Commenting on the National Audit Office (NAO) report ‘School
funding in England’, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the
Association of School and College Leaders, said:
“The introduction of a National Funding Formula for schools was
the right thing to do because of a long-standing postcode lottery
in the amount of funding they were allocated. However, the
government’s failure to put sufficient money into the system
overall has meant that the cake was never large enough in the
first place. The result is that slicing it in a different way has
created a new inequity with many schools in deprived areas losing
out. These schools support children and young people who face the
greatest degree of challenge in their lives and they desperately
need this funding. The government has failed them.
“To make matters worse, government funding to cover Covid-related
costs incurred by schools and colleges has been inadequate,
schools have lost out again because of recent changes to the
pupil premium system for disadvantaged youngsters, and government
investment in education recovery in the wake of the pandemic is
so lacklustre that the Education Recovery Commissioner has
resigned in protest.
“None of this sounds like a government that is ‘levelling up’ or
‘building back better’. This is now looking like empty rhetoric
and we urge it to fund the education system properly.”
