£3.6 million slashed from Southport school funding

Photo: Meols Cop High hit for £224,000 cut

£3.6 million slashed from Southport school funding

Southport schools to lose £3.6 million in funding with KGV and Meols Cop hit hardest

Just £3.6 million is set to be lost by schools in Southport under new government proposals with KGV, Meols Cop and Christ the King losing the most funding.

89 teachers in Southport will also lose their jobs, warn the National Union of Teachers.

The figure, which will come as a damning blow to teachers, parents and school governors, has been revealed in a new report by the National Union Of Teachers.

It shows that between now and 2020, if new government ‘Fair Funding reforms’ are agreed, Southport schools will lose, on average, nearly £350 per pupil.

Unlike previous years the government want to introduce a scheme  where the funding each pupil attracts to their school is determined nationally.

While this means schools in rural areas will benefit more, other schools, like those in Southport, will miss out.

Overall schools in Ainsdale, Birkdale and Southport will lose funding of around £3.6million before 2020 if the proposals are passed.

KGV will lose the most, according to the figures from the NUT, with the Scarisbrick New Road based college losing £320,000 in funding and the loss of eight teacher positions.

Meols Cop also fares badly with the high school set to lose £224,000 in the next three years.

All figures have been calculated in real terms, under current Government policies.

These include plans to reallocate school budgets according to a new national funding formula, and not increasing funding per pupil in line with inflation.

The proposed changes are not set to be debated until 2018 but the NUT are worried that they will be passed without much opposition.

A spokesperson for the NUT said: “Schools are already struggling financially and the government’s proposed ‘Fair Funding’ reforms will not make matters any better.

“Without additional funding, a new funding formula will simply spread an already inadequate amount of money around more thinly.

“For every school which gains from this, others will lose – and almost every school will lose when the impact of inflation and other cost increases, against which the Government’s funding freeze offers no protection, are also taken into account.

“Unless the Government allocates additional money, schools and academies will lose huge amounts of money – rising to £2.5 billion a year in real terms by 2020.

“We estimate that 92% of schools could lose out, even after the introduction of a new funding formula. These cuts will hurt us all.

“The NUT is calling on the Government to take immediate action to inject much needed money into an already beleaguered system and protect schools from rising costs.

“It is the only sensible solution to a crisis with which schools are already dealing and which is set to get worse.”

Southport MP and Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Education, John Pugh, has said; “The imposition of this apparently ‘fair funding’ scheme will see our local schools, along with most across the country, lose out.

“Although a new formula is needed, the lack of money behind it coupled with a sharp rise in the overheads schools face through increased pension and national insurance costs makes for big headaches for heads. It does not help that the government are wasting money on setting up new grammar schools and forced academisation.

“Headteachers in England are having to seriously consider whether to cut the school week, or even more teachers jobs, whilst having to try and give our children the best possible education. These cuts won’t make that job any easier.”

The full list of schools and the funding they are expected to lose are:

Ainsdale St Johns: £98,000
Birkdale Primary School £152,000
Birkdale High School £150,000
Bishop David Sheppard: £152,000
Christ The King: £247,000
Churchtown Primary: £179,000
Farnborough: £155,000
Greenbank High: £238,000
Holy Family: £92,000
Holy Trinity: £115,000
Kew Woods: £190,000
Kings Meadow: £48,000
King George V: £320,000
Larkfield: £138,000
Linaker: £169,000
Marshside Primary: £57,000
Meols Cop High: £224,000
Norwood: £188,000
Our Lady Of Lourdes: £168,000
Shoreside: £58,000
Stanley High: £198,000
St Johns: £60,000
St Patricks: £118,000
St Philip’s: £91,000
St Theresa’s: £59,000

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