The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) has today
(Wednesday 29 March) published a report on the financial
sustainability of schools.
Malcolm Trobe, Interim General Secretary of the Association of
School and College Leaders, said: “We welcome the PAC
report which shows the risk that the government is taking with
the future of young people.
“It says the Department for Education does not seem to
understand the pressures that schools are already under. We
agree. The DfE has buried its head in the sand over this issue
and resorts to repeatedly stating that school spending is at
record levels when it is fully aware that this is only because of
rising pupil numbers. The level of funding per pupil is
frozen, while costs have already increased significantly and are
continuing to rise.
“The PAC report highlights the DfE’s belief that schools can
save £3 billion from their budgets through better procurement and
using staff more efficiently. This is simply unrealistic. As the
PAC report points out, staff account for three-quarters of
schools’ spending. The fact is that reduced budgets mean fewer
staff and this in turn means larger class sizes, reduced GCSE
options, and cutbacks in support services and enrichment
activities.
“The PAC is entirely right to conclude that government
underfunding is putting standards at risk. We should remember how
far we have come. Currently, 89 per cent of schools are judged as
outstanding or good. It is vital that we do not put this progress
in jeopardy. We should be investing in education so that we can
take standards to the next level.
“The PAC report is also right to highlight the fact that the
DfE does not have a plan to monitor the impact of the funding
crisis in real-time. It must work more closely with schools to
understand what is happening right now on the ground.
“The public should also be aware that the funding crisis is
even worse in post-16 education which has suffered significant
cutbacks in recent years and that this dire situation is having a
severe impact on the viability of many A level subjects.”
