Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for Education, announced in the House of Commons today (14th December) her plans for fairer funding for schools in England and set a clear deadline for its implementation. In response, Michael Fabricant told the Secretary of State: “For decades, Staffordshire has languished in the bottom 15 for school funding and frankly I have heard this all before from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.” Michael went on to say to her “I therefore welcome a very clear deadline for fairer funding to be implemented with a transitional change in 2018 and a new and transparent funding formula to be implemented in 2019.”

Speaking now, Michael Fabricant adds: “I urge local schools and other interested parties to contribute their ideas to the Government over the next few months as we will only have ourselves to blame if Staffordshire schools and local government don’t voice their concerns loudly and clearly.”

The Chairman of the pressure group, f40, Councillor Ivan Ould says “Broadly speaking, the proposals appear to present a fairer method of funding our schools, but f40 will want to carefully assess the full implications, including the issue of local flexibility and details about the transitional arrangements, before responding in detail to the consultation.

“f40 have already made a significant contribution to the debate and we will continue working with the Department for Education as the new formula unfolds and is implemented”. f40 has the support of MPs, councillors, education directors, governors, head teachers, parents and teaching union representatives. The group has 41 member authorities representing over 3 million pupils in over 9,000 schools including those in Staffordshire.