Funding for education is a priority for this government. As announced at the Spending Review, we have protected the core schools budget in real terms. This year the schools budget will total around £40 billion. We are also committed to making funding fairer by introducing a national funding formula. A national funding formula will ensure that all schools are on an even starting point from which to build educational excellence. This is because a national funding formula will recognise pupil need, and pupils with similar needs will attract the same amount of funding wherever they are in the country.

Nationally we have protected the core schools budget in real terms to the end of the current Spending Review period, enabling a per-pupil protection for the dedicated schools grant so that the money available for our schools will increase as pupil numbers rise.

The DSG allocations for Birmingham in 2016-17 are found in the table below:

Birmingham DSG allocations 2016-17

Allocations for future years will be announced in due course.

We believe that schools should be funded on a consistent and predictable basis, which is why we have proposed to introduce a National Funding Formula. The first stage of our two part consultation closed on 17 April and we are currently considering all the responses. We will be launching the second stage of the consultation, which will include illustrative allocations for all schools and local areas, later in the year.

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue and for contributing to the recent debate on education funding in London. The second stage of our consultation will detail the impact of the formula on schools. I understand the importance of giving schools stability and budget security, but in advance of that consultation it would not be appropriate to speculate on the specific impact of the formula. That would be unfair to schools and parents.

As a long-term governor, and having visited the outstanding Bevington school in Kensington this morning, will the Minister talk about the area school cost adjustment in respect of meeting the higher costs and vulnerability of schools in London?

Educational standards improved dramatically in London under the previous Labour Government, a timely reminder of the virtue of Labour winning elections. In the Minister’s attempt rightly to increase funding to levels needed across the rest of the country, will he confirm that school budgets in London will not suffer, thereby setting back the enormous progress that has been made?

Is the Minister aware that schools in my constituency in west London are already having to implement the biggest cuts to their budgets they have ever made? Will he assure the head teachers I met this morning that there will be no further cuts when fair funding comes in?

What plans she has to ensure that reform of the school funding formula does not have a negative effect on schools in London.

Children and young people’s mental health is a priority for the Department. We have high aspirations for all children and young people and we want them to be able to fulfil their potential. Good mental health is core to them achieving that outcome. To help children and young people maintain good mental health and access support when they need it, we provide a range of information, tools and guidance to enable schools and colleges to provide appropriate direct support for their pupils and to work collaboratively with health services and other providers.

When diagnosable mental health problems occur, schools and colleges need to be able to refer pupils to specialist support from Child and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHS), voluntary organisations and local GPs. To improve coordination between services the Department for Education and NHS England have run a joint £3m pilot between schools and CAMHS in 255 schools across 27 Clinical Commissioning Groups. This pilot aimed to improve knowledge and understanding of mental health issues, develop and maintain effective joint working practices and to test the concept of having a 'single point of contact' in both schools and CAMHS. The outcomes from the pilot are being independently evaluated and a full report is expected by the end of this year with early findings very positive. We are currently working on plans to both extend the reach of the pilots and scale up activity in existing areas.

We have published a blueprint for school counselling services which provides schools with practical, evidence-based advice, informed by schools and by counselling experts, on how to deliver high quality school-based counselling to support those pupils with particular needs: www.gov.uk/government/publications/counselling-in-schools

To help teachers to identify those pupils who need help we have issued advice on behaviour and mental health[1]. In addition we funded the PSHE Association (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education)[2] to provide mental health guidance and lesson plans which support age-appropriate teaching, dealing with emotions and helping teachers to talk to children about their anxieties and worries.

Whilst not an alternative to professional interventions, peer support programmes have the potential to provide effective additional support for pupils facing anxiety issues or other concerns. We are looking at encouraging the provision of quality peer support in schools and colleges, community groups and online. We have announced £1.5m of funding for this work, and are currently reviewing the findings from a national call for evidence.

[1] www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-behaviour-in-schools--2

[2] www.pshe-association.org.uk

A funding agreement is contract between the Secretary of State and an academy trust. The model funding agreement states that the agreement can be terminated under the following grounds: termination by either party; by warning notice; by the Secretary of State after inspection; by the Secretary of State; and a change of control.

The Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) are civil servants, and as such, carry out their duties in the name of the Secretary of State. The RSCs have powers to make a decision, on behalf of the Secretary of State, to replace a sponsor or trust, where they have not been able to secure necessary improvements. In some circumstances, the funding agreement may be terminated as part of the process.

As with other areas of their responsibility, RSCs escalate decisions to the National Schools Commissioner or the relevant minister where they are sensitive, raise issues of interpretation of government policy, or relate to urgent safeguarding or extremism concerns.

The decision to terminate a funding agreement that results in the closure of an academy is made by the Secretary of State.

