Today (Fri 17 Nov), ahead of the government’s Autumn Statement
next week (22 Nov), school leaders’ union NAHT, which represents
the majority of schools in England, has called on the Prime
Minister to ‘honour his promise’ on education funding.
At the Conservative Party Conference earlier this year, the Prime
Minister said his “main funding priority in every spending review
from now on will be education”, arguing that “it is the closest
thing we have to a silver bullet” and “is the Conservative way.”
Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said: “We agree with the
Prime Minister that education is the best way to invest not only
children’s futures, but in our country in general. Investment
into education is proven to have a positive impact economically
and socially – as he says, it is the closest thing we have to a
silver bullet.
“The upcoming Autumn Statement is the Prime Minister’s
opportunity to honour his promise to his party and to the
country. Every teacher and school leader will be watching to see
if he puts the country’s money where his mouth is, and will be
expecting him to make education the priority he says it is in
action as well as words.”
NAHT believes there are three priorities for education spending
that we must see new money for next week:
- Investment into rebuilding a creaking SEND system.
- Money for school buildings and the crumbling estate.
- The additional £1.7bn needed to cover rising school costs in
2024/25
Mr Whiteman continued: “We are hearing with increasing urgency
from our members that funding for the SEND system as a whole is
broken and that investment into both SEND education and the wider
services to support SEND pupils is critical. This is something
that has been completely ignored by successive governments for
over a decade now and it is beyond urgent to solve.
“The absolute minimum parents expect is safe buildings for their
children to be educated in. The recent revelation of the RAAC
crisis has shown that this basic is not being met. DfE ministers
have said very publicly that capital investment to bring all
buildings up to an acceptable state is their number one education
spending priority in discussions with the Treasury. If we can’t
trust the government to deliver safe and structurally sounds
buildings for pupils and staff, what can we trust them on?
“New calculations this week* show that current school funding is
insufficient to cover schools’ expected costs next year. This
will place even greater pressure on already over-stretched school
budgets, forcing yet more cuts to provision. Investment is
crucial if the government’s promises are to be upheld.
“We have seen reports in recent months that due to inflation, the
government’s tax receipts are higher than expected and their
borrowing less. If this means there is more money available this
Statement than previously anticipated, there is no more valuable
place to spend it than on children and education.”
* Schools on brink unless
Chancellor delivers £1.7billion in Autumn Statement for
2024/25 / School Cuts website
relaunched as funding crisis in education deepens
