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1664894

	registered interest
	date	16/10/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the letter from Susan Acland-Hood to the Chair of the Education Select Committee on National Funding Formula Update, published on 6 October 2023, for what reason was there a miscalculation in the total amount of funding allocated to schools for the 2024-25 financial year.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	202588
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/10/2023 answer text <p>The Department informed Local Authorities and academy trusts of the republished schools National Funding Formula (NFF) on 6 October 2023, alongside the publication of the corrected NFF allocations. In the initial NFF calculations for 2024-2025, there was an error processing forecast pupil numbers, which meant that the overall cost of the core schools budget using the announced schools NFF arrangements would be 0.62% greater than allocated. The Permanent Secretary has taken full responsibility for the error made by officials and has written to both the Secretary of State and the Education Select Committee to apologise.</p><p>Since identifying the error, officials have reviewed other funding models to confirm that a similar issue has not occurred elsewhere. The Secretary of State has asked the Department's Permanent Secretary to conduct an independent and external review of the quality assurance process surrounding the calculation of the NFF. This will provide external and independent scrutiny and will be led by Peter Wyman CBE. Officials will ensure that any recommendations from the review are applied to other allocation calculations done by the Department, not just the schools NFF.</p><p>The schools NFF calculations are mainly performed using R and RStudio. R is an open source programming language which is widely used for data analysis and processing across the public and private sectors, and RStudio is an open source development environment for using R.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 202596 202597 question first answered 25/10/2023 15:59:27 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1664896

	registered interest
	date	16/10/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the letter from Susan Acland-Hood to the Chair of the Education Select Committee on National Funding Formula Update, published on 6 October 2023, what is the (a) scope and (b) terms of reference for the internal review into the miscalculation in the total amount of funding allocated to schools for the 2024-25 financial year; and when will the review conclude.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	202590
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/10/2023 answer text <p>The Secretary of State for Education has asked the Department’s Permanent Secretary to conduct a formal review of the quality assurance process surrounding the calculation of the schools National Funding Formula figures. This will provide external and independent scrutiny. Peter Wyman CBE will lead this review, and will be supported in his work by an expert panel drawn from outside the Department. The timing and terms of reference of the review have yet to be finalised, but the expectation is that it will conclude before Christmas.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 19/10/2023 14:51:16 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1664897

	registered interest
	date	16/10/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the letter from Susan Acland-Hood to the Chair of the Education Select Committee on National Funding Formula Update, published on 6 October 2023, whether she plans to publish the findings of her Department's internal review into the miscalculation in the total amount of funding allocated to schools for the 2024-25 financial year.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	202591
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/10/2023 answer text <p>The Permanent Secretary has taken full responsibility for the error made by officials and has written to both the Secretary of State and the Education Select Committee to apologise.</p><p>The Secretary of State has asked the Department’s Permanent Secretary to conduct a formal review of the quality assurance process surrounding the calculation of the schools national funding formula (NFF) figures. Peter Wyman CBE, the chair of the board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, will lead this process, and he will be supported in his work by an expert panel drawn from outside the Department. This is not an internal review; it will provide external and independent scrutiny. As such, the Department does not plan to also invite the National Audit Office to investigate the schools NFF calculation error. The findings and recommendations of the review will be made public.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 202592 202594 question first answered 24/10/2023 14:40:57 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1664898

	registered interest
	date	16/10/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the letter from Susan Acland-Hood to the Chair of the Education Select Committee on National Funding Formula Update, published on 6 October 2023, for what reason did she not announce an external review into the miscalculation in the total amount of funding allocated to schools for the 2024-25 financial year.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	202592
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/10/2023 answer text <p>The Permanent Secretary has taken full responsibility for the error made by officials and has written to both the Secretary of State and the Education Select Committee to apologise.</p><p>The Secretary of State has asked the Department’s Permanent Secretary to conduct a formal review of the quality assurance process surrounding the calculation of the schools national funding formula (NFF) figures. Peter Wyman CBE, the chair of the board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, will lead this process, and he will be supported in his work by an expert panel drawn from outside the Department. This is not an internal review; it will provide external and independent scrutiny. As such, the Department does not plan to also invite the National Audit Office to investigate the schools NFF calculation error. The findings and recommendations of the review will be made public.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 202591 202594 question first answered 24/10/2023 14:40:57 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1664900

	registered interest
	date	16/10/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the letter from Susan Acland-Hood to the Chair of the Education Select Committee on National Funding Formula Update, published on 6 October 2023, whether she will invite the Comptroller and Auditor General of the National Audit Office to review the miscalculation in the total amount of funding allocated to schools for the 2024-25 financial year.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	202594
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/10/2023 answer text <p>The Permanent Secretary has taken full responsibility for the error made by officials and has written to both the Secretary of State and the Education Select Committee to apologise.</p><p>The Secretary of State has asked the Department’s Permanent Secretary to conduct a formal review of the quality assurance process surrounding the calculation of the schools national funding formula (NFF) figures. Peter Wyman CBE, the chair of the board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, will lead this process, and he will be supported in his work by an expert panel drawn from outside the Department. This is not an internal review; it will provide external and independent scrutiny. As such, the Department does not plan to also invite the National Audit Office to investigate the schools NFF calculation error. The findings and recommendations of the review will be made public.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 202591 202592 question first answered 24/10/2023 14:40:57 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1664902

