NASUWT comments on EPI's school funding report

Commenting on a report published today by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) on school revenue balances in England, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT-The Teachers’ Union, said:  

“The NASUWT has and will continue to argue for increased investment in schools, but has also warned over this issue of excessive school reserves and the need to ensure funding reaches the front line where it can directly benefit teaching and learning. 

“The Report questions whether local authorities should redistribute budget surpluses to address deficits in the maintained sector. The NASUWT has long advocated this approach, which was often used successfully by local authorities to support schools in difficulty.  

“Unfortunately, since 2010 the Government has abandoned these and other important financial controls in its drive to give excessive freedoms and flexibilities to schools. The result has been in too many cases the stockpiling of public money, often at the expense of the children and young people whose education such funding was intended to support and the teachers and other staff who have seen a year-on-year deterioration in their pay and conditions of service.”