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Pupils: Per Capita Costs

Volume 498: debated on Thursday 29 October 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department plans to spend per school pupil in each local education authority in the East of England in 2009-10; and how much has been spent in each such authority in each academic year since 1999-2000. (296166)

Per pupil revenue funding figures for pupils aged three to 19 for local authorities in the East of England between 1999-2000 and 2005-06 are shown in table 1. These figures are in real terms and are based on financial years.

Table 1: Local authority revenue funding per pupil

£

1999-2000

2000-01

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

Bedfordshire

3,360

3,660

3,860

3,980

4,040

4,200

4,410

Cambridgeshire

3,260

3,480

3,610

3,700

3,890

4,050

4,260

Essex

3,450

3,710

3,890

3,980

4,090

4,250

4,430

Hertfordshire

3,440

3,690

3,870

3,970

4,050

4,210

4,370

Luton

3,720

3,970

4,180

4,310

4,500

4,650

4,900

Norfolk

3,360

3,620

3,800

3,900

3,990

4,160

4,360

Peterborough

3,530

3,770

3,920

4,080

4,290

4,500

4,720

Southend-on-Sea

3,550

3,810

4,020

4,130

4,200

4,370

4,560

Suffolk

3,260

3,500

3,660

3,760

3,840

4,000

4,190

Thurrock

3,630

3,870

4,090

4,210

4,330

4,530

4,650

Notes:

1. Price Base: Real terms at 2008-09 prices, based on GDP deflators as at 29 September 2009.

2. Figures reflect relevant sub-blocks of standard spending assessment/education formula spending (EFS) settlements and exclude the pensions transfer to EFS and LSC.

3. Total funding also includes all revenue grants in DFES departmental expenditure limits relevant to pupils aged three to 19 and exclude education maintenance allowances (EMAs) and grants not allocated at LEA level. For those authorities in receipt of advance of grant under the transitional support arrangements for 2004-05, advance grant funding is included in the year of payment (2004-05). There will be a consequential reduction in DFES grant for these LEAs in future years (either 2006-07 and 2007-08 or 2006-07 to 2008-09, depending on the terms on which the advance was given to the LEA).

4. The pupil numbers used to convert £ million figures to £ per pupil are those underlying the SSA/EFS settlement calculations plus PLASC three-year-old maintained pupils and estimated three to four-year-olds funded through state support in maintained and other educational institutions where these are not included in the SSA pupil numbers.

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 table 2 is taken from the dedicated schools grant (DSG). They are not comparable with those for the years 1997-98 to 2005-06 (in table 1 above) because the introduction of the DSG in 2006-07 fundamentally changed how local authorities are funded.

The 1997-98 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 2008-09 DSG, the Department have isolated the schools block equivalent funding in 2005-06 (the baseline); as described above this does not represent the totality of ‘education’ funding in that year. The per pupil revenue funding figures for 2005-06 to 2008-09 (in financial years) for local authorities in the East of England are provided in Table 2. The figures are for all funded pupils aged three to19 and are in real terms.

Table 2

£

2005-06 DSG (baseline) plus grants per pupil

2006-07 DSG plus grants per pupil

2007-08 DSG plus grants per pupil

2008-09 DSG plus grants per pupil

Bedfordshire

3,970

4,100

4,260

4,320

Cambridgeshire

3,950

4,070

4,210

4,280

Essex

4,130

4,240

4,390

4,450

Hertfordshire

4,160

4,250

4,390

4,500

Luton

4,540

4,730

4,920

4,960

Norfolk

4,110

4,210

4,360

4,410

Peterborough

4,410

4,550

4,700

4,790

Southend-on-Sea

4,340

4,460

4,590

4,620

Suffolk

3,970

4,100

4,260

4,320

Thurrock

4,290

4,490

4,670

4,700

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 2008-09 prices, based on GDP deflators as at 29 September 2009.

3. These figures are for all funded pupils aged three 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.

As the 2009-10 grant data that feed into this series are not yet finalised, comparable figures for 2009-10 are not yet available.

In order to provide a per pupil figure for 2009-10, the guaranteed unit of funding for local authorities in the east of England is provided in table 3. This does not include other grants such as standards fund grants and LSC funding that is included above in tables 1 and 2, and only covers pupils aged three to 15.

Table 3: DSG guaranteed unit of funding

2009-10

£

Luton

4,402

Bedford Borough

3,998

Central Bedfordshire

3,938

Cambridgeshire

3,926

Peterborough

4,246

Essex

4,067

Southend-on-Sea

4,171

Thurrock

4,291

Hertfordshire

4,039

Norfolk

3,945

Suffolk

3,900

Note:

This includes the two new authorities as of 2009-10: Bedford borough and central Bedfordshire.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the per pupil funding for (a) primary and (b) secondary school children in Birmingham was in each of the last five years. (296204)

The per pupil revenue funding figures for primary and secondary school pupils for Birmingham 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

£

2004-05

2005-06

Primary (aged 3-10)

Secondary (aged 11-15)

Primary (aged 3-10)

Secondary (aged 11-15)

Birmingham local authority

4,250

5,430

4,570

5,760

Notes:

1. Price base: Real terms at 2008-09 prices, based on GDP deflators as at 29 September 2009.

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 three 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.

The revenue per pupil figures shown in the following table are taken from the new dedicated schools grant (DSG). 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 Birmingham 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 following figures are for all funded pupils aged three to 19 and are in real terms.

Real terms revenue funding per pupil: DSG plus grants

£

2005-06 (baseline)

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

Birmingham local authority

4,820

4,990

5,180

5,240

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 2008-09 prices, based on GDP deflators as at 29 September 2009.

3. These figures are for all funded pupils aged three 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.