Government Funding Error Means Less Money For Brighton & Hove Schools

Schools will receive less money than they were expecting after a mistake in funding calculations by the Department for Education (DfE).

The error means that the department will send Brighton and Hove City Council about £500,000 less than expected in “dedicated schools grant” (DSG).

A report to the Brighton and Hove Schools Forum, which met yesterday (Monday 9 October), estimated that the council would receive £224.7 million for 2024-25 – down from the original estimate of £225.2 million.

The money is a specific grant which is ring-fenced for community schools – local authority maintained schools – and the allocation is reported to the Schools Forum where heads, governors and council officials meet.

Free schools and academies receive their state funding through the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Before the DfE announced the blunder on Friday (6 October), forum members were sent a report forecasting funding of £4,655 for each primary school pupil and £6,050 for each secondary school pupil.

But the revised minimum funding per pupil is now expected to be £4,610 for each primary school and £5,995 for each secondary school – down £45 and £55 per pupil respectively.

When the original announcement was made in July, the government said that funding for mainstream schools would go up by 2.7 per cent per pupil for the next school year.

When the DfE announced its revised calculations on Friday, it said that the increase would be 1.9 per cent.

Several schools in Brighton and Hove have already been struggling financially, with 29 out of 48 primary schools operating a “licensed deficit” for 2023-24.

Primary, infant and junior school heads were urged to reduce their overspends by 10 per cent in June, prompting a backlash.

The schools’ difficulties have been exacerbated by the hundreds of surplus places as the number of children starting school continues to drop year by year.

With financial pressures increasing, heads and governors are being asked to show how they plan to balance their budgets.

The deputy leader of the council Jacob Taylor said:

“This miscalculation speaks volumes about the chaos at the heart of an out-of-touch Conservative government that continues to mismanage and underfund our schools.

“In Brighton and Hove, it is estimated that the DfE funding error equates to a total loss of funding of £1.5 million across all maintained mainstream schools and academies.”

Councillor Taylor, who co-chairs the council’s Children, Families and Schools Committee, said:

“Head teachers will rightly be angry that they will now receive around £50 less per pupil than they were previously told they would receive – meaning that they must also recalculate their budgets.

“For a typical secondary school, the difference equates to a teacher’s pay for the year.”

Councillor Taylor, who also leads on finance, added:

“As your Labour council, we want to develop a city-wide education system where our children thrive, our head teachers and staff feel well supported and our schools are fully resourced.

“This is what people rightly expect for their children and what hard-working teaching staff deserve.

“Realistically, only a change of government can properly improve funding for the country’s schools which is why we need a general election that delivers a majority Labour government.”