Schools face cuts to funds (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Schools face cuts to funds

6:00pm Saturday 20th October 2012 in News

Up to a third of Wiltshire’s schools could see their budgets cut when new rules calculating funding are brought in next year. Next week Wiltshire Council’s cabinet will vote on the proposals, but will have to approve the plans drawn up by the government. Intended to simplify school budgets, the new one-size-fits-all approach to funding means no special local circumstances can be taken into account. For example schools with a large number of military families, and associated turnover, will no longer receive extra money. Also, all schools will now receive the same amount of cash per pupil, whereas previously in Wiltshire secondary schools received more than primary schools. Large scale changes to budget will be avoided in the first two years of the new rules, with funding guaranteed not to drop by more than 1.5 per cent per pupil. However a report to the council’s cabinet says a number of schools will find that their budgets reduce year-on-year.