The new Secretary of State for Education, Justine Greening MP, reconfirmed in the House of Commons on Thursday, 21^st July that a New Funding Formula for Schools ("Fair Funding") would be introduced as soon as possible.

The new formula is incredibly important as, once introduced, it is likely to remain in place for decades to come.  Ministers have already conducted one half of the consultation process and intend to come back to consult on the likely impact of the new funding formula on schools.

Given the complexity of the task the Secretary of State has announced that rather than phasing in the formula starting from 2017 this will be introduced from 2018.

On behalf of West Sussex MPs, Horsham MP Jeremy Quin, while welcoming the reconfirmation of the New Funding Formula, immediately asked the Secretary of State in the House of Commons that urgent consideration be given to the provision of transitional funding to help tide over West Sussex schools until the new formula is introduced.  He said such funding was “desperately needed”.  [see clip below]

The Secretary of State immediately responded, saying that she would look into adopting a “sensible approach” to the 2017-2018 period.

West Sussex MPs, including Nick Herbert, Sir Nicholas Soames and Jeremy Quin have written collectively to the Secretary of State urging that such transitional funding, aimed at helping West Sussex which for many years has been the worst funded county on a per pupil basis, is introduced.

Jeremy Quin stated; "Fair Funding will improve the funding situation of our schools, which we have long campaigned to do.  No one should underestimate the complexity of completely changing our school funding system to achieve this and it is important that the Department get it right.  However we want help with our school funding situation urgently – securing transitional cash to tide us over to the new formula."

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