THE VAST majority of the county’s schools will benefit from additional funding from the Government.
Worcestershire County Council has been given £6.2million from the Department of Education as part of its share of a £390million pot available to the lowest funded education authorities in the country.
Council bosses have the power to decide how to distribute the cash and have approved a formula which will see the money form part of the basic amount given to schools for each pupil. It means 80 per cent of schools and 78 per cent of pupils gain extra money from April next year.
One option would have been to target the additional funds at some of the poorest performing pupils.
But Coun Liz Eyre, responsible for children and families on the county council, said they had to ensure they were supporting all pupils.
“We are doing the best we can for the most we can. It would have been nice if we could have done more but we are a low funded authority.” she told a meeting of the council’s cabinet last Thursday (October 16).
She added to ensure all low attaining pupils in the county benefited an additional £29million would be needed but schools would be getting about £17million in pupil premium funding to support the most disadvantaged children.
The move is part of efforts towards creating a fairer national funding formula, which the Conservatives have committed to introducing if they win the next General Election.
Historically Worcestershire has been one of the lowest funded authorities in the country ranked 142 out of 151 and has been campaigning for a number of years for a fairer deal as part of the f40 group.
The extra cash has lifted the county’s schools to 127th in the table.
But Coun Eyre said: “There’s always more to do and f40 will continue to make the case for fairer funding.”
