Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what resources they plan to make
available to schools in England to ensure that they can remain
operational for five days a week.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, we will always support schools so they can stay open
five days a week. Alongside the additional £4 billion that we are
investing in schools’ core funding in this financial year, the
energy bill relief scheme will protect schools from high energy
costs over the winter. There is further support available in
cases of serious financial difficulty, and we encourage schools
that are struggling to come forward to the department to discuss
this.
(Lab)
My Lords, it is a major failure of government support for
children’s learning that some schools are even considering
closing for one day a week to save on crippling costs. The
Minister mentioned the £4 billion already committed for this
year, but that is not enough: a recent survey by the National
Association of Head Teachers found that 90% of schools expected
to run out of money by the beginning of the next academic year.
Will the Minister commit that she and her fellow DfE Ministers
will fight their corner with the Treasury to ensure that
sufficient funding goes to schools to enable them to at least
maintain current levels of provision?
(Con)
I will respond to the noble Lord in two ways. He is well aware
that as a nation we face incredibly difficult decisions over our
public expenditure and the fiscal challenges we face, but as a
department we are always on the side of children and teachers. We
do everything, and use evidence in every way we can, to make our
case.
(LD)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that schools are an important
part of every community? They also contain a large part of things
such as playing fields, theatres et cetera. What are the
Government doing to make sure that these are available to the
community outside the school day? Can we have an assurance that
they will not be cut in the name of making sure that budgets are
balanced?
(Con)
I absolutely agree with the noble Lord that schools are an
incredibly important part of their local communities. The
Government’s position is that it will be up to individual schools
to decide how to use their assets, but clearly those assets can
bring in additional revenue for schools, so I would be most
surprised if they cut them at the present time.
(Lab)
My Lords, levelling up will not succeed unless schools are fully
funded. That includes teachers’ and other staff’s salaries, as
well as energy bills and all other costs, which the Minister has
mentioned. I repeat my noble friend’s question: will the Minister
make strenuous representations on the absolute need to fully fund
school budgets?
(Con)
We always make strenuous recommendations on that. Perhaps I was
sensitive to the noble Lord’s phrase; I think he used the term
“fight”. We are trying to work collaboratively to get to the best
answer for the country.
(CB)
My Lords, as we have seen in new figures produced today, the cost
of basic foodstuffs has gone up by a massive amount. What are the
Government doing to ensure that school meals are not losing some
of their nutritional value for the children who need it so
much?
(Con)
Again, the Government work closely with schools, but ultimately
it is within schools’ own responsibilities to organise and fund
their school meals from their core funding.
of Darlington (Lab)
My Lords, 98% of the 630 head teachers surveyed by
the Association of School and
College Leaders said they would have to make savings to meet
the rocketing costs of energy, food and school supplies.
Two-thirds of them believe they will have to cut support staff
and 17 are having to consider closing for a day a week, with a
devastating impact on families and children. Does the Minister
not find it astonishing that, despite several suggestions of ways
to provide funding that would keep schools open, such as making
private schools help shoulder the costs, abolishing non-dom
status or a windfall tax on the energy companies, Ministers
refuse even to consider these options when our schools face such
pressures right now?
(Con)
As I said in my opening response, the department is absolutely
committed to supporting schools. We have worked through our
school resource management teams and saved more than £1 billion
so far, and our School Resource Management strategy sets out work
with schools to save another £1 billion. In the school sector we
see pressure on all schools—I do not dispute that for a
second—but some schools are finding it easier than others. We
need to work to understand how we can share that best practice
across the whole sector.
(CB)
The Minister knows very well that a number of schools employ
specialist staff who help children who have difficulty in school.
Many of these children come from disturbed homes or have
particular problems in their own lives. Will the Minister assure
the House that the department will continue to place an emphasis
on this kind of staff, so that these children are not lost to the
education system?
(Con)
As ever, the noble Lord raises an important point. Obviously, we
will be able to say more about that in our responses to a number
of the reviews into this area towards the end of the year. He
will also be aware that we have raised funding for high needs by
£1 billion to £9.1 billion. We remain very committed to that
area.
(Con)
Will my noble friend ask the Treasury to bear in mind that, since
the Second World War, the proportion of national wealth devoted
to education has risen by a comparatively small amount—infinitely
less than the amount devoted to the NHS, for example? May I also
ask my noble friend whether there is any substance in the recent
reports that the Government are, at long last, considering
serious reform of the education system, including the
introduction of the British baccalaureate?
(Con)
My noble friend is right on the share of national wealth. On the
British baccalaureate, the department is obviously considering
the remarks made by the Prime Minister and we will be reverting
in due course.
(Lab Co-op)
My Lords, in reply to my noble friend Lord Watson, the Minister
said that schools were going to have to suffer because the
economy had been trashed by the Conservative Government. Are we
living in a parallel universe where the leaders of this country
have heated swimming pools in their second homes—
Noble Lords
Oh!
(Lab Co-op)
Noble Lords can “Oh” away, but it is true. Whereas swimming pools
in schools are being closed down and children who desperately
need free school meals are not getting them. This is a total
disgrace.
(Con)
I think that the noble Lord was in a parallel universe, because I
certainly never used the language that he quoted back at me and I
hope that he will accept that that is the case. Schools had the
largest increase in funding—5.8% in cash terms in the current
year. We have increased starting teacher salaries by 8.9% outside
London. The noble Lord can shake his head, but those are the
facts.
Baroness O'Loan (CB)
Will the Minister assure the House that full funding will be made
available for the increases in salary to which she has just
referred, so that schools will not have use their existing
budgets to pay these increases in salaries and as a consequence
be unable to stay open five days a week?
(Con)
I think the noble Baroness may be aware that the Institute for
Fiscal Studies has commented that in the current year it sees the
salary increases as being affordable by schools.
(LD)
My Lords, may I take the noble Baroness back to nutritious school
meals? She may be aware of distressing reports of some children
turning up to school with empty lunch boxes because their
families are on universal credit or their household income is
more than £7,400, which is the cut-off point for free school
meals. What is being done to make sure that no child spends a
school day hungry?
(Con)
The number of children who are in receipt of free school meals is
at the highest level it has ever been—37% of the school
population.
(Non-Afl)
My Lords, education ought to be the country’s number one
priority, so school budgets should be the very last place the
Government look to make savings, particularly after children had
such a terrible time during the pandemic. I do not know a single
state school that continued to provide a full timetable during
lockdown. Children from poor or overcrowded homes, or those with
special needs, will find their lives blighted for ever. The
Government need to do much more to sort this out.
(Con)
I am not entirely clear what the noble Lord’s question was. The
Government do work very closely with schools to support them to
do this. The balance that we need to strike is to make sure that
schools are using funding as efficiently as possible, and we need
to understand the pressures under which they operate.
