Cutting overall education spending would be difficult without cutting school and college budgets - says IFS report

The upcoming Spending Review is likely to involve cuts to many public service budgets. If the Department for Education's budget in England is cut in line with ‘unprotected' areas of day-to-day spending, it could face a £2.6 billion or 3% real-terms cut between 2025–26 and 2028–29. Spreading that cut evenly would reduce school and college funding at a time of significant challenges. Protecting schools and the 16–19 education budget, as policymakers have often done, would require a more than 20% cut across areas such as adult education, apprenticeships, higher education support and other education funding.

These are the main conclusions of our new report, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, analysing the trade-offs and challenges facing policymakers on education in the Spending Review, with a particular focus on schools and colleges.