I was recently delighted to receive completed petitions from 18 of South Suffolk’s schools supporting the fight for fairer education funding. It was really heartening to see the level of response and I was pleased that so many of our teachers, governors and parents were eager to add their support to the campaign. With nearly a thousand signatures collected by our schools, South Suffolk made a very strong representation in the nationwide petition which has now been delivered personally to the Prime Minister.
The petition was part of a wider campaign coordinated by the f40 group that seeks to rebalance the way that the government allocates funding to local authorities and schools. I am an active supporter of the group in Parliament as Suffolk is one of the lowest funded education authorities in England. Building on the support shown in the petitions, I took the opportunity to speak in last week’s fairer funding debate in Westminster to raise Suffolk’s need for better funding. As I said, this funding could include for special needs and is therefore about helping the most vulnerable pupils.
In Suffolk our block funding per pupil is £4,119 compared to the national average of £4,447. Additionally, high funded authorities such as those in London may receive over £6,000. Since the election I have visited a great number of our schools and one of the biggest concerns voiced by our educators has been the lack of funding. I am fully committed to fighting for an improved funding model. This is NOT about simply raising taxes or borrowing for higher spending that we cannot afford; it is about our county getting a long overdue fairer share of what is already allocated.
Despite receiving considerably less funding than other local authorities, our schools are improving. Thanks to the hard work of our pupils and teachers, this year’s GCSE results show that for the first time in some years Suffolk is now ahead of the national average; further boosts have occurred in both Maths and English. There are other really positive signs – just last week I saw for the first time the fantastic new school building at Thomas Gainsborough in Cornard; only this week Holbrook Academy, the first school I visited after the election, confirmed that it has made the massive move from special measures to a ‘Good’ OFSTED rating.
There is still more do to and I will continue to use my role as MP for South Suffolk to champion the case for fairer funding for our students. I was encouraged that during the debate the Minister seemed open to the case for fairer funding, and so I keenly await the Autumn Statement in a few weeks.