The NASUWT has set out its position in relation to the principles that the Union will test any reforms to the school funding methodology, in particular to the government’s principles on fair funding.

It will not prove possible to understand the full impact of the proposals until the weightings of the formula factors are determined following the second phase of the consultation and the current consultation poses as many questions as it answers.

Many of the proposed ‘factors’ are ill-defined, based on data that is not robust or about to change, or about which the government has no proposals and is asking for consultee views on how they could be incorporated into a funding formula direct to schools.

The flat cash funding settlement has created a tightening settlement for education and schools which has fuelled the debate about what constitutes a fit-for-purpose funding system, the impact of increasing and accelerating devolution to individual schools and the strategic, financial and governance relationships that should exist between schools and local authorities.

Nevertheless, the move to a hard formula with direct funding to schools with the ensuing loss of local democratic accountability, the removal of local authority responsibilities for education, the removal of local authority school improvement services, behaviour support and other services to schools, the ending of de-delegation, the loss of economies of scale and the direction of travel regarding academies are elements that the NASUWT will not be able to accept.