SCHOOLS across the county have been thanked for providing important feedback to help shape the future of education funding.

The county’s maintained schools academies, early years education providers and post-16 colleges have provided their views on how to deal with the financial pressures they are facing, and the future distribution of funding for education by central Government in 2018-19.

And Peter Edgar, Hampshire County Council’s executive member for education, said: “I’m extremely grateful for the prompt and wide response to our consultation which followed recent policy announcements by the Department for Education on changes to school funding.

“It was vital that we ensured those on the frontline of education have the opportunity to have their say on the mechanism that will directly impact the level of resource they’ll receive. The outcome of the consultation will be taken in to consideration by the Hampshire Schools Forum when setting the 2018-19 budget.

“The new national funding formula is based around the principle of financing all schools in England using a single method of calculation.

“While we have welcomed the additional £37m that is coming to Hampshire from central Government, as a result of the new formula, we are still one of the lowest funded local authority areas for education in the country.

“We are continuing to work with our schools and, on their behalf, with other councils - as part of the f40 partnership of the lowest funded local education authorities - to ensure that the need for additional income into the school system, and the equitability of that funding is high on the Government agenda.”

Responses to the consultation will help to inform decisions to be made by the Hampshire Schools Forum about how the central Government funding should be allocated locally to schools in the county.