Commenting on the Chancellor’s spring statement, Dr
Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education
Union, said:
“The Chancellor’s Spring Statement should have been used to
announce urgent action to help schools and colleges with the
funding problems they are facing now, but today’s Statement
contained nothing to tackle the crisis in education funding
caused by the Government’s real terms cuts. Class sizes are
increasing, but teachers and support staff are being driven out
by attacks on their pay and intolerable workloads. Schools
and colleges are struggling to cope with the cuts and high needs
funding is in crisis, threatening the support for children and
young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
“It is impossible to tell whether the £500m for T-levels, first
announced last year, or the £50m to help employers provide
T-level students’ work placements will be sufficient to fund the
number of people the Government expects to do them. We
acknowledge that small businesses need funding to help them take
on apprenticeships, but when education funding is so stretched,
it is wrong to fund work placements and apprenticeships from the
education budget.
“In failing the five tests set by the National Education Union to
ensure a high-quality education for all, the Government has once
again failed our children and young people – including those with
special educational needs and disabilities. The National
Education Union, alongside other education unions, will continue
its campaign to ensure that our children and young people get the
investment that they deserve and our economy needs.”
