Annual school funding cut by £1.7bn since 2015, IFS figures show, says Labour

• School budgets have been cut by £1.7 billion per pupil in real terms since 2015, Labour analysis of IFS data shows
• Party releases new figures showing the scale of school funding cuts as Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner visits a school in Yorkshire and criticises Chancellor’s ‘little extras’ comment as “downright insulting”

Annual school budgets have been cut by £1.7 billion in real terms since 2015, a Labour analysis of IFS figures reveals.

The analysis shows that annual spending on schools would be £1.7bn higher in 2019-20 than the amount allocated by government if funding per pupil had been maintained in real terms since the Tories won a majority in 2015.

The new analysis of cuts to annual funding for schools comes after the Chancellor’s controversial announcement of a one-off fund for schools to spend on so-called “little extras” in this week’s Budget speech. The funding was for capital funding only, and worth just over a tenth of the amount already cut from capital funding overall. Schools will not be able to spend it on running costs like staff pay, and the Chancellor suggested that the average school could use it for items like a “couple of whiteboards”.

Commenting, Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education, said:

“The Tories have slashed billions from schools and now the Chancellor thinks they should be grateful he’s offered them a whiteboard. His suggestion that schools just need ‘little extras’ is downright insulting.

“Instead of offering a sticking plaster to schools this government should be genuinely investing in them, reversing their unjustifiable cuts.

“The next Labour government will reverse these cuts, giving our schools the resources they need and increasing per pupil funding to a record high.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

A Labour analysis of figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that school budgets are down £1.7 billion in real terms compared to 2015.



Sources: Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2018 annual report on education spending in England, 17th September 2018,https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/13306

For per pupil spending see Figure 3.2 in the accompanying tables. 
For pupil numbers see Figure 1.2 in the accompanying tables. 
(Real terms funding cut calculated as change in per pupil funding * pupil numbers in primary and secondary).

In his Budget speech, the Chancellor of the Exchequer gave schools £400 million to fund “little extras”: 
“So today I am announced £400m in-year bonus to help our schools buy the little extras they need.”
HM Treasury, Budget 2018: Philip Hammond’s speech
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/budget-2018-philip-hammonds-speech

The Chancellor’s announcement, and the use of “little extras” to describe the funding needs of schools, drew significant criticism. 
BBC News, Anger over Chancellor’s £400m ‘little extras’ for schools
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-46028757
Evening Standard, Philip Hammond faces backlash for saying schools need ‘little extras’ after huge funding cuts
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/budget-2018-philip-hammond-facing-furious-backlash-for-saying-schools-need-little-extras-after-huge-a3974911.html

A school in the Prime Minister’s own constituency has previously written to parents asking for donations to buy basic resources like textbooks, pens, and even toilet roll.
The Sun, School Rip-Off: Parents ‘in tears’ as cash-strapped primary school begs families to donate toilet roll
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/uknews/6535747/st-edmund-campion-catholic-primary-school-begs-families-donate-toilet-roll-teaching-material/ 

The Prime Minister has repeatedly stated that the government has increased school funding at Prime Minister’s Questions:
On Wednesday 24^th October she said “What have we seen under this Government? We have seen more money being made available to the police… and more money going into our schools”.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-10-24/debates/33C297D5-BF19-4837-B54B-213D5E089243/Engagements

Figures from the National Audit Office show that schools have faced a total cut in their spending power of £2.7 billion since 2015. These cuts fell between 2015-16 and 2017-18, and represent a cumulative fall in spending. In additionthey do  notaccount for additional funding that has previously been announced by the government,or the increase in pupil numbers in the years since additional funding was promised. 
See National Audit Office, Financial sustainability of schools, 14th December 2016
https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Financial-sustainability-of-schools.pdf

Conservative response to Labour on school funding

Responding, Nick Gibb MP, Minister of State for School Standards, said:

“This year we have given every local authority more money for every pupil in every school. School spending is rising in real terms because of our balanced approach to the economy, which is seeing us spend more on public services while keeping debt falling and taxes cut.

“Thanks to the hard work of teachers and pupils, 1.9 million more children are attending good or outstanding schools compared with 2010.

