Today, the Secretary of State for Education announced in the House of Commons that her Department will be providing an additional £1.3 billion of investment into the core schools budget. This additional funding will mean that the £41 billion budget for schools over 2017-2018 will increase to £42.4 billion by 2018-19 and to £43.5 billion by 2019-2020. With this investment, the Department for Education is able to increase the percentage allocated to pupil led factors and this formula settlement to 2019-20 will provide at least £4,800 per pupil for every secondary school. Speaking in the debate, the Secretary of State for Education confirmed: “Local authorities will continue to set a local formula, as they do now, for determining individual schools’ budgets in 2018-19 and 2019-20, in consultation with schools in the area. I will shortly publish the operational guide to allow them to begin that process. To support their planning, I am also confirming now that in 2018-19, all local authorities will receive some increase over the amount they plan to spend on schools and high needs in 2017-18. We will confirm gains for local authorities, based on the final formula, in September.” Speaking after the announcement, Jonathan Djanogly said, “I have been campaigning during all of my time as an MP, against Cambridgeshire’s position at or close to the bottom of the league table regarding school funding and therefore welcome this latest announcement by the Secretary of State. I have made multiple representations to the Department for Education working with local Councillors, and led a delegation of all the county’s Conservative MPs to lobby the Education Minister. The Minister said at that meeting, and subsequently publicly, that the system is unfair and that the funding formula would be reformed. Whilst we must wait for the full details to be published, this initial investment underpins the Government’s commitment to ensure the UK has a world class education system.” | Letter from Secretary of State for Education