Funding for hospital education is included in a local authority’s high needs funding allocation, which also supports other forms of alternative provision for pupils who cannot receive education in mainstream schools, and provision for children and young people with special education needs and disabilities. It is for local authorities to determine how to spend their high needs funding on the children and young people who require specialist provision, including education for those in hospital.

The following table shows the total high needs funding allocated to local authorities since 2013-14.

In 2017-18, local authorities planned to spend £72 million of their high needs funding on hospital education.

Since 2018-19, the amount of high needs funding each local authority receives is determined by the high needs national funding formula. The national funding formula includes an amount for hospital education, which is currently on the basis of 2017-18 planned spending, plus a 0.5% uplift in 2018-19 and a 1% uplift in 2019-20. The hospital education funding in 2018-19 totals £73 million and the provisional hospital education funding in 2019-20 is £76 million.[1]

It is our intention to replace this reliance on local authorities’ planned spending in 2017-18 with a formulaic hospital education factor that takes into account both local authority spending data and NHS patient data, therefore better responding to the number of patients needing education in each local area.

The Secretary of State has conversations with other Cabinet Ministers, on a number of issues, on a regular basis. Department for Education officials have worked with officials in the Department for Health and Social Care and the NHS to develop a hospital education factor in the national funding formula.

[1] The increase between years also includes additional funding, provided as a result of the process in which local authorities can apply if there has been a change in the medical provision in their area.

Funding for hospital education is included in a local authority’s high needs funding allocation, which also supports other forms of alternative provision for pupils who cannot receive education in mainstream schools, and provision for children and young people with special education needs and disabilities. It is for local authorities to determine how to spend their high needs funding on the children and young people who require specialist provision, including education for those in hospital.

The following table shows the total high needs funding allocated to local authorities since 2013-14.

In 2017-18, local authorities planned to spend £72 million of their high needs funding on hospital education.

Since 2018-19, the amount of high needs funding each local authority receives is determined by the high needs national funding formula. The national funding formula includes an amount for hospital education, which is currently on the basis of 2017-18 planned spending, plus a 0.5% uplift in 2018-19 and a 1% uplift in 2019-20. The hospital education funding in 2018-19 totals £73 million and the provisional hospital education funding in 2019-20 is £76 million.[1]

It is our intention to replace this reliance on local authorities’ planned spending in 2017-18 with a formulaic hospital education factor that takes into account both local authority spending data and NHS patient data, therefore better responding to the number of patients needing education in each local area.

The Secretary of State has conversations with other Cabinet Ministers, on a number of issues, on a regular basis. Department for Education officials have worked with officials in the Department for Health and Social Care and the NHS to develop a hospital education factor in the national funding formula.

[1] The increase between years also includes additional funding, provided as a result of the process in which local authorities can apply if there has been a change in the medical provision in their area.

Funding for hospital education is included in a local authority’s high needs funding allocation, which also supports other forms of alternative provision for pupils who cannot receive education in mainstream schools, and provision for children and young people with special education needs and disabilities. It is for local authorities to determine how to spend their high needs funding on the children and young people who require specialist provision, including education for those in hospital.

The following table shows the total high needs funding allocated to local authorities since 2013-14.

In 2017-18, local authorities planned to spend £72 million of their high needs funding on hospital education.

Since 2018-19, the amount of high needs funding each local authority receives is determined by the high needs national funding formula. The national funding formula includes an amount for hospital education, which is currently on the basis of 2017-18 planned spending, plus a 0.5% uplift in 2018-19 and a 1% uplift in 2019-20. The hospital education funding in 2018-19 totals £73 million and the provisional hospital education funding in 2019-20 is £76 million.[1]

It is our intention to replace this reliance on local authorities’ planned spending in 2017-18 with a formulaic hospital education factor that takes into account both local authority spending data and NHS patient data, therefore better responding to the number of patients needing education in each local area.

The Secretary of State has conversations with other Cabinet Ministers, on a number of issues, on a regular basis. Department for Education officials have worked with officials in the Department for Health and Social Care and the NHS to develop a hospital education factor in the national funding formula.

[1] The increase between years also includes additional funding, provided as a result of the process in which local authorities can apply if there has been a change in the medical provision in their area.

Information on academy trust transfers (where academies move from one trust to another) and grant funding is published annually in a statistical official release. Information on transfer grant funding provided during the five financial years to the end of March 2018, is available on GOV.UK. Information on transfer grant funding up to the end of March 2019 will be published in the 2018-19 release due in July 2019, and will include funding for schools formerly in Wakefield City Academies Trust (WCAT), because the transfers have taken place during the April to March 2018-19 financial year.

The department has worked with all the schools that were in WCAT and their new trusts to provide appropriate support and resources, including funding, so that each of the schools has what they require to improve pupil outcomes and secure the financial future for those schools.

In answer to part (a) how much money has been spent in total and part (c) how much money has been spent on teacher recruitment, I refer the hon. Member for Bradford East, to the answer I gave on 11 June 2018 to Question 140739 https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-05-02/140739/.

This sets out how the government has spent or committed more than £70 million to support educational improvement in the North, including on teacher recruitment.

In answer to part (b), we are not able to provide a total figure for Bradford as some funding, such as funding to grow the capacity of multi-academy trusts, is spent or allocated to support schools across more than one local authority. Some examples of how the Department is supporting Bradford schools are set out below:

• We are supporting teacher recruitment and providing tailored support to some of the schools facing significant recruitment and retention issues. We have already started to support a number of schools in Bradford and will increase that support over the next two years through the tailored support programme.
• We are also investing in Bradford’s teachers through the Opportunity Area (OA). Bradford4Teaching is the city’s innovative campaign to attract the best teachers to live, work and build a career in Bradford. The campaign was developed and has been delivered in partnership by Bradford Council and the Northern Lights Teaching School Alliance. Through the OA programme, we are committed to invest at least £250,000 to extend the campaign. The Department is also committing an additional £1.5 million to support school improvement in Bradford’s most challenging schools through the OA programme. In total, as part of the OA programme, we are spending £72 million across 12 areas of the country facing challenges and Bradford will benefit from a share of that.
• The regional academy growth fund supports successful trusts to grow and to improve standards in underperforming schools. Schools in Bradford that are underperforming have already benefited from this funding.
• Through the Strategic School Improvement Fund, five applicants are supporting a total of 43 schools in Bradford. Two of the five applicants are exclusively supporting 31 Bradford schools and have been awarded funding totalling £807,970. The remaining three applications are supporting a total of 78 schools at a cost of £809,157. 12 of these schools are located in Bradford but it is not possible to isolate spend for the Bradford schools.

The department has worked with all the schools and the new trusts to provide appropriate support and resources, including funding, so that each of the schools has what they require to improve pupil outcomes and secure the financial future for those schools.

Further detail on funding for the schools and their new trusts remains sensitive at this stage in the process. The department annually publishes transparency data on a key strand of relevant funding: ‘Academy trust transfers and grant funding’. This provides information on grant funding given to schools and trusts. The data shows funding provided where academies have joined new trusts in the financial year 2013-17 until 2016-17. Additional grant information for the year 2017-18 will be published in July 2018.