SCHOOLS in Worcestershire will get more money in the coming year after the county secured an extra £6.2 million in its budget.

Notoriously the county has been one of the worst funded areas in the country, listed as 142 out of 151 in the money stakes.

But it soared to 123rd for the coming financial year after the Department for Education provided an extra £390 million to increase the per pupil budgets of the least fairly funded local areas.

The news came as Worcestershire County Council cabinet met to approve revisions to the new local funding formula for mainstream schools in the area.

Councillor Liz Eyre, the cabinet member with responsibility for children and families, said following consultation and the strategic views of the council six options were considered.

Cllr Eyre said: "This is an annual process. Unfortunately the size that Worcester receives is set by the governments and it's never enough.

"There's an extra £390 million across the country for the lower funded counties. This is partly because of the lobbying of the f40 group, of which we are a member.

"There will be no real movement beyond this until we have a new parliament. Of course f40 will continue making the case for better funding."

She went on to say the last option, which sees 80 percent of schools gain and 78 percent of children in the county, was selected as the most preferred and nearly 50 percent of schools responded.

This was backed by the council leadership team.

"We are doing the best with the most that we can," added Cllr Eyre. "It would've been nice to do more, but we are lowest lump sum nationally. We are more in line with other counties now with the lump sum."

Cllr Marcus Hart said they would continue to lobby for better and fairer funding.

"We all know that funding for Worcestershire children in our schools is not where we want it to be," he said. "We will continue to campaign for fair funding for all of Worcestershire's schools."