My Lords, Amendment 8, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Storey, and the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, requires that the Bill cannot be commenced until a report on funding the costs of the academy conversions resulting from the Bill has been laid before Parliament.
As noble Lords may recall, this amendment was also tabled during Grand Committee, when I agreed to say more on the outcome of the spending review in relation to the Bill. I hope the noble Baroness will be delighted to hear that I can now do so. I am pleased to say that, following the Chancellor’s Statement last week, total spending on education will increase in cash terms in this spending review period from £60 billion in 2015-16 to nearly £65 billion in 2020. The exact budget for the academy programme will be finally determined following our internal business planning process, now that we know the exact spending review settlement. But I would like to reassure the House that the Department for Education’s overall settlement clearly recognises the potential costs of academy conversions as a result of this Bill and has been very much part of the detailed conversations we have had with HMT. I hope that the noble Baroness is pleased to hear that.
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The settlement reflects our bold ambitions for education and provides a firm basis from which to deliver our goal of securing educational excellence in every corner of the country. As the noble Baroness mentioned, and as I have outlined during previous debates, we anticipate approximately 1,000 inadequate schools converting to academy status over the course of this Parliament. This represents a continuation of the trend we have seen over the last five years, with over 1,200 sponsored academies opening during the last Parliament. Alongside this, we expect to identify hundreds of coasting schools that can be challenged and supported to improve. It is important to emphasise, however, that, as I said before, not all coasting schools will become academies.
As noble Lords may be aware, details of grant rates for schools converting to academy status are already published and are available on GOV.UK. We have no plans to change this. Overall, in the academic year 2014-15 the department paid nearly £20 million to academy trusts in pre-opening grants. We are committed to ensuring that funding for academy conversion ensures maximum value for money, and funding amounts are regularly reviewed to ensure that grant levels are appropriate. On value for money, we have reduced the cost of a school becoming a sponsored secondary academy by almost two-thirds since 2010.
The noble Lord, Lord Hunt, asked about the £600 million in the ESG. Efficiency savings in 2016-17 have been done on the basis that all local authorities can reduce spend on ESG functions to the level of the median, based on planned expenditure data reported in the Section 251 data. This is the same approach that we use for calculating the new general funding rate for 2015-16. We recognise that the general funding rate currently funds local authorities for some of the statutory duties that they carry out on behalf of maintained schools. We will be consulting on a mechanism for local authorities to recoup the costs of delivering these services from maintained schools. Local authorities should continue to consider how to deliver services as efficiently as possible in preparation for the removal of this funding.
In the light of the assurances I have given about the number of schools we anticipate will become sponsored academies, the existing transparency of conversion costs and the fact that all this has been carefully taken into account in negotiations with HMT on the spending review, I hope the House will agree that a report on the future costs of conversion is not necessary. I urge the noble Lords to withdraw their amendment.