£10m funding boost for Shropshire schools

Schools in the Shropshire Council area will receive an additional £8.9 million in 2015/16, with an extra £1.1 million being provided in the Telford & Wrekin borough.

Shropshire schools will get an extra £255 per pupil and those in Telford & Wrekin an additional £52 per pupil.

The changes are part of national plans to level out the funding provided to schools in England and support the most underfunded local authorities.

An extra £350 million is set to be given to schools. Education minister David Laws insisted no local authority or school will lose cash because of the proposal as he announced the plans in the House of Commons yesterday.

County MPs today welcomed the funding boost for the county.

They said changes to national school funding policies would put an end to the current "postcode lottery" on pupil subsidies.

Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski said: "This is a most welcome announcement which starts to address the historical underfunding that Shropshire's schools have endured over many years.

"After hearing countless stories of how this underfunding adversely affected our Shropshire children, I have long pressed the case for fairer funding with the Prime Minister and the Education Secretary, as well as bringing a number of Shropshire teachers to Westminster to meet with minsters and education officials.

"I would also like to commend the hard work the F40 group, Shropshire Schools funding forum and Shropshire Council have done over the years to push for this change."

South Shropshire MP Philip Dunne said: "I am really pleased with today's announcement which recognises the strength of arguments made by Shropshire MPs and others representing rural areas.

"This will help support schools in sparsely populated areas which can incur additional costs, but are vital to serving our local rural communities."

Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard said: "The school funding system that we inherited from Labour was unfair.

"It is a postcode lottery that results in pupils attracting very different levels of funding without good reason. I am delighted ministers have listened. This announcement is great news for The Wrekin and for the whole county as it represents a huge step towards removing the unfairness that has existing for many years."

David Wright, Labour MP for Telford, added: "I will need to examine the overall funding package carefully in partnership with the local authority.

"Funding should reflect local needs and Telford continues to have some of the highest levels of deprivation in the West Midlands, long-term funding must tackle that."

While Shropshire area schools are receiving a larger increase, they will still receive a smaller figure per head than their counterparts in Telford.

Shropshire is one of the big winners in the announcement, with the seventh-highest percentage rise in pupil funding across England. A total of 62 local authorities are benefitting from the changes.

Shropshire's funding is due to rise from £4,113 per pupil currently to £4,368 per pupil. Its total funding is increasing from £143.6 million to £152.5 million.

Telford & Wrekin's funding will go up from £4,367 per pupil to £4,419. Its total funding is increasing from £97 million to £98.1 million.

Shropshire's funding level is going up by 6.2 per cent, while Telford's is increasing by 1.2 per cent.

Mr Laws told Parliament that the current system was "frankly unfair".

He said: "Sometimes similar schools just miles apart can be funded at very different levels, just because they happen to be in different local authority areas.

"In other cases, schools with many disadvantaged pupils can end up being funded at a level well below a nearby school in an affluent catchment.

"For example, a school in Birmingham with only three per cent of pupils receiving free school meals (FSM) gets higher funding per head than a school in Shropshire with over 30 per cent of FSM eligible pupils.

"This unfair and inefficient allocation of funding between pupils stops us making sure that all children get the best possible teaching."

Mr Laws said a multi-year process of moving all local authorities toward a single-funding formula would not take place until greater certainty could be given over long-term public spending plans.

• Star comment: £10m for schools is right step