Campaign for fairer and increased education funding

f40

Client

f40

Project

Campaign for fairer and increased education funding

Services

Design
Digital
Public Affairs
Public Relations
Video

Specialism

Membership Organisations and Regulatory Bodies​

Date

Ongoing since 2003

The Brief

f40 was formed more than 20 years ago by a group of local authorities, which were among the lowest funded for education across England. 

Our brief has been to use a mix of public affairs and public relations to campaign for the levelling up of funding, so that education budgets are based on current need, not historic data, and so that schools receive more comparable funding, aside from area living costs and specific needs of a school and pupils. 

As our work with f40 has evolved and education budgets have come under increased pressure, we now also campaign for additional education funding, including for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, and for reform and policy change. 

Our Work

DTW has worked with f40 for many years, providing secretariat, public affairs, and campaign support to raise awareness about the unfairness of education funding, and the need for increased funding and reform with the Department for Education, HM Treasury, the Prime Minister’s office, Ministers, MPs, local authorities, schools, and the media. 

We work alongside local authority Cabinet Members, Directors, School Finance Managers, and Headteachers, as well as other educational organisations, to demonstrate the challenges in the education and SEND sectors, and suggest possible solutions, among decision-makers in Westminster. 

We create engaging, easy to digest content and messaging that can be easily understood and shared to raise awareness of the key issues and explain how f40 believes the challenges can be overcome, along with how much funding we believe is required and how it should be fairly distributed.

We use a mix of communication tools, such as debates, one-to-one meetings, MPs’ briefings in Westminster, webinars, letters to policy-makers, conferences, briefing papers, and media relations to raise awareness of the issues. We also manage the f40 website and social media channels. 

Results

During the past 20+ years, the f40 campaign has: 

  • Led to Government acknowledging the unfairness in funding and beginning the process of levelling up – although progress is slow. 
  • Played an important role in the introduction of the school National Funding Formula.
  • Helped to secure an additional £7.1bn funding for education in 2019.

 

  • Helped to secure an extra £2.3bn funding for education in 2022.
  • Supported David Davis MP in securing a debate in the House of Commons on SEND in 2024. 
  • Contributed to an All-Party Parliamentary Group session on SEND in 2024.
  • Met with key education Ministers, MPs, and Shadow spokespeople.
  • Helped to improve partnership-working and campaigning between educational organisations.
  • Helped raise funding, policy and fairness issues in the national, local and sector media.

£7.1bn

Additional funding for education in 2019

£2.3bn

Additional funding for education in 2022

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Debate Secured

On SEND in House of Commons in 2024

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