COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Education secretary promises increase in core funding per pupil but there is no new money from Treasury



Justine Greening, the education secretary, has promised £1.3bn in funding for schools in England to head off a Conservative revolt, raiding the budget for free schools and new buildings to pay for the rise.

She said schools would get the bailout over the next two years, after complaints from Conservative MPs that Theresa May’s failure to deal with concerns about struggling schools cost the government its majority at the election.

The education secretary pitched the £1.3bn as an increase above inflation in the core schools budget in 2018 and 2019. But it quickly emerged that the money was being diverted from other parts of the education budget, rather than new cash from the Treasury.

In a partial compromise, Greening also announced a delay in the full implementation of the controversial new national funding formula, which means some schools will get more money and some lose cash per pupil in real terms. Under the plans, the new formula would only be indicative for its first two years in 2018 and 2019, with local authorities getting discretion over how to distribute the money during that time.

Greening had argued in the cabinet for more money to pay for schools struggling with their budgets from Philip Hammond, the chancellor, amid stories about some headteachers begging parents for extra cash, cutting lunch breaks and dropping minority subjects.

But she ended up having to find the cash from the Department for Education’s own budget out of efficiency savings, leading to accusations from opposition MPs that she was robbing Peter to pay Paul.