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>
|
|