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Pupils: Per Capita Costs

Volume 491: debated on Tuesday 21 April 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department spent on average per pupil in primary education in (a) Tamworth constituency, (b) Staffordshire and (c) England in each of the last five years. (267976)

The Department allocates education funding to local authorities so the requested information for Tamworth constituency is not available. In addition it is for local authorities to determine how they spend their funds locally. The per pupil revenue funding figures for primary school pupils and all funded pupils for England and Staffordshire local authority in 2004-05 and 2005-06 are as follows. These figures are in real terms:

Real terms revenue funding per pupil—EFS plus grants

£

England

Staffordshire

Primary pupils (3 to 10 years)

2004-05

3,850

3,390

2005-06

4,080

3,610

All pupils (3 to 19 years)

2004-05

4,360

3,870

2005-06

4,580

4,080

Notes:

1. Price Base: Real terms at 2007-08 prices, based on GDP deflators as at 25 November 2008.

2. Figures reflect relevant sub-blocks of Education Formula Spending (EFS) settlements and include the pensions transfer to EFS.

3. Total funding also includes all revenue grants in DfES Departmental Expenditure Limits relevant to pupils aged 3 to 15 and exclude Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) and grants not allocated at LEA level.

4. The pupil numbers used to convert £ million figures to £ per pupil are those underlying the EFS settlement calculations.

5. Rounding: Figures are rounded to the nearest £10.

6. Status: Some of the grant allocations have not been finalised. If these do change, the effect on the funding figures is expected to be minimal.

The revenue per pupil figures shown in the following table are taken from the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) which was introduced in April 2006. They are not comparable with those for the years 2004-05 to 2005-06 because the introduction of the DSG in 2006-07 fundamentally changed how local authorities are funded.

The 2004-05 to 2005-06 figures are based on Education Formula Spending (EFS) which formed the education part of the Local Government Finance Settlement, plus various grants. This was an assessment of what local authorities needed to fund education rather than what they spent. The DSG is based largely on an authority’s previous spending. In addition, the DSG has a different coverage to EFS. EFS comprised a schools block and an LEA block (to cover LEA central functions) whereas DSG only covers the school block. LEA block items are still funded through DCLG’s Local Government Finance Settlement but education items cannot be separately identified. Consequently, there is a break in the Department’s time series as the two sets of data are not comparable.

To provide a comparison for 2006-07 DSG, the Department have isolated the schools block equivalent funding in 2005-06; as described above this does not represent the totality of ‘education’ funding in that year.

The per pupil revenue funding figures for years 2005-06 (baseline) to 2008-09 for England and Staffordshire local authority are provided in the following table. As the DSG is a mechanism for distributing funding, a split between primary and secondary schools is not available. The figures shown are for all funded pupils aged three to 19 and are in real terms:

Real terms revenue funding per pupil—DSG plus grants

£

England

Staffordshire

All pupils (3 to 19 years)

2005-06 (baseline)

4,230

3,890

2006-07

4,370

3,990

2007-08

4,530

4,130

2008-09

4,550

4,160

Notes:

1. This covers funding through the Dedicated Schools Grant, School Standards Grant, School Standards Grant (Personalisation) and Standards Fund as well as funding from the Learning and Skills Council; it excludes grants which are not allocated at LA level.

2. Price Base: Real terms at 2007-08 prices, based on GDP deflators as at 25 November 2008.

3. These figures are for all funded pupils aged 3 to 19.

4. Figures have been rounded to the nearest £10.

5. Some of the grant allocations have not been finalised. If these do change, the effect on the funding figures is expected to be minimal.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much on average his Department has spent on each pupil between 16 and 19 years in each year since 2000; and if he will make a statement. (269715)

Average funding on participation per full-time equivalent learner in Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funded school sixth forms and FE colleges (including specialist schools and colleges) is presented in the following table.

Financial year

16-18 learners in SSF and FE colleges (£)

2003-04

4,460

2004-05

4,570

2005-06

5,100

2006-07

5,310

2007-08

5,340

Note:

Rounded to the nearest £10.

It is not possible to provide data prior to 2003-04 in a comparable form due to changes in the methods of measuring learner numbers.