Teachers union fears that Lincolnshire schools will see budgets slashed by over £44 million by 2020

The 2015 Conservative Manifesto said, “We will continue to protect school funding” and “Under a future Conservative Government, the amount of money following your child into school will be protected.”

But the National Union of Teachers claims that not only are schools in Lincolnshire being cut by be £44,975,691 over this Parliament, but new data also shows that 16 out of 328 schools in Lincolnshire face cuts of £763,980 after 2020.

Published by the NUT and other teacher unions, www.schoolcuts.org.uk compares each school’s funding in 2015-16 with the funding the Government predicts it will receive in 2019-20 under its proposed new National Funding Formula (NFF), adjusted for the impact of inflation and cost increases imposed on schools.

NUT Secretary Mr Ken Rustidge said: “The Government are breaking their promise to protect school budgets. Parents in Lincolnshire should be deeply concerned by these damaging cuts that hit almost every school. The Government must act now to protect schools.”

Debbie Barnes, Director of Children’s Services, said: “For some years now, we’ve been campaigning for a fairer deal for Lincolnshire schools and we’ve responded robustly to the government’s consultation on the national formula.

“Under the proposed plans, some schools would see a drop in funding and whilst we welcome the increase for some schools, we do not think that any school in Lincolnshire should see a budget reduction as we are already one of the worse funded LA areas for school funding

“We need to ensure that all our schools have a core budget to deliver full-time, high quality education in appropriate class sizes. I’m deeply concerned that the current proposals will not enable our schools to do this and leave some in a vulnerable position. The plans are still based on historic calculations and do not reflect the unique challenges we face with our schools in a large rural authority

“I hope the government will listen to our concerns and look again at the formula.”