The Department for Education had “no formal process” to guard against a funding error that slashed indicative school budgets by £370 million, an independent review has found.
Accountant Peter Wyman concluded that “had opportunities to sense check for errors been taken the error should have been avoided”.
DfE permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood admitted in early October that an error in calculations meant allocations sent out to schools in July would have inflated the schools budget by 0.62 per cent, or £370 million.
As a result, the department was forced to revise down its estimate for an increase in per-pupil funding in 2024-25 from 2.7 to 1.9 per cent.
