We are committed to making this a country where everyone has a fair chance to go as far as his or her talent and hard work will allow. The pupil premium provides schools with significant additional funding - £2.5bn this year alone – to raise the achievement of their disadvantaged pupils and so close the attainment gap. Our guarantee to maintain current per-pupil funding levels for the rest of this Parliament will ensure schools continue to have the support they need to improve disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes.

This year, disadvantaged pupils in South Cambridgeshire will benefit from £2.6 million in pupil premium funding.

We are determined to give every child, regardless of their background, the very best start in life. Both free school meals (FSM) and pupil premium (which links to FSM eligibility) are key to this and we want all parents whose children are entitled FSM, to apply for them.

The current eligibility criteria for FSM requires the parent (or pupil) to be both in receipt of a specified benefit and to make a request for the meal to be provided free of charge.

To support this the Department for Education provides an electronic Eligibility Checking System (ECS), which allows local authorities to check data held by DWP, the Home Office and HMRC in order to establish FSM eligibility. The Department has also provided a model registration form and accompanying guidance, which schools can use as part of their enrolment process.

We want to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility for FSM, and the Department is looking at what can be done in the longer term to make the FSM registration processes even more efficient.

We want all pupils to be healthy and active. This is why since 2013 the government has invested over £600m of ring-fenced funding to primary schools to improve PE through the Primary PE and Sport Premium.

As announced in Budget 2016, from September 2017 revenue from the soft drinks industry levy will be used to double the funding for the Premium to £320 million a year, enabling schools to further improve the quality and breadth of PE and sport that they offer.

We are currently reviewing how best to allocate the doubled funding for September 2017 onwards, and will announce further details in due course.

We have been consulting on a national funding formula for high needs, to be implemented in 2018-19. As part of consultation, we have confirmed that for the time being we will continue to distribute funding for the education of children in hospital on the basis of local authorities’ current spending. These amounts are included in the high needs block of the dedicated schools grant that local authorities receive from the Education Funding Agency.

We are exploring with representatives from hospital schools and others how to devise a fairer distribution of funding for hospital education in future. In the meantime, we will continue to make any funding adjustments needed from year to year to reflect recent or forthcoming changes in hospital provision for children. The Education Funding Agency is currently finalising the hospital education adjustments that will be included in local authorities’ dedicated schools grant allocations for 2017-18.

All‎ schools are provided with funding to support children with special educational needs, including those with dyslexia.

In addition to funding through the Dedicated Schools Grant, since 2010, the Government has invested over £19 million to develop the capacity, skills and knowledge of the special educational needs and disability workforce, in schools; and £6 million specifically to train teachers working with children with dyslexia. This funding also supported the establishment of a robust framework to ensure these specialist teachers have the right training; and a National Scholarship Fund, which enabled staff to further develop their practice for supporting children with Special Educational Needs.

From April 2016 until March 2018, we are providing the British Dyslexia Association with £1.25m to deliver training to teachers’ ‎to support early identification of learning difficulties, including dyslexia.

The Secretary of State for Education confirmed the Government’s ambition to support all young people to stay safe and prepare for life in modern Britain by making Relationships Education (Primary), Relationships and Sex Education (RSE - Secondary) and, subject to the outcome of a thorough consideration of the subject, Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE - both) statutory in all schools. The government amended the Children and Social Work Bill on 1 March 2017, and intends the new statutory subjects to come into effect from September 2019.

In advance, the Department for Education intends to conduct thorough and wide-ranging engagement on the subjects – considering subject content, school practice and quality of delivery - to determine the content of the regulations and statutory guidance, which will then be consulted on.

This process will look closely at potential associated costs, taking into consideration the fact that most schools are already delivering PSHE in some form and there is extensive existing good practice to learn from. The Department has been clear that schools will continue to be supported to deliver high-quality teaching.

Schools are currently funded through the formula set by their local authority, which often uses factors such as low prior attainment and free school meals to give an estimate of the number of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) a school is likely to have. Where the cost of additional support for a child with SEN in the mainstream schools exceeds £6,000, the local authority also provides top-up funding to the school from its high needs budget. Local authorities can also give additional funding from their high needs budgets to schools that have a high concentration of pupils with SEN.

We are currently consulting on proposals for new national funding formulae for both schools and high needs, which will be introduced in 2018-19. These proposals will not change the flexibility that local authorities have to move funding from their high needs budgets to schools.

As a result of our proposals, North Tyneside Council’s funding for high needs pupils would increase by 1.8% and schools in the area would see, on average, a 0.6% increase in their funding

The Department awarded character grants in the last two years to celebrate the excellent variety of character programmes inside and outside schools across the country. In addition to this, the department also invited bids for the 2016/17 character grants, which we are currently considering.

Mainstream schools are currently funded through the formula set by their local authority, in consultation with its schools. The local funding formula often uses factors such as low prior attainment and free school meals to give an estimate of the number of children with special educational needs (SEN) a school is likely to have.

Local authorities are required to delegate funds, through these and other formula factors, to a level that enables schools to meet the additional cost of pupils with SEN, up to £6,000 per annum. When the costs of additional support required for a pupil with SEN exceed £6,000, local authorities should allocate top-up funding from its high needs budget to cover the excess costs. The local authority can also give additional funding from its high needs budget to schools that have a disproportionate number of pupils with SEN.

