Commenting on the Education Policy Institute (EPI) report,
‘Assessing Covid-19 cost pressures on England’s schools’, Geoff
Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, said:
“Ministers have rightly praised the fantastic work of schools
during the Covid emergency, but warm words don’t pay the bills.
“This report shows that the government has failed to recognise
the financial impact on schools of the pandemic and failed to
support them properly during a period in which they have operated
under immense and relentless pressure. Budgets were already very
tight because of years of government underfunding and the
position is now even worse.
“It will inevitably mean schools will need to make more cuts and
this will impact on the academic and pastoral support they are
able to provide to pupils in the wake of the pandemic.
“The small amount of financial support which the government has
made available for extra costs during the emergency has been
piecemeal, extremely limited in scope, and inadequate.
“It falls back on the mantra that it is boosting school funding
with a three-year settlement of an additional £7.1 billion by
2022/23.
“However, much of this money will be absorbed by rising costs
that are unavoidable and comes after years of real-terms cuts
which have had a devastating impact.”
