Hampshire schools are right to be cautious about funding | The News

But headteachers across our region are not jumping up and down with delight.

Whilst they welcome any increase in funding, they are welcoming it with caution, warning that it still doesn’t address more than a decade of real-term cuts.

The government this week announced the Local Authority National Funding Formula (NFF) allocations for the per pupil funding of schools.

It’s the second year of the government’s £14.4bn school investment package which is spread over three years.

A statement from the Department for Education said: ‘Total school funding in

Portsmouth will increase by 4.9 per cent in 2021 compared with 2020, a £6m increase from last year, reaching a total of £132m in 2021.

‘For Hampshire, total school funding will increase by 4.6 per cent in 2021 compared with 2020, a £37m increase from last year, reaching a total of £855m in 2021.’

Heads say that any increases are often offset by additional costs which have to be covered by schools, costs which were previously me by central funding.

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With schools not operating under normal circumstances since the lockdown in March many pupils are already behind in the their learning and estimates show it could take years to catch up.

The government has been very good a ‘throwing’ money at an array of sectors during lockdown and you don't have to be a particularly astute businessman to realise that somehow the billions that they are borrowing will have to be paid back.

Today’s pupils are tomorrow’s future. This is not a time to be muddying the figures when it comes to education.