Schools getting less than they thought

There is more money for capital works

By Gary Eason BBC News Online education staff

Schools in England are waking up to the fact that a lump sum they thought they were getting - apparently announced in the Budget - does not exist.

The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, said in his Budget speech that "direct payments" to secondary head teachers would be £114,000 and payments to a typical primary school would be £39,300.

He was careful to mention "capital investment" but added that it was "money to be spent for the school's priorities, on the school, by the school itself."

This was widely taken to be the same sort of lump sum he had previously given to schools to spend as they wished. It is not.

Little is new

When he said a typical primary school with 250 pupils would get £39,300 it will get £24,700 to spend as it wants - the recurrent "school standards grant", now in its third year, which had been announced already.

The rest is a £14,622 capital allocation - of which £12,185 was already in schools' budgets for this year.

The new money is £2,437 - which also has to be spent on capital projects.

The secondary head's £114,000 is £72,000 of recurrent funding and £42,732 capital - of which £7,122 is new.

Click here to see how much schools are getting

'Misled'

The general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, David Hart, said: "I think head teachers were seriously misled by the Chancellor's Budget statement.

"They certainly took it to mean new money which was going to make a major difference to their budgets this year but it's clearly nothing like that."

His association's annual conference in Torquay next week would be debating the fact that the budget situation for many schools was "very, very tight".

The general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, John Dunford, also thought Gordon Brown was referring to a lump sum direct to schools.

"Heads set great store by the flexibility of this money," he said.

Diverted

"Far too much government money is earmarked and the core budgets of schools this year are showing little sign of the increased funding that the government says it is putting into education."

He suspects much of it is being diverted by local education authorities for purposes other than education.

"The beauty of the school standards grant is that it bypasses all that," he said.

"The governing body and the head had complete flexibility in its use and we need far more in that way."

Although it is not literally a cheque straight to the school - technically it comes via the local education authority along with the rest of a school's money - it has to be passed on in its entirety.

As one funding expert put it, "it doesn't touch the sides" and cannot be diverted to other uses.

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The table below shows the new capital schools are getting, the amount of direct "standards grant", and the total Gordon Brown was referring to.

Type and size of school	Extra capital £	School Standards grant £	Total £
Primary, Nursery, PRU
100 pupils	1,874	7,200	18,448
200 pupils	2,250	13,900	27,398
400 pupils	3,000	24,700	42,696
Typical primary: 250 pupils	2,437	24,700	39,322
600 pupils	3,749	30,900	53,393
800 pupils	4,499	49,400	76,391
Secondary, CTCs
600 pupils	4,874	59,600	88,840
1,200 pupils	8,247	72,000	121,479
Typical secondary: 1,000 pupils	7,122	72,000	114,732
1,800 pupils	11,620	84,300	154,018
Special schools
100 pupils	2,624	20,600	36,346
200 pupils	3,749	28,800	51,293

Source: Department for Education and Skills

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