welcomed the agreement between the parties on the issue of school funding.

Following a vote, the amendment was CARRIED.

Following a vote, the motion as amended was AGREED unanimously.

RESOLVED 

This Council notes that the Conservative Government’s consultation on its plans for a new funding formula for schools is currently under way and it claims that measures, set to be introduced in April 2018, will “end the postcode lottery” of schools funding.

This Council also notes that In December 2016 the National Audit Office produced a report into the financial sustainability of schools and confirmed that mainstream schools will need to make £3.0 billion in efficiency savings by 2019-20 against a background of growing pupil numbers and a real-terms reduction in funding per pupil.

This Council is concerned that:

• by introducing this new funding formula, while cutting education funding, money will be taken away from London schools (and other schools in urban areas) to be redistributed elsewhere in the country.
• 70% of London schools will lose out directly through the implementation of the formula while all London schools will face real terms funding cuts.
• these cuts will see an overall reduction in the Haringey schools budget of £5 million a year by 2019–20 and this is on top of other pressures on school finances including pay awards, inflation and rising national insurance and pensions contributions.

This Council is further concerned that in real terms, these cuts will mean that:

• Per pupil funding will be cut by £664 (11%) per child in Haringey by 2020
• The average cut for Haringey secondary pupils is £842
• The average cut for Haringey primary pupils is £574
• Haringey schools will face larger class sizes, have fewer teachers, teaching assistants and subject specialist and pupils will get less support and individual attention.

This Council believes that the Conservative Government’s proposals represent the biggest real-terms cuts to schools budgets in a generation which will hit every school in the borough and mean less money for every child in Haringey.

This Council is also against the phasing out of the Education Services Grant and its impact on schools and the Council.

This Council calls upon the Conservative Government to increase the schools budget in order to prevent a serious detrimental impact on class sizes, support for pupils with special needs or valuable extra-curricular activities. We ask that the Government seeks to produce a truly fair funding formula for schools which protects funding levels in London and increases funding for other areas.

This Council resolves to write a cross-party letter to the Secretary of State for Education to express our serious concerns about the Government’s funding formula.