WORK has started on the process which will see schools in North Yorkshire benefit from improved funding.
Backed with £500m of additional cash announced in the Budget, consultation has started on finding a new formula for distributing money to the nation’s schools.
The existing formula penalises areas like North Yorkshire. Many rural schools receive hundreds of pounds less per pupil than schools in urban areas.
Rishi Sunak, MP for Richmond, who has campaigned for a new formula to put right the longstanding injustice, said the consultation was an important step towards making sure children in North Yorkshire were treated fairly.
The review of the schools funding formula was announced at the end of last year and in last week’s Budget the Chancellor, George Osborne, announced that he had set aside £500m of additional funding to improve the formula.
Mr Sunak said: “Many constituents backed my campaign and petition to make sure North Yorkshire pupils didn’t receive hundreds of pounds less than pupils in some urban areas so I am delighted that there will be extra money to facilitate the process.”
He added that the Chancellor had said the new National Funding Formula for schools would be completed by 2017/18 and 90 per cent of the schools which would benefit from the new arrangements would receive the extra money by 2020.
Mr Sunak launched his campaign soon after taking office last May. The petition calling on the Government to act was formally launched in October at an education forum held at Scotch Corner attended by headteachers and governors from primary schools through the constituency. He also held events in Northallerton and Stokesley town centres, talking to constituents about the issue and gathering signatures.
The petition was presented to No 10 Downing Street by the headteacher and three pupils from schools at West Burton, Askrigg and Bainbridge in the Yorkshire Dales.
The new funding formula will be based more closely to pupils’ needs in a particular area rather than spending patterns based on historic out-of-date criteria. Under the current system pupils in North Yorkshire and other predomiantly rural areas receive about £400 per head less than pupils in some cities.