After months of campaigning on the issue Jeremy Quin is delighted that the Government is bringing forward changes to the funding mechanism which will result in fairer funding for West Sussex Schools.
The current formula has remained in place for years under different governments and was desperately in need of fundamental reform. I demanded just such a change in an open letter to the Prime Minister last month and I am delighted that at last we have achieved a cast iron commitment to change.
The Department of Education will consult early in 2016 on the terms of the new formula which will be implemented from April 2017.
It will mean that school funding will be based in future more on pupil numbers and less on archaic political considerations.
There is still a lot of campaigning to do - to ensure we get the right formula for the future and that this is implemented on as swift a timescale as possible. There will be "losers" elsewhere in the country from a fairer formula but they have to recognise that West Sussex has been losing out for years.
This change won't solve all the concerns about the funding of local schools but it is a critical step in getting the base funding right for the future.
Schools and teaching staff in the Horsham constituency do a great job and our students produce fantastic results. This is something of which we can be truly proud and West Sussex aspires to be, by 2018/19, the best performing local authority at GCSE. However no one should ever be complacent and good education requires investment.