West Sussex headteachers left frustrated as Schools Minister Nick Gibb refuses to answer their £20m funding plea

Heads pressed Nick Gibb for a “yes or no” answer to their request for £20 million in emergency funding meeting but were left disappointed when the minister refused to grant their request.

They say the emergency funding is desperately needed to help hard-pressed schools until a new method of funding, the National Funding Formula (NFF), is introduced in April 2018.

The NFF is set to redress the imbalance with an overall increase of 3.5 per cent in funding for West Sussex schools, which equates to £14.6 million in total. 

Currently children in West Sussex receive £41 million less than the average authority and £200 million less than pupils in London.

The crunch meeting came as the head of a leading independent school said parents were increasingly opting for private schools as the funding crisis in state schools deepened.

Peter Woodman, headteacher of The Weald School, Billingshurst, said: “We were trying to make our MPs and the minister understand these are really serious issues.

“They want a thriving economy, but unless we educate children well it’s a ticking time bomb. We are not providing well enough for those students.

“It was a very frustrating meeting. We asked the pointed question we’ve been asking for 18 months, ‘Will you give us interim funding?’. I felt like Jeremy Paxman asking Nick Gibb the same question five times and he failed to give an answer. My interpretation is his answer was no.

“But that leaves West Sussex schools in a difficult position – they are cut to the bone – with the NFF delayed and no emergency funding.”

The heads, who are leading the WorthLess? campaign for a fairer National Funding Formula, said the county’s schools were at breaking point and would have to cut staff and increase class sizes to meet increasing costs.

The per-pupil funding figure for West Sussex of £4,196 is nearly 15 per cent lower than the national average of £4,636.

It is also £250 lower than in East Sussex. That means a West Sussex school of 800 pupils receives £200,000 per year less than an equivalent school in East Sussex.

Historically, more money has been chanelled to areas that have high levels of social need with cash going to those in inner cities and areas of deprivation.

The new NFF, which campaigners believe will redress the underfunding, was due to be introduced from April but has now been delayed until 2018 and schools say they are at breaking point.

The heads also struggled to make headway  during their 90 minute meeting with Mr Gibb in their attempts to halt unfunded costs eating into school budgets under NFF, although the minister recognised the need for “core” funding to allow schools to function adequately.

A Department of Education spokesperson said: "Over the last six years we have seen the number of children being taught in schools that are rated good or outstanding rise by more than 1.8 million.

"School funding is at its highest level on record, at more than £40 billion in 2016-17. We are protecting per pupil funding so where pupil numbers rise, the amount of money schools receive will increase.

“The government has protected the core schools budget in real terms since 2010, but the system for distributing that funding across the country is unfair, opaque and outdated. Under the proposed national schools funding formula, more than half of England’s schools will receive a cash boost in 2018-19.

"This will help to create a system that funds schools according to the needs of their pupils rather than their postcode. Under our proposals, West Sussex would see an overall uplift in funding for schools of 3.5 per cent."

WHERE DO WE DRAW A LINE, ASKS ONE DESPERATE HEAD

AT BREAKING point was how eight headteachers described the state of schools in West Sussex to the Schools Minister in Westminster in a desperate plea for emergency funding.

And they are not exaggerating. Headteachers of primary and secondary schools across the county are now having to consider four-day weeks, getting rid of staff and cutting extra-curricular activities, just to make the books balance.

So how did we get to this point?

Children in West Sussex receive £41 million less than the average authority and £200 million less than pupils in London.

The per-pupil funding figure for West Sussex of £4,196 is nearly 15 per cent lower than the national average of £4,636 and £250 lower than in the east of the county.

That means a West Sussex school of 800 pupils receives £200,000 per year less than an equivalent school in East Sussex.

“Closing the school one day a week is at the bottom of the list but at what point do we draw a line?” said Peter Woodman, headteacher at The Weald School, Billingshurst.

West Sussex schools made national headlines in October last year when more than 150 state primary and secondary schools sent parents letter warning they were considering drastic cost-cutting measures, including modifying school hours.

Mr Woodman said: “Even with what we are doing we still can’t handle the budgets. It is going to get to a ridiculous stage.”

Jules White, head of Tanbridge House School in Horsham, insisted heads were not “sabre-rattling” and these were not empty threats.

“We will look at every option to avoid such drastic steps,” he said, but school finances were so stretched they would have to take such difficult decisions.

To add to the drama this week school governors in West Sussex threatened to go on “strike” over the cuts. Writing to MPs they warned they will refuse to sign off budgets or carry out their supervisory work.

So what about the new “fairer” (as the Government would have it) spending formula? Under the National Funding Formula 150 schools will have an increase in funding, while 100 schools in the county are set to experience a decrease. On top of that schools will have to pay for National Insurance, teachers’ pension and a teaching levy among other additional costs.

Such is the worry about local state schools, independent schools are receiving an increasing number of enquiries from parents who would not normally have considered paying for their child’s education.

Kathryn Bell, headteacher of Burgess Hill Girl’s where fees for day pupils start from £15,000 a year, said: “We are getting enquiries from parents who have until now educated their children in the state sector – and who attended state schools themselves – but are very concerned about the impact of cuts and the proposed new funding formula on the quality of education.”

Mrs Bell said she was enormously sympathetic for the predicament in which local schools find themselves.

“Our big advantage is that we’re not reliant on ‘big brother’ in the shape of the Department of Education to tell us what we can spend – or how we can spend it.”

Mr Woodman added: “In one sense the 150 schools in the county with an increase in funds are gaining but extra costs they will have put on them negate whatever they gain. They will be worse off than we they are now.”