Spending Round 2019: Department for Education (DfE)

Wednesday, 4 September 2019 13:57

Department for Education (DfE) Table 2.2: Department for Education £ billion 2019-20 2020-21 RDEL excluding depreciation 64.0 67.8 This Spending Round delivers on the government’s commitment to increase the schools budget by £7.1...Request free trial

Department for Education (DfE)

Table 2.2: Department for Education

	£ billion
	2019-20	2020-21
RDEL excluding depreciation	64.0	67.8

This Spending Round delivers on the government’s commitment to increase the schools budget by £7.1 billion (£4.6 billion above inflation) by 2022-23, compared to 2019-20 funding levels. To fulfil this commitment, the Spending Round exceptionally sets budgets for schools until 2022-23.

The schools budget will rise by £2.6 billion in 2020-21, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20 funding levels. Separate to this, each year the government will provide almost £1.5 billion of funding to compensate schools for the increased cost of employer pensions contributions. Table 2.3 sets out the schools budget for each year.

The government will use part of this funding to continue to implement the schools National Funding Formula. The government will ensure that per pupil funding for all schools can rise in line with inflation (1.8%) in 2020-21. For schools already on their National Funding Formula allocation, the per pupil values in the formula will increase by at least 4% in nominal terms in 2020-21. The minimum per pupil amount for 2020-21 will increase to £3,750 for primary schools and £5,000 for secondary schools, with the primary schools minimum then rising to £4,000 in 2021-22 in line with the government’s commitment.

This settlement also provides over £700 million more in 2020-21 compared to 2019-20 funding levels to support children and young people with special educational needs to ensure all receive a high-quality education and reach their potential.

Table 2.3: Schools settlement

	£ billion
	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Schools RDEL excluding depreciation	44.4	47.6	49.8	52.2
of which pensions funding (1)	0.9	1.5	1.5	1.5
of which Spending Round 2019 cash uplift compared to 2019-20 funding levels (2)	n/a	2.6	4.8	7.1

(1) The rise in pensions funding from £0.9 billion in 2019-20 to £1.5 billion from 2020-21 onwards reflects that in 2019-20 the government begins paying pensions compensation from September 2019, when the costs start to accrue. From 2020-21 the funding covers the full year cost.
(2) The core 5-16 schools budget, excluding pensions compensation funding, in 2019-20 is £43.5 billion. Spending Round 2019 cash uplift compared to 2019-20 funding levels is calculated by comparing the schools RDEL for years 2020-21 onwards, excluding the pensions compensation funding, to this baseline.

The government is also making a £400 million investment in Further Education in 2020-21, recognising the vital role of this sector in delivering the skills needed for our economy. This package includes £190 million to increase core funding for 16-19 year-olds at a faster rate than core schools funding, and £210 million of funding in targeted interventions such as high-cost programmes, English and Maths resits, T Levels, the Advanced Maths Premium and workforce investments.

The government will also increase early years spending by £66 million to increase the hourly rate paid to childcare providers through the government’s free hours offers.

The Department for Education settlement, taking into account the schools, Further Education and early years funding, represents a 3.3% increase in real terms to the overall resource budget from 2019-20 to 2020-21 and also includes:

funding to deliver high-quality apprenticeships;
funding to support world-class higher education;
funding to develop the National Retraining Scheme to equip people with the skills they need for the future; and
funding for programmes supporting local authorities to deliver high quality children’s social care services to support and protect children. The local government settlement includes an additional £1 billion for adult and children’s social care to help local authorities meet rising demand in social care services and continue to help stabilise the system.