Asked by
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of
the finding of the Sutton Trust's School Funding and Pupil
Premium 2024 survey published on 19 April, particularly with
regard to special educational needs.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, including additional pay and pension grants, school
funding is increasing to £60.7 billion this year, the highest
ever in real terms per pupil, supporting school leaders to meet
their costs. This includes over £10.5 billion in high-needs
funding, an increase of over 60% from the 2019-20 allocations.
Pupil premium funding is rising to over £2.9 billion, a 10%
increase from 2021-22. School leaders have flexibility in how
they use this to best support disadvantaged pupils.
(Lab)
My Lords, I am afraid that the Minister's response does not
reflect the reality in schools today. Pupil premium is additional
funding given to schools to help support disadvantaged pupils, so
it is scandalous that the Sutton Trust review found that half of
school leaders were having to use some of those funds to plug
gaps elsewhere in their budgets, and three-quarters of head
teachers said that they had had to reduce the number of teaching
assistants, despite an increase of 20% in the number of pupils
with special educational needs and disabilities since 2019. For
over half of that period, the Minister has held the title of
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the School System. As
parents of school-age children, not least of those with SEND,
consider how to vote on 4 July, will the Minister offer them an
apology?
(Con)
No, the Minister certainly would not feel that to be appropriate.
Looking at how pupil premium can be used, the Education Endowment
Foundation has directed three areas: high-quality teaching, which
the Government have supported through the national professional
qualifications programme, targeted academic support, and tackling
non-academic barriers. I very much appreciate and respect the
Sutton Trust's research, but it does not explain that the number
of teaching assistants, a figure cited by the noble Lord, rose by
5,300 last year, up by 59,600 since 2010-11.
(LD)
My Lords, it would be remiss not to thank the Minister for her
time in that role. She has always been courteous and on top of
her brief. I think she is just a decent person, actually. As she
said, the Sutton Trust's is a highly respected annual report on
the state of schooling in this country. I do not think anybody
can be unaware that schools are struggling with budgets and
having to move money around. One of the biggest findings that
concerns me in that report is that there has been a 74% cut in
funding towards teaching assistants. These are the lifeblood of
any school, particularly in supporting children with special
educational needs. Presumably the new Minister's in-tray will
have to deal with this problem. Does this Minister not accept
that we need to sort out the funding properly for all our
schools?
(Con)
We give schools a great deal of discretion over how they use
their budgets. It is right that we want the experts who know
their community to use funds as they see fit, and the noble Lord
knows from his own experience that schools use these budgets in
very different ways. I was in a school recently which actually no
longer used teaching assistants, but had dropped the class size
dramatically as a result. It had teachers but a much smaller
number of pupils in the class. The underlying principle, that we
should trust our trusts and school leaders on how they spend the
budget, is the one that any Government should support.
The (CB)
My Lords, we are talking about pupil premiums, and the Government
once promised the introduction of an arts premium, which was
never delivered. It may be a bit late now, but I hope that
whatever Government are in charge on 17 July will reconsider
that.
(Con)
The noble Earl may be right that we are timed out on an arts
premium.
(Con)
My Lords, will my noble friend the Minister join me in
congratulating Thames Christian School in Battersea, which has
recently won a prestigious RIBA award for the architecture of its
building? In the head teacher's response to that award, he
outlined that, of the 400 students in that fee-paying school, 200
have special educational needs. What advice is being given to
schools such as that about how they might approach supporting
parents who are unsure about whether their children can continue
if the school fees are increased?
(Con)
I am delighted to join my noble friend in celebrating that
success. That matter will be for individual parents in
independent schools to work through. Independent schools have
focused very much on supporting children and their parents where
bursaries are required, but that is up to the parents and those
schools.
(Lab)
My Lords, the Government always ignore the fact that they have
had 14 years of cuts before they then make an announcement of
some extra funding—which normally works out to about £3.50 per
school. When will the Minister take a realistic view that schools
need massive improvements and massive increases in their budgets
if they are to deliver a good service?
(Con)
I am not sure where £60.7 billion relates to £3.50, as they are
quite a way apart. I point the noble Lord to where our children
are in the international league tables and the improvements we
have made. He can roll his eyes, but facts are facts.
(Con)
My Lords, what, if anything, in this highly respected report
suggests that putting VAT on any form of education would be
beneficial to our young people in this country?
(Con)
The report focused on the state-funded sector and is therefore
not related to VAT in education.
(Lab)
My Lords, research has found that children from the most
disadvantaged areas are less likely to be identified with SEND
and that they face higher thresholds for accessing support. Is
that further evidence of the failure of this Government's
education policy?
(Con)
No, I do not accept that. As I said, this Government have focused
very much on supporting schools and teachers to do their critical
job brilliantly, and we should not question that. The support
that we have put in for special educational needs has been
unparalleled compared to any previous era.
(LD)
My Lords, the report also says that we have been cutting the use
of information technology; I remind the House of my interests.
Can the Minister tell us of anything that gives more promise for
someone with special educational needs to function well in the
school system—and in the workplace later on—than using the
correct form of assistive technology?
(Con)
Having a highly skilled teacher to work with, combined with the
assistive technology to which the noble Lord referred, is the
critical part. That is one of the reasons that Huawei has worked
with the sector: to reform the training not just for SENCOs but
for those on their initial teacher training and early career
frameworks to support children in mainstream education.
of Drumlean (Con)
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend the Minister on the
wonderful job that she has done at the Dispatch Box. I also
congratulate her on her patience in listening to questions from
Members of the Opposition demanding more resources, when, as a
party, it is not prepared to commit itself to a single cent of
extra expenditure.
(Con)
My noble friend is very kind—
Noble Lords
Oh!
(Con)
He is renowned for his kindness. This Government have backed
education from day one and see it as absolutely critical for our
future. Given the opportunity, we will continue to do so.
(Lab)
My Lords, I wish the Minister well for the future; she has been
very accommodative over the years. Is it not true that, from this
September, spending on schools will have returned to 2000 levels
in real terms?
(Con)
From this September, funding for schools will be the highest it
has ever been per pupil in real terms.