Listed below are the numbers of academy closures and re-brokerages by region since the RSCs’ appointment in September 2014:

Appropriate arrangements are currently in place to ensure that school spending is transparent. Details of income and expenditure in all maintained schools and academies are published annually by the department in Statistical First Releases, available on GOV.UK. The Permanent Secretary’s Accountability System Statement sets out in detail the accountability system for education, including maintained schools and academies, and for children’s services.

While we are always interested in improving transparency and accountability in spending by schools we have no current plans for changes.

Funding for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) is allocated to local authorities through the dedicated schools grant, which includes both funding to be delegated to mainstream schools, and funding for the additional costs associated with educating children and young people with high needs.

Schools are funded through a formula set by their local authority, and local authorities are required to delegate funds to a level that enables schools to meet the additional cost of pupils with SEN up to £6,000 per annum. It is for individual schools to decide how they allocate their overall budget to ensure they meet the specific needs of children with learning difficulties.

For those pupils whose additional support costs more than £6,000 the local authority pays top-up funding to the schools from their high needs budget. Top-up funding rates are for local authorities to agree with their schools.

The high needs allocation, within the dedicated schools grant, for the Greater Manchester local authorities in each of the last three years were as set out below:

We do not hold information on the total funding for supporting children with learning difficulties allocated to schools in the Manchester, Withington constituency or in the Greater Manchester area.

Total pupil premium allocations for schools in Coventry local authority for each year are:

It is important that school funding is allocated fairly and transparently according to need. The proposed national funding formula will put an end to the unfair arrangements whereby pupils who live in one local area attract more funding than pupils, with the same characteristics, who live in another area. In the first stage of the consultation we set out the principles behind the formula, and the factors we propose to include. We will set out further details in the second stage of the consultation which will launch later this year.

The department does not provide any additional funding to local authorities in the financial year that a new secondary school is established.

We do provide funding to academy trusts to cover essential expenditure to establish a new school before it opens. New schools receive funding for a limited number of years after the school opens to cover the start-up costs associated with running a new school which cannot be met from core funding. Details of these grants can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/487778/Free_Schools_application_process_-_background_information_and_glossary.pdf

Where a local authority opens a new school (to meet basic need in that area), the local authority is responsible for providing the site for the new school and meeting associated capital and start-up costs, which it is expected to do from its Dedicated Schools Grant allocation and its basic need capital allocation.

Schools have the autonomy to decide on the provision of mental health support. We have recently commissioned an extensive survey which will provide nationally representative estimates of what provision schools and colleges offer for mental health and character education. The fieldwork will begin in the summer term.

We have also contributed to a £3m joint pilot with NHS England for training single points of contact in schools and specialist mental health services, to ensure that children and young people have timely access to specialist support where needed.

Funding for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) is allocated to local authorities through the dedicated schools grant, which includes both funding to be delegated to mainstream schools, and funding for the additional costs associated with educating children and young people with high needs.

Schools are funded through a formula set by their local authority, and local authorities are required to delegate funds to a level that enables schools to meet the additional cost of pupils with SEN up to £6,000 per annum. It is for individual schools to decide how they allocate their overall budget to ensure they meet the specific needs of children with learning difficulties.

For those pupils whose additional support costs more than £6,000 the local authority pays top-up funding to the schools from their high needs budget. Top-up funding rates are for local authorities to agree with their schools.

Northamptonshire County Council’s high needs allocation, within the dedicated schools grant, in each of the last three years was as follows:

• 2013-14 – £64.37 million

• 2014-15 – £65.74 million

• 2015-16 – £66.32 million.

We do not hold information on the total funding allocated by Northamptonshire County Council to schools in Corby and East Northamptonshire.

The first stage of a two-part consultation for national funding formulae for schools and high needs closed on 17 April. We are currently considering the responses. We will publish the second stage of the consultation later this year, alongside the government’s response to the first stage of the consultation. This second stage will set out the detailed design of the formulas, and will provide illustrative allocations for all schools and areas.

We have proposed to introduce the new national funding formulae from 2017-18.

We have had one piece of correspondence on milk from a school in recent months. The Department does not collect data on the consumption of milk. The revised School Food Standards are effective from 1 January 2015 and designed to be easier to read and implement. A full public consultation on the School Food Standards regulations was held between 6 March and 16 April 2014. All schools were subsequently notified of the guidance through our termly communications with schools. The standards and guidance are available on gov.uk at:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1603/contents/made

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standards-for-school-food-in-england

http://www.schoolfoodplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/School-Food-Standards-Guidance-FINAL-140911-V2C.pdf

We have had one piece of correspondence on milk from a school in recent months. The Department does not collect data on the consumption of milk. The revised School Food Standards are effective from 1 January 2015 and designed to be easier to read and implement. A full public consultation on the School Food Standards regulations was held between 6 March and 16 April 2014. All schools were subsequently notified of the guidance through our termly communications with schools. The standards and guidance are available on gov.uk at:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1603/contents/made

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standards-for-school-food-in-england

http://www.schoolfoodplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/School-Food-Standards-Guidance-FINAL-140911-V2C.pdf