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Essential school support services at risk following funding cut


COUNCILS are warning they could fail to meet their legal duties to protect school children, under new rules and funding arrangements announced by government. New government rules state that


councils must seek the permission of schools if they are to provide essential services such as criminal record checks of staff, safeguarding, managing asbestos risk in school buildings and ensuring adequate water supplies are available. The Local Government Association is


warning that nearly five million pupils could be put at risk as schools are forced to decide what services they are able to maintain. The changes will also affect student welfare services, mental health support,


fire safety and escape routes, air quality, maintenance of school buildings and playing fields, as well as other general health and safety requirements. From September 2017, councils will


continue to have a statutory duty to provide these services but will no longer have the money to fund them. The council can only undertake these duties if the school agrees to do so from its own budget. The LGA has previously warned that the


£600m reduction proposed to the Education Services Grant (ESG) will leave councils with little resource to perform their statutory duties and should be reversed to maintain improvement capacity within the schools system. These new regulatory changes will place further


burdens on schools and will mean that such services will now have to be paid for from school budgets. An LGA spokesperson said: "Councils


have their hands tied. They are legally obliged to provide these services but will have no money to do so unless the school is prepared to pay for it from its own pocket. "Changes to regulation and school


funding mean that councils could fail to meet their legal duties which protect children and teachers whilst at school. "Services that were previously provided


to schools by councils will become an extra burden for schools, putting additional pressure on already overstretched budgets.


All schools likely to lose out despite funding formula, says EPI


ALL schools in England face real terms cuts in funding per pupil, even after the introduction of a new national funding formula, according to analysis by the Education Policy Institute (EPI). A new report from the research


institute, The implications of the National Funding Formula for Schools, finds that half of primary and secondary schools face large real terms, per pupil, cuts in funding of between 6-11% by 2019-20. Produced to inform the Government’s


recent consultation on the introduction of the new national funding formula (NFF) for schools, the analysis puts the plans into the context of wider financial pressures on the schools system. There are clear disparities within the


existing school funding system in England, meaning the Government is right to proceed with its plan to introduce a new


NFF, the EPI observes. However, the proposals are unlikely to satisfy many local areas which have been relatively lower funded and have campaigned vocally for a new formula. Even though a greater share of funding is proposed to be allocated to disadvantaged pupils, EPI research finds that the overall impact of redistributing the schools budget results in shifting funding away from the most disadvantaged pupils towards what is considered the ‘just about managing’ group. The EPI also considers the impact of


inflationary pressures (highlighted by the NAO) and the removal of the Education Services Grant, when assessing overall changes to school finances between 2016-17 and 2019-20. It estimates that, by 2019-20, there are unlikely to be any schools in England which will avoid a real terms cut in per pupil funding, even in areas


benefiting from the new formula. The Institute further states, that


without additional funding beyond 2020, there is a risk of further budget losses for around 5,000 schools, including around 880 schools that would lose more than 10% of their budget if the Government decides to remove the NFF transitional protections beyond 2020. The proposed national funding formula


is designed to bring to an end the disparities in the current school funding system which have allowed similar schools with similar students to receive levels of funding so different that it puts many young people at an educational disadvantage. The Government claims the protections it has built into the formula means that no school will face a reduction of more than more than 1.5% per pupil per year or 3% per pupil overall.


6 educationdab.co.uk


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