HEREFORDSHIRE  Council has landed a blow in its “fairer funding” fight with Whitehall to get an extra £2.6m a year for the county’s schools.

The council’s cabinet heard yesterday (Thurs) that Herefordshire was one of  60 local authorities in line to receive more money for schools from April 2015.

Herefordshire Council has long argued that the funding it receives per pupil is unfair and amongst the  lowest in the country. 

The current national average is £4,550 per pupil, but in Herefordshire it is just £4,306. 

That case for fairer funding has been lobbied by the council for some time and most recently by Councillor Jeremy Millar, cabinet member for children’s services, who joined colleagues from other poorly funded authorities to meet ministers and MPs.

 

This followed a full council motion supporting fairer funding that was passed in January and submitted to Education Secretary Michael Gove.

The amounts of extra funding to be allocated vary across the country, but preliminary figures for Herefordshire show an increase of 2.9 percent - or an extra £124 per child.

 

Coun Millar said, however, the announcement, though a move in the right direction, still leaves Herefordshire children receiving less than the national average.

“The detail needs to be drawn up, but for Herefordshire schools, this means an extra £2.6m a year, a significant amount which will be allocated to schools through the national school funding formula following consultation with schools in the autumn term,” he said.