Brighton and Hove to receive extra £3m for schools

Brighton and Hove will receive an increase of £2.5 million in its grant from the government towards the cost of running local schools in the next financial year.

The rise includes an extra £540,000 to help “high needs” pupils – making an overall increase of between 1 per cent and 2 per cent.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said that Brighton and Hove City Council would receive a dedicated schools grant – known as DSG – of almost £178 million for the financial year starting in April.

The £177.625 million grant is £2.062 million higher for 2019-20 than it was in 2018-19 when it totalled £175.563 million.

The announcement came as Mr Hinds, a Conservative cabinet minister, also said that he was awarding the council almost £1.1 million extra over two years to help “high needs” pupils.

Half the money will go towards budgets for the current financial year with the remaining £540,000 allocated for the year from next April.

More money has been set aside for big projects – known as capital spending – to help pupils with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).

In Brighton and Hove, more than £20,000 was allocated to the Downs View Link College in the recent past.

And projects at Hove Park School and Dorothy Stringer – supported by the Cullum Family Trust and the National Autistic Society – are expected to be supported by £500,000 from the Department for Education.