Commenting on the Chancellor's Autumn Budget speech, Julia
Harnden, Deputy Director of Policy at the Association of School
and College Leaders, said:
It's concerning that the Chancellor spoke for an hour and the
word education' did not pass his lips even once. Successive
governments have placed a whole host of new duties and
expectations on schools and colleges, while simultaneously
squeezing the amount of funding available to them. On the face of
today's speech, it does not appear that anything has changed with
this new administration.
The government has made clear their ambition to boost vocational
education and reduce the number of young people not in education,
employment or training. We wholeheartedly welcome these plans,
but schools and colleges are integral to their success and they
must be funded accordingly. As a share of national income,
education spending is among its lowest level since the 1960s and
is still seen as a cost rather than an investment in young people
and in providing the knowledge and skills required for a thriving
economy. Going forward the government must commit to ensuring
that schools and colleges are properly resourced to deliver the
learning and support that children and young people need, and
that any new requirements are backed up with detailed plans
setting out the funding required to deliver them and how this
will be provided. We cannot go on with new policies announced
with much grandstanding, and school leaders left scratching their
heads as to how they can possibly deliver them. In future,
rhetoric has got to be matched by resources.
