School funding crisis and petition

As a school, we feel that it is our duty to provide parents with a fair and accurate picture of the real state of school funding in Sandwell.

All state schools in England are funded by a grant from the Department for Education, but since 2010 school funding for each child has fallen by 8% in real terms (according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies). All this at a time of rising cost pressures on school budgets.

As a result schools are having to make difficult choices on how to spend their limited funding, as their income has not kept pace with the rise in costs since 2010. All schools are working very hard to ‘make ends meet’ but this is becoming increasingly difficult and almost impossible.

On average, for 2019/20 school funding in Sandwell will be cut by £13.3 million as compared to four years ago. This is an average of:

• £271 less per pupil
• £86,770 less per primary school
• £331,952 less per secondary school

(Source: www.schoolcuts.org.uk)

As funding has become tighter, schools have had to cut back on:

• Teaching and non-teaching staff
• Support for more vulnerable pupils
• Small group work for children who need additional help in school
• Teaching resources and materials
• Subject choices in secondary schools
• The range of activities for primary pupils
• Repairs to buildings
• Renewal of equipment

There is also a crisis in funding for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

• Cuts to local authority budgets have affected the services they can provide to schools to support these children.
• Schools now have to fund the first £6,000 of a child’s education, health and care support plan (EHCP) from the wider school budget, rather than receiving specific extra SEND funding. 

From March 2018 there was a very small increase in funding for schools, however, this increase has gone nowhere near closing the gap between what our school receives and what our school needs to deliver the education all our children deserve.

If you think government should fund schools sufficiently and fairly, please show your support by adding your name to the petition ‘Increase Funding for Schools’, as well as encouraging family and friends to do so, via the link below:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/232220

(You will be asked to add some minimal information (name, email address, postcode) and then you will be required to confirm your email address by responding to the automated response sent to you.)

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and please support your children’s future by signing the petition.