Impact of National Funding Formula

“…if the PHS was geographically somewhere else…!?!”

…using Poynton High School as an example of the impact of funding challenges that all schools in our region face

Dear Parent/Carer

This document is my attempt to pull together an illustration of the impact of the proposed National Funding Formula (NFF). The tables are rather detailed and therefore I have supplemented them with some commentary text boxes. Apologies in advance for the complex nature of this and therefore if you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch: [email protected]

Yours faithfully

Mr David Waugh Head Teacher

Cheshire East will officially become the lowest funded region in Cheshire East will be funded £84.28 per England if (and when) the NFF is applied) student less than the second worst funded region (Rutland). For Poynton High School, that equates to £100,124.64 per year less than if we were the second most poorly

funded English region.

Other regions, for example,

Cheshire West and Chester, will see a greater percentage reduction in their funding but they will still be funded at a higher rate per student.

th Pre-NFF Cheshire East was the 6 lowest funded region in England

Under the NFF, Cheshire East falls 5

places in the rankings to bottom place. Other regions improve their position, e.g. Wokingham, others

worsen, e.g. Trafford.

The greatest losers in percentage terms tend to be the London Boroughs

BUT…they are still funded at a MUCH higher rate than Cheshire East is, and will be.

For example, £5,177.39 per student in Nottingham, £4,122.12 in Cheshire East. Place our school in Nottingham Local Authority and we would be £1,253,660.76 better funded, per year, EVERY year.

Cheshire East is the 22nd “worst” hit in terms of percentage loss under the NFF redistribution of money

This column demonstrates the level of funding PHS would receive now if it was in a different neighbouring local authority. For example, if PHS was in Manchester we would receive £1,044,252 more per year than we do at present. If we were funded at the national average we would receive £621,324 more per year than we do at present. If we were in Stockport we would receive £3564 less than we already do.

This column demonstrates the level of funding PHS would receive after the NFF was applied if it were in a neighbouring local authority. So for example, previously we would get £3,564 less if we were in Stockport, after the NFF is applied, we would receive £142,560 more per year if we were in Stockport.

Every school is judged against its “statistical neighbours”. In The best ranked school within our group is from Coventry. other words, how our students perform as compared to students Before the NFF is applied, if our school was in Coventry, we in schools whose intake is officially judged to be VERY similar to would receive £775,764 more per year. After the NFF is applied, ours. The table below demonstrates the funding differences we would receive £740,124 between our school and those “top 10” statistical neighbours.

The average funding difference of our “top 10” statistical

neighbours is £353,311 per year, before the NFF is applied and £545,410 per year after the NFF is applied.

It is important to note that these “top 10” schools are officially being classified as similar to Poynton High School…same

demographic, same in-take, same prior attainment levels, same levels of Pupil Premium, same levels of students with Special Educational Needs, same levels of population deprivation, etc. Wider Financial Challenges

You may have seen recently a lot of media coverage regarding the wider financial challenges that schools are facing, for example, a recent National Audit Office report officially judged that schools need to find approximately 8% of savings. This figure is very accurate, if a little under estimating, and is generated from four main changes to how schools operate as employers:

- The introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy; PHS will have to pay approximately £30,000 per year for this levy. - Reduction in Employer’s National Insurance rebate for all staff; as schools we used to get a rebate on Employer’s National Insurance Contribution. The removal of this rebate will cost us an extra 3.4% of salaries - Increase in Employer’s Contribution to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme; this is an increase of approximately 4% of salaries - Increase in Employer’s Contribution to the Local Government Pension Scheme for Support Staff; this is an increase of approximately 10% due to the enormous deficits within the Local Government Pension Schemes.

I appreciate that such figures may not have much meaning to you. A practical example would be that due to the changes in costs as an employer, an experienced teacher is now £2168 per year more expensive than they were two years ago and this is before any pay rises or inflationary pressures. That is an extra £2168 in employer costs.

When you put all of this together, our exceptional and high achieving staff here at PHS are approximately £690,000 more expensive to employ in financial year 2017-18 than this exact staff body would have been to employ in financial year 2014-15.

This represents an approximate 9.2% increase in our cost base as a school.

The National Funding Formula does not take into account an individual schools’ staffing costs or acknowledge the year on year rising employers’ costs.