Responding to the Chancellor's Autumn Budget statement, 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 £300million 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.”
