Yesterday I met with Mr Gyimah, the Education Minister. I repeated to him the problems Wokingham schools face from receiving very low levels of pupil funding compared to the national average. I asked for an assurance that the new government, like the Coalition in its later period, is committed to reducing the large gap between the worst and best funded local education area schools and will make more money available to Wokingham schools. I reminded him that this year Wokingham had not received much from the additional cash the Treasury supplied to start to tackle this problem.
The Minister assured me the government did wish to do more to sort out this problem. He said they were currently consulting and may well adopt a different formula or system for allocating future money to LEAs that receive the least under current arrangements. He requested further evidence from Wokingham Borough over the impact, which I will ask them to supply. He agreed that this year’s formula had not been kind to Wokingham.