Richard has welcomed the government announcement that schools in North East Bedfordshire will receive a 3.4% increase in funding for the 2023-2024 academic year to £91,785,786. Overall, the Government is increasing core schools funding by £1.5 billion in 2023-24, building on the £4 billion increase already provided this year.
Through the National Funding Formula (NFF), the average North East Bedfordshire school’s NFF pupil-led per pupil funding will also increase by 2.5 per cent in 2023-24, with local schools now being provided with an average of £5,280 per pupil.
The Government has been determined to level up schools across the country and taken together with the funding increases seen in 2022-23, this means that funding through the schools national funding formula will be 7.9% higher per pupil in 2023-24, compared to 2021-22.
Richard Fuller, MP for North East Bedfordshire said:
Every young person should receive the education they deserve to fulfil their potential and the government is firmly committed to delivering a world class education system for every child, regardless of where they live or their personal circumstances.
This investment into North East Bedfordshire schools will give them the resources they need to raise attainment, provide the right support to all pupils and students, increase teacher pay, and continue to rise to the challenges of Covid response and recovery
The government also confirmed that high needs funding – support for children with the most severe special educational needs and disabilities – is increasing by a further £570 million, or 6.3%, in 2023-24 – on top of the £2.6 billion increase over the last three years. This brings the total high needs budget to over £9.7 billion. All local authorities will receive at least a 5% increase per head of their 2-18 population, compared to their 2022-23 allocations, with some authorities seeing gains of up to 7%.
The government also announced that all teachers across the country will benefit from pay increases of 5 per cent, with uplifts of 8.9 per cent on starting salaries, putting the government on track to deliver on its manifesto commitment for new teacher pay to rise to £30,000.
