We call upon the government to find additional funding for education and use some of that additional funding to target areas, such as Sheffield, which are not receiving a fair share currently.

 Sheffield schools are facing a funding crisis. There are two issues which come together to cause this issue in Sheffield.

•  Education funding is no longer sufficient

The government says that there is more money and this is true in cash terms - BUT the combination of eight years of stand-still budgets and decisions around national insurance, funding of pay increases, etc. mean that school budgets have had a significant real terms cut over this period. This is exacerbated by the impact of cuts on partners and the impact of austerity on families – both of which have raised the level of demand on schools.

•  Sheffield does not receive a fair share of that funding

The figures (for 2018/19) below illustrate this clearly – the comparison with other core cities is stark.

Core City               Additional Funding Per Pupil     

Manchester                + £743                                              
Nottingham                + £589                                               
Birmingham               + £552                                               
Liverpool                    + £478                                               
Bristol                         + £175                                               
Newcastle                  + £154                                              
Leeds                         + £80                                               
Sheffield                        -     

Core City               Additional Funding for Sheffield if                                                           funded at this per pupil rate 

Manchester                + £52.8m
Nottingham                 + £41.8m
Birmingham                + £39.2m
Liverpool                    + £34m
Bristol                         + £12.5m
Newcastle                  + £11m
Leeds                         + £5.7m                                                    Sheffield                          -

                                                  

What is becoming clearer is that the issue may not be National Funding Formula (NFF) itself but the factors that are applied to it to make the system ‘stable’.

 These stabilising factors (minimum funding guarantee, transitional protection, funding floor, area coast adjustment and the gains cap) very significantly slow the rate at which Sheffield receives its fair funding.

 It is obviously appropriate to seek stability in the system but the combined impact of these factors effectively means that Sheffield will not get fair funding quickly enough to avoid the crisis we currently face. 

 We therefore call upon the government to urgently find additional funding for education and use some of that additional funding to target areas, such as Sheffield, which are not receiving a fair share currently.