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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

1664448

	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, 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 discussions she has had with (a) local authorities and (b) school leaders' representatives on the potential impact of revision to the sums allocated under the national funding formula on schools' budget planning for the next academic year; if she will make it her policy to ensure that each school is allocated at least the same value of funding as announced in July 2023; and if she will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Brighton, Pavilion
	tabling member printed	Caroline Lucas
	uin	202301
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/10/2023 answer text <p>The Department informed Local Authorities and academy trusts of the republished National Funding Formula (NFF) on 6 October 2023, alongside the publication of the corrected NFF allocations.</p><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. The Secretary of State has asked the Permanent Secretary to conduct an independent and external review of the quality assurance process surrounding the calculation of the NFF.</p><p>The Department has already held a series of discussions with Local Authorities and school representatives to discuss the operational implications of the error. The Department is continuing to work closely with school stakeholders to communicate this change and support schools to manage their budgets.</p><p>The Government is continuing to deliver, in full, the total level of core funding for mainstreams schools and high needs that has been promised. It will remain over £59.6 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. This is the highest ever funding for schools in our history in real terms per pupil.</p><p>Schools have not yet received their 2024/25 funding, so the correction of this error does not mean adjusting any funding that schools have already received. The NFF allocations published by the Department are notional. These figures are subject to change based on the October census, which was collected on 5 October 2023. Local authorities’ final allocations will be published in December as part of their Dedicated Schools Grant and schools are not provided their definitive budgets until the following calendar year: typically in February for maintained schools and March for academies.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 23/10/2023 16:56:12 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas

1660735

	registered interest
	date	14/09/2023
	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, whether she has made a comparative assessment of the impact (a) price and (b) wage inflation on school budgets for schools (i) in and (ii) outside the f40 network.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	199601
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/09/2023 answer text <p>Each year the Department publishes an assessment of schools’ costs and funding, which looks at mainstream schools in England at the national level. The Department recognises that this assessment will not reflect the position of each individual school, and that different schools will face different financial challenges, including schools in the Local Authorities represented by the f40.</p><p>The purpose of the schools national funding formula (NFF), which allocates the great majority of school funding in England, is not to give every school the same level of per pupil funding. It is right that schools with more pupils with additional needs – such as those indicated by measures of deprivation, low prior attainment, or English as an additional language – receive extra funding to help them meet the needs of all their pupils.</p><p>Schools have autonomy and the responsibility to manage their budgets. The Department does not hold real time data on individual schools’ costs and spending decisions. It would not be right to base schools’ funding on the spending decisions of individual schools; schools’ funding is, rather, based on objective measures of comparative need.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 26/09/2023 15:43:10 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1660487

	registered interest
	date	13/09/2023
	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, whether she plans to reform national funding formulae for primary and secondary schools.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	199439
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/09/2023 answer text <p>This Government is committed to providing a world class education system for all children and has invested significantly in education to achieve that.</p><p>The national funding formula (NFF) continues to distribute funding fairly, based on the needs of schools and their pupil cohorts. The purpose of the NFF is not to give every school the same level of per pupil funding. It is right that schools with more pupils with additional needs receive extra funding to help them meet the needs of all their pupils.</p><p>The NFF targets funding to schools which have the greatest numbers of pupils with additional needs. In 2023/24, the Department has targeted a greater proportion of schools NFF funding towards deprived pupils than ever before. 9.8% (over £4 billion) of the formula has been allocated according to deprivation in 2023/24. This will help schools in their vital work to close attainment gaps, and level up educational opportunities.</p><p>The NFF is reviewed and updated on an annual basis. In the future we will continue to fund schools through the NFF in a fair and transparent manner, on a consistent assessment of need based on pupil numbers and characteristics.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 22/09/2023 09:05:36 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1653521

	registered interest
	date	17/07/2023
	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 funding was allocated to local authorities through the National Funding Formula in the 2022-23 academic year.
	tabling member constituency	Portsmouth South
	tabling member printed	Stephen Morgan
	uin	194476
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/07/2023 answer text <p>The Government is committed to providing a world class education system for all pupils and has provided significant funding to achieve that.</p><p>The National Funding Formula (NFF) allocates funding to Local Authorities on a financial year basis. Through the 2022/23 schools NFF, Local Authorities were notionally allocated £40.1 billion in funding. This included funding for both academies and maintained mainstream schools. Out of this £40.1 billion, £22.8 billion was allocated by reference to academies. In making allocations, the NFF does not distinguish between academies and maintained schools, and the proportion of the total funding allocated by reference to academies was therefore determined by the number and characteristics of the pupils who attend academies.</p><p>Alongside the schools NFF, Local Authorities were also allocated £9 billion for high needs. Local Authorities use their high needs funding to provide the costs of special schools, both academy and maintained special schools, and the costs of special educational needs top up funding to mainstream schools, both academy and maintained.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 194475 question first answered 24/07/2023 14:10:35 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4653 label Biography information for Stephen Morgan