Core schools budget to increase by £2.3 billion

Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has announced the new government's Budget and said the core schools budget will increase by £2.3 billion next year to “support” the government’s pledge to hire thousands more teachers.

The government will also invest an extra £1 billion for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Reeves said: “I am increasing the core schools budget by £2.3 billion next year to support our pledge to hire thousands more teachers into key subjects.”

Treasury documents claim this will “increase per pupil funding in real-terms”. As well as this, the Department for Education will receive £6.7 billion of capital funding next year, which Reeves said was a 19 per cent real-terms increase on this year.

This includes £1.4 billion already announced over the weekend to be put towards the existing school rebuilding programme. Reeves further announced funding for free breakfast clubs would be tripled to give children the “best start in life” and the “best start to the school day”.

Julia Harnden, funding specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Education has felt like an afterthought in recent spending reviews, and therefore it is heartening that it has featured more prominently in today’s Budget. Schools and colleges have suffered from years of underinvestment and the additional funding for the core schools budget and further education will only go a small way to addressing the damage that has been done. We are particularly concerned about the parlous state of post-16 funding and the £300 million that has been announced does not match the government's ambition for a major focus on skills.

“Today’s announcement must represent the first step towards putting education on a more sustainable footing. It is also imperative that the increased cost of employer National Insurance contributions are covered in full for schools and colleges and we are seeking clarification on this point.

“The system for supporting children with special educational needs is at crisis point, and we welcome the additional funding through the core schools budget to support this provision. The government now needs to work on putting in place a long-term plan to address local authority deficits and ensure funding always gets to the frontline so that all children and young people with SEND get timely and appropriate support.

“The additional capital funding is hugely important, although this uplift does not cover the shortfall that already exists and the investment in the School Rebuilding Programme only puts us back on track to meet the previous government’s unambitious target of rebuilding 50 schools a year. Similarly, while the policy of free breakfast clubs in primary schools is a very welcome one, this latest investment represents only a fraction of Labour’s manifesto commitment. We also remain concerned about the introduction of VAT on independent schools in the middle of an academic year, and recommend that the government undertakes a comprehensive impact assessment of this policy.

“Although there are many things in today’s Budget to be positive about, there is an awful lot more to do and much of what we have heard represents relatively small spending commitments which do not match the level of investment that the education system requires. Today’s Budget must just be a starting point for a programme of investment in education and the other public services that have been so badly neglected in the recent past.”