“Labour cannot deliver the strong economy to give schools the funding that they need. What’s more, their plan to scrap academies and free schools would reverse the reforms that are raising standards in schools, putting ideology before education”.

Notes to Editors

• ·       We are investing in the future of our children by spending a record amount on schools so that they receive a world-class education. We are protecting the schools budget in real terms, so that by 2020 we will be spending 50 per cent more per pupil than in 2000. Over the next two years alone, the schools budget will rise from nearly £41 billion a year to more than £43 billion a year, and the Government is investing £5.8 billion to 2020 to create even more good school places (Hansard, 6 November 2017, Volume 630, link; Hansard, 30 June 2017, WA, link; IFS, 21 September 2017, link; IFS, April 2016, link; DfE, 18 October 2017, link).

• ·       Our new funding formula provides a cash increase in respect of every school, with historically underfunded schools receiving the largest increases. Following consultation, local authorities will continue to make the final decisions on the local distribution of funding until 2020, but under the formula every school will attract at least 0.5 per cent more per pupil in 2018-19, and 1 per cent more in 2019-20. Historically underfunded schools will attract significantly larger increases (DfE, 14 September 2017,link).

• ·       We are driving up school standards, so that more young people develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.There are now 1.9 million more children attending good and outstanding schools, compared with 2010. 86 per cent of children in England are attending good and outstanding schools, up from 66 per cent in 2010 (DfE, August 2018, link; Ofsted Data View, accessed 4 December 2017, link).

The IFS have said that our improvements to funding are helping pupils from poorer backgrounds.

• ·       We have eliminated the differences in education funding to children from all social backgrounds so that every child has the opportunity to get on in life. The IFS found that changes to the distribution of school funding, increased staying-on rates and reforms to university funding mean that there was no difference in the amount of public money spent in total on educating the poorest and richest pupils who were taking their GCSEs in 2010 (IFS, Briefing note, 31 October 2018, link).

• ·       We have made the funding system more beneficial so that the poorest children have the most to gain. The IFS has found that lower-income students receive more education funding than the better off because of our school funding reforms and getting more children to participate in education after the age of 16 (IFS, Briefing note, 31 October 2018, link).

Using Labour’s own calculations, we are putting more money into schools in real terms between 2015 and 2020.

• ·       Using Labour's own calculations, we are putting more money into schools in real terms from 2015 to 2020. Using the IFS study Labour refer to, we will be investing £800 million more into school in 2020 than 2015 in real terms (IFS, 2018 annual report on education spending in England, 17 September 2018, link).

• ·       We have raised spending on education in real terms since 2010. The overall Department for Education budget is up from £59.5 billion in 2010 to a projected £68.5 billion in 2020 in real terms (HMT, Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2014, 17 July 2014, p.27 link; HMT, Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2018, 19 July 2018, p.28, link) .

Labour would reverse the vital reforms that are raising standards in schools.

• ·       Angela Rayner wants to scrap academies and free schools putting Labour’s ideology before what works for our children.She said: ‘We’ll start by immediately ending the Tories’ academy and free schools programmes. They neither improve standards nor empower staff or parents’. Free schools and academies are changing lives but Labour (Angela Rayner, Speech to Labour Party Conference 2018, link).

• ·       Labour can’t be trusted with our children as they u-turned on academies and free schools. Just last year, Angela Rayner said: ‘Most parents, including me, are interested in a good school that their kids can go to. They don’t care what it’s called, quite frankly.’ (Schools Week, 23 September 2017, link).

• ·       Labour don’t trust teachers to do their job and would increase their workload, meaning less time spent teaching our children. Angela Rayner is committed to imposing a ‘common rulebook’ on all teachers (Angela Rayner, Speech to Labour Party Conference 2018, link).

• ·       Labour want politicians and bureaucrats to run our schools, taking power away from our teachers. Angela Rayner said: ‘We will use our time in government to bring all publicly funded schools back into the mainstream public sector, with a common rulebook and under local democratic control.’ Labour would take us back to days where a failing school would stay open with the politicians running it into the ground (Angela Rayner, Speech to Labour Party Conference 2018, link).