The Department is currently consulting on national funding formulae for schools and high needs, which will make funding fairer by matching funding to children’s needs and the schools they attend. The consultations can be found at https://consult.education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/schools-national-funding-formula2/ and https://consult.education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/high-needs-funding-reform-2/

In the meantime, in 2016-17 the Department provided local authorities with £92.5 million of additional funding for high needs, and will be providing a further £130 million in 2017-18.

In January 2016, 939 of 9,413 pupils (10.0%) in primary schools in Ashfield constituency were identified with special educational needs (SEN). These pupils will have either a learning difficulty or a disability which requires educational provision which is additional to, or different from, that made generally for others of the same age. It includes both those pupils benefiting from a statutory plan (either a Statement of SEN or an Education, Health and Care plan) and those in receipt of SEN Support. All of those identified with SEN are provided with additional help in school (special educational provision), but data is not available on the numbers in receipt of additional funding that is provided by the local authority and the numbers who receive their support through the school budget.

We want all pupils to be healthy and active. That is why through the primary PE and sport premium, the Government has invested over £600million of ring-fenced funding to primary schools to improve PE and sport since 2013.

But we know there is more to do, which is why I am pleased that revenue from the soft drinks industry levy will be used to double the primary PE and sport premium to £320million a year from September 2017, enabling schools to further improve the quality and breadth of PE and sport that they offer.

We continue to work with the sector to determine how the funding should be allocated and further details will be announced in due course.

Local authority school and high needs expenditure is published in section 251 and can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/section-251-materials.

Warrington Borough Council’s schools and high needs expenditure for the financial years 2013-14 to 2016-17 is as follows:

* Figures are after academy recoupment so are not comparable to 2015-16 and 2016-17, which are before academy recoupment

The figures show that both schools expenditure and high needs expenditure are budgeted to increase between 2015-16 and 2016-17.

It is for a school’s governing body (or the academy trust) to decide what their school uniform should be and how it should be sourced. The Department has issued guidance for all schools on the need to give highest priority to cost considerations when setting their uniform policy. The guidance emphasises the importance of ensuring that uniform is easily available and affordable for all parents.

Local authorities and academies have discretion within their budgets to provide school clothing grants or to help with the cost of school clothing in cases of financial hardship. Our guidance states that individual schools may also consider running their own schemes to provide assistance.

It is for a school’s governing body (or the academy trust) to decide what their school uniform should be and how it should be sourced. The Department has issued guidance for all schools on the need to give highest priority to cost considerations when setting their uniform policy. The guidance emphasises the importance of ensuring that uniform is easily available and affordable for all parents.

Local authorities and academies have discretion within their budgets to provide school clothing grants or to help with the cost of school clothing in cases of financial hardship. Our guidance states that individual schools may also consider running their own schemes to provide assistance.

The list of 6 trusts and the 24 schools that were rebrokered, together with the number of schools in those trusts when the financial notices were issued, can be seen in the table below.

There is one FNTI that has been issued but has not yet been published. The trust under this FNTI has had one school rebrokered and cannot be included in the table at this stage.

(a) The reported incidents of financial malpractice and irregularity (includes fraud, theft and irregularity) in free schools and academies in the last three financial years are set out in the table below. The proportion of each type of academy or free school they have occurred in is recorded in the corresponding brackets.

Totals of % may not add up due to rounding

January Census data each year:

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-and-pupil-numbers

Local authorities are responsible for the financial management of maintained schools, and they will usually be the point of contact for any allegations of financial impropriety. The Department for Education is careful not to overburden local authorities with monitoring requirements. Local authorities are required to provide an annual assurance that school funding has been used properly. However, the Department does not centrally monitor the number of allegations reported to each local authority

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) provides a Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) for eligible academies to access. The table below sets out the number of CIF applications made by primary and secondary schools for projects to address their building condition needs over the years specified:

The Government will invest £23 billion in the school estate over this Parliament to create additional places and for essential maintenance, rebuilding and refurbishment. Within this, there is no ring-fenced funding dedicated to the installation of sprinklers in schools, but where it is concluded that sprinklers must be fitted to protect property or keep children safe, they will be. Their cost will be included in the overall funding for the project.

There has not been a change in the eligibility criteria for free school meals (FSM) since 2013 when Universal Credit was added to the list of qualifying benefits. Nationally, the proportion of pupils eligible for FSM has continued to fall across all age groups due to improvements in the economy over recent years.

FSM rates are used to determine pupil premium funding, and are targeted to each pupil who has been registered for FSM at any point in the last six years. FSM rates can also be used to determine a school’s core budget. Local authorities devise their own formulae through which they distribute the Dedicated Schools Grant to schools in their locality. They must include a deprivation factor, and can allocate this funding on the basis of FSM status, an area level measure of deprivation, or both. The core schools budget has been protected in real terms for the duration of this Parliament.

Revenue from the soft drinks industry levy will be used to double the PE and sport premium for primary schools in England from £160million a year to £320million from September 2017. This will enable schools to make further improvements to the quality and breadth of PE and sport they offer, including introducing new activities and after school clubs, and hiring specialist coaches to work alongside teachers.

Schools currently receive an average of between £8,000 and £9,000 a year from the premium, depending on pupil numbers. We are currently reviewing how best to allocate the doubled funding for September 2017 onwards, and will announce further details in due course.