Unions says county schools are facing a funding crisis

A teachers' trade union has claimed Lincolnshire schools will be almost £45m worse off by 2019/20 than they were in 2015/16.
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The National Union of Teachers (NUT) claims funding to schools in Lincolnshire will be cut by £44,975,691 between 2015 and 2020.

The Union also claims that new data shows that 16 out of 328 schools in Lincolnshire face addditional cuts of £763,980 after 
2020.

The figures are based on details from the website www.schoolcuts.org.uk which is published by the NUT and other teacher unions.

The site compares each school’s funding in 2015-16 with the funding the Government predicts those schools will receive in 2019-20 under its proposed new National Funding Formula (NFF).

The union claims the figures are adjusted for the impact of inflation and cost increases imposed on schools.

NUT Secretary Mr Ken Rustidge said: “The Government are breaking their promise to protect school budgets.

Parents in Lincolnshire should be deeply concerned by these damaging cuts that hit almost every school. “

Debbie Barnes, Director of Children’s Services at Lincolnshire County Council, did not comment specifically on the figures.

However, she said the County Council was pressing for a fairer funding deal.

She said: “For some years now, we’ve been campaigning for a fairer deal for Lincolnshire schools and we’ve responded robustly to the government’s consultation on the national formula.

“Under the proposed plans, some schools would see a drop in funding and whilst we welcome the increase for some schools, we do not think that any school in 
Lincolnshire should see a budget reduction as we are already one of the worse funded Local Authority areas for school funding.

“We need to ensure that all our schools have a core budget to deliver full-time, high quality education in appropriate class sizes.

“I’m deeply concerned that the current proposals will not enable our schools to do this and leave some in a vulnerable position.”

“The plans are still based on historic calculations and do not reflect the unique challenges we face with our schools in a large rural authority

“I hope the government will listen to our concerns and look again at the formula.”

*Union figures for individual schools in Lincolnshire are available at www.schoolcuts.org.uk.