Revenue funding: our position | National Governance Association

NGA is clear that school funding has been insufficient for many years. Boards are finding it increasingly difficult to balance their budgets and ensure their organisation’s financial sustainability. Working with partners, we are calling for per-pupil funding levels to be protected and restored to 2010 levels as quickly as possible.

We support the principle of a national funding formula, but are clear that any steps to change funding allocations must reflect the increasingly perilous state of many school and trust’s finances. Increasing numbers of schools simply cannot afford any reduction in their budget. High needs funding is a particular challenge for the sector, with the current costs proving unsustainable for local authorities. Much needed reform must reflect the current funding landscape – it must not impose additional demands on schools and trusts without the investment to deliver them.

NGA are also calling for increased capital funding to ensure adequate resource to maintain and improve school buildings and estates, prioritising those schools with buildings in most urgent need of refurbishment. Improving the energy efficiency of school estates can reduce day-to-day costs in the long-term.

Alongside asking for increased investment in education, we also continue to advocate for greater transparency and certainty on funding allocations. In order to make informed decisions about their organisation’s future, boards need as much knowledge as possible about the funding they will receive in the coming years, and likely costs such as national pay awards.