Schools to lose out in budget shake-up

Millions of pounds are to be slashed from school budgets across Staffordshire and the Black Country under a proposed Government shake-up of education funding.

Both primary and secondary schools look set to lose out, according to a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Sandwell would have its primary school budget cut by 6.6 per cent or £7.84 million. But its secondary school budget would rise by 3.2 per cent or £2.1m. In Dudley, the primary school budget would be slashed by 6.1 per cent or £5.99m.

The borough's secondary school budget would fall by 1.9 per cent, or £1.67m.

Across Staffordshire, the primary school budget would increase by 1.6 per cent, or £3.57m but the secondary budget would go down by 0.4 per cent, or £848,000.

Under the current system, most school funding goes directly to local authorities which share it out.

But Education Secretary Michael Gove has announced proposals to switch to a new system in which each school's funding is calculated according to one nationally set formula, in a bid to make the process more consistent.

The report by the IFS looks at different options for a national funding formula, such as setting a fixed amount of money for all pupils, possibly with different levels for primary and secondary schools, including extra cash for poor students, and other factors such as additional funding for schools in high-cost areas.

It concludes even if the formula is kept as simple as possible, to minimise disruption to schools, around 15 per cent of schools would face cuts of 10 per cent or more compared with the current system, while around one in 10 would see their budgets rise by 10 per cent or more.

Walsall Council and Wolverhampton City Council could not release their school budget figures for 2011/12 but Wolverhampton is set to be one of the worst affected areas under the overhaul because schools in the city are currently seen as "significantly overfunded".

The overhaul could see its primary budget cut by 8.2 per cent and its secondary budget cut by 12.5 per cent. Walsall would have its primary budget cut by 8.1 per cent and secondary budget slashed by three per cent.