	registered interest
	date	16/10/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the letter from Susan Acland-Hood to the Chair of the Education Select Committee on National Funding Formula Update, published on 6 October 2023, what software her Department used to originally calculate the total funding allocated to schools for the 2024-25 financial year.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	202596
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/10/2023 answer text <p>The Department informed Local Authorities and academy trusts of the republished schools National Funding Formula (NFF) on 6 October 2023, alongside the publication of the corrected NFF allocations. In the initial NFF calculations for 2024-2025, there was an error processing forecast pupil numbers, which meant that the overall cost of the core schools budget using the announced schools NFF arrangements would be 0.62% greater than allocated. The Permanent Secretary has taken full responsibility for the error made by officials and has written to both the Secretary of State and the Education Select Committee to apologise.</p><p>Since identifying the error, officials have reviewed other funding models to confirm that a similar issue has not occurred elsewhere. The Secretary of State has asked the Department's Permanent Secretary to conduct an independent and external review of the quality assurance process surrounding the calculation of the NFF. This will provide external and independent scrutiny and will be led by Peter Wyman CBE. Officials will ensure that any recommendations from the review are applied to other allocation calculations done by the Department, not just the schools NFF.</p><p>The schools NFF calculations are mainly performed using R and RStudio. R is an open source programming language which is widely used for data analysis and processing across the public and private sectors, and RStudio is an open source development environment for using R.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 202588 202597 question first answered 25/10/2023 15:59:27 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1663121

	registered interest
	date	13/10/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the level of free childcare entitlement announced in the Spring Budget 2023 on (a) maintenance and (b) other school capital budget requirements for the next 10 years; whether she has had recent discussions with the Chancellor on this issue; and if she will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	200975
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/10/2023 answer text <p>It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.​</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 200972 question first answered 26/10/2023 11:30:46 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1563589

	registered interest
	date	20/12/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will hold discussions with head teachers on the financial needs of schools before the Budget on 15 March.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	114710
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/01/2023 answer text <p>Department officials and Ministers continue to meet regularly with education and childcare sector leaders, unions and other representative bodies to discuss a wide range of early years, school, further education and higher education policy issues.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 114708 114712 114714 114715 question first answered 11/01/2023 09:54:20 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1506542

	registered interest
	date	20/09/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with school leaders on the adequacy of levels of school budgets in autumn 2022.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	51616
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/10/2022 answer text <p>The Department continues to speak to a range of organisations representing Head Teachers and directly to Head Teachers themselves. Discussions have included school funding and build on the regular engagement the Department has already had.</p><p>Overall, core schools funding, including funding for both mainstream and high needs schools, is increasing by £4 billion in 2022/23 financial year compared to 2021/22. This brings the total core schools budget to £53.8 billion. This means the total funding allocated to schools and high needs seeing a 7% cash terms per pupil increase in the 2022/23 financial year compared to the previous financial year.</p><p>On 21 September 2022, the Government set out how businesses and public sector organisations, including schools, will be supported by the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This will reduce how much schools need to spend on their energy, and give schools greater certainty over their budgets over the winter months.</p><p>Any school which has signed a fixed energy contract since April 2022 will be eligible for support if, at the time they signed their contact, wholesale prices for the next six months were expected to be higher than the Government-supported price of £211/MWh for electricity, and £75/MWh for gas.</p><p>For example, a school which uses 10 MWh of electricity and 22 MWh of gas a month and signed a fixed contract giving them a current monthly energy bill of about £10,000, would receive support based on the difference between expected wholesale prices when they signed their contract and the Government-supported price. For a contract signed in July 2022, this could be worth £240/MWh for electricity and £70/MWh for gas, meaning the school receives a discount of £4,000 per month, reducing their original bill by 40%.</p><p>Support will also be available to schools on variable, deemed and other contracts.</p><p>The details of the scheme can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers</a>.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stoke-on-Trent North answering member printed Jonathan Gullis question first answered 17/10/2022 16:35:34 answering member 4814 label Biography information for Jonathan Gullis
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1420349

	registered interest
	date	07/02/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of maintained school revenue balances in 2020-21 by share of FSM-eligible children in schools.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	uin	119531
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/02/2022 answer text <p>The department pays close attention to the financial health of the sector, analysing maintained schools’ consistent financial reporting returns and academies’ accounting returns. The latest published figures show both maintained schools and academy trusts have on average been able to add to their reserves in the latest reporting year.</p><p>The schools financial benchmarking website allows schools and trusts to compare their financial data with other schools that share similar characteristics, including similar levels of free school meal (FSM) eligibility. The website is available here: <a href="https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/</a>.</p><p>A full dataset used to produce this analysis for schools can be found here: <a href="https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/Help/DataSources" target="_blank">https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/Help/DataSources</a>.</p><p>In financial year 2022-23, the National Funding Formula (NFF) will allocate £6.7 billion (17% of all funding allocated by the NFF) through additional needs factors, including pupils eligible for FSM. That includes an increase of £225 million, or 6.7%, in the amount distributed through deprivation factors. In addition, in financial year 2022-23, schools will receive a supplementary grant, which will provide significant further funding for deprivation: £85 for each primary pupil and £124 for each secondary pupil who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years (FSM6). Schools’ individual allocations from the supplementary grant will be finalised in the coming months.</p><p>On top of this core funding, pupil premium funding rates are increasing by 2.7% in financial year 2022-23, to £1,385 for each FSM6 primary pupil and £985 for each FSM6 secondary pupil. This means that the per pupil funding rate will be the highest, in cash terms, since the introduction of the pupil premium in 2011. Total pupil premium funding will increase to over £2.6 billion in 2022-23, from £2.5 billion this year.</p><p>All schools continue to be able to access a wide range of school resource management tools so they can more effectively invest their resources into areas that improve educational outcomes for all pupils. Schools in serious financial difficulty should contact their local authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.</p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker question first answered 14/02/2022 15:38:40 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson