Wiltshire Council welcomes the government’s allocation of funding our schools need for children arriving here next year as part of the Army Basing Programme.
Today’s announcement will give assurance that our shared commitment to the programme will be honoured. The announcement of the additional funding was made by the Minister for School Standards Nick Gibb. Baroness Scott of Bybrook, OBE, Leader of Wiltshire Council has been in regular contact with the government to put forward the case for additional funding to address a likely shortfall.
Currently, school funding is based on per-pupil numbers from nearly a year before the school year starts. Most of the numbers of Army Basing children will not be counted in time by that system, so schools had concerns over staffing and resources for them.
Baroness Scott said: “We are delighted the representations we made to the government on this unusual situation have been recognised and this necessary funding is now available.
“We’ll be reviewing the detail alongside our schools, however, this announcement will take the worry away from schools and will help with their planning.
“Meanwhile, the work on the school build programme, funded separately by the Ministry of Defence, is on target and the infrastructure is taking shape to ensure Wiltshire is ready to welcome service personnel on their return in 2019.”
Wiltshire will be home to an additional 4,000 service personnel and approximately 3,200 dependants as part of the Army Basing Programme. The UK’s largest military training area will be at Salisbury Plain by 2019.
Wiltshire Council has been working closely with the Ministry of Defence (MOD), its estate management organisation – the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) – and partner agencies to ensure the right infrastructure, facilities and services will be in place for the arrival of Army personnel and their families.
917 new service family homes in Ludgershall, Bulford and Larkhill are being built as part of the programme in addition to some 100 homes MOD has purchased from the market. There will also be an additional 1,125 school places and 90 early years places.
5 RIFLES was the first unit to move to Wiltshire in 2016. Provision of additional school places for them was created with extensions at Bulford Kiwi Primary School and St Leonard’s Primary School.
The majority of service personnel will move in the summer of 2019
