Commenting on the Chancellor’s Spring Budget statement, Julie
McCulloch, Director of Policy at the Association of School and
College Leaders, said:
“The Chancellor spent more time name-checking film stars than he
did on education. A public sector productivity plan – whatever
that actually is – will not pay the bills for schools and
colleges anytime soon. A building programme for special schools
is welcome but does not address the wider crisis in special
educational needs funding.
“This Budget has failed to support schools, colleges, trusts, and
the children and young people they serve. Education is a vital
part of any credible long-term plan for the country because it is
an investment in skills, knowledge and our ability to thrive and
flourish as a nation. The Chancellor has instead focused on a
desperate attempt to secure short-term political gain by cutting
taxes as a pre-election sweetener. This is despite the Prime
Minister telling the Conservative Party Conference in October
last year that his main funding priority in every spending review
will be education because ‘it is the closest thing we have to a
silver bullet’ and that it is ‘the best economic policy, the best
social policy, the best moral policy.’
“The reality behind the rhetoric is that the Department for
Education’s own analysis shows that schools only have enough
headroom in their budgets to increase spending by 1.2% in the
next financial year. This is unlikely to meet rising costs or be
enough to fund anything other than a derisory pay award which
will worsen the recruitment and retention crisis. It is likely
that many will have to make further cuts to pastoral support,
curriculum options, classroom resources and maintenance budgets.
The government repeatedly boasts that it is spending a record
amount on schools but this was almost always true in every year
prior to 2010 until this government plunged schools and colleges
into a funding crisis.”
