Education - Conservative Impact



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The Conservatives keep on insisting that they are providing record levels of spending on education. To understand spending more clearly this page covers the following areas.


 * Is the overall spending increasing in real terms?
 * In real terms what is the spending per pupil now as compared to 2010/11?
 * Where is the money being spent? Spending per pupil doesn't mean the pupil benefits from the money if it is being poured into free schools and then into executive wages for example

You can find information on cuts to Childcare here

Spending on Education real terms 2010 to 2018
Around half of primary and secondary schools will be faced with large, real cuts in funding per pupil of between 6 and 11 per cent between 2016 and 2019

Core schools budget as it represents 75% of school spending. Other areas impacted are early years, sixth form, pupil premium and high needs have all also been cut in real terms over the last two years.

The amount spent on education doesn't mean a great deal in isolation. Other factors need to be borne in mind such as:


 * Number of pupils in and entering the education system
 * Where the money is being spent



Number of pupils
There was a baby boom in the early 2000s, which has been hitting primary schools for several years and is now moving up through the secondary system.

Between 2009 and 2016, the school system expanded to take in an extra 470,000 pupils.

The Department for Education says that between 2016 and 2025 there will be a further increase in the state school system, up from about 7.4 million pupils to about 8.1 million.

So while funding has gone down in real terms, the number of pupils has increaed.

Free Schools and Academies
Vast sums of money has been spent on the Free Schools system. 9% of free schools have closed since they were introduced in 2011. See Education Conservative Impact

Figures upto 2015/16 from Institute for Fiscal Studies Figures from 2015/16 are taken from the School Cuts website and the Education Policy Institue

National Funding Formula


This section does not cover the National Funding Formula in detail. NFF is a formula that is designed to share out the pot of money more fairly. There is some debate out the formula itself and how fair it actually is, as the formula works in such a way as to cut funding to some of the most deprived schools and award it to schools that are just getting by. To view detailed analysis on the NFF view this document The implications of the NFF for Schools or visit The Education Policy Institute research page

The key outcome of the NFF is that although the funding will be distributed differently, the overall pot will not change.

Consistent with an overall reduction in real resources per pupil, the Education Policy Institute estimate that there are unlikely to be any schools in England which will avoid real terms cuts in resources per pupil between 2016-17 and 2019-20, even after the national funding formula is applied. There is a considerable range in cost pressures with some schools expected to face real terms cuts of around 10 per cent, per pupil.



Around half of primary schools, and around half of secondary schools are estimated to face real terms per pupil funding cuts of between 6 and 11 per cent between 2016-17 and 2019-20, even with the additional funding and cash floors from the national funding formula.

As the level of cost increases has been assumed to be common across all school for this scenario, the distribution of real terms cuts per pupil is similar to the distribution of funding changes as a result of the NFF. Figure nn shows the estimated average level of real terms pressures per pupil across each local authority. This again illustrates that the biggest reductions in resources available will be in London and a small number of other urban areas in the North and Midlands, but highlights that in all parts of the country schools are facing reductions in the resources available per pupil over the next three years at least.

These estimated funding pressures equate to an average of £74,000 per school in primary schools and £291,000 in secondary schools between 2016-17 and 2019-20.

The majority of schools’ costs represent spending on staff costs, including teachers and support staff. Combining these averages with average salary costs, and an uplift for on costs including pensions and national insurance, suggests that if these savings were made through teacher reductions alone, almost 2 fewer teachers could be employed in the average primary school, and around 6 fewer teachers could be employed in the average secondary school. This illustrates, in terms of teacher numbers, the potential implications of the average funding pressure for schools, based on 2016-17 pupil numbers. Across the system, these per-pupil pressures arise in part because of an increase in pupil numbers.



This means that, in practice, where schools grow in size, or find savings elsewhere, they will not need to reduce their number of teachers as much as this. Nationally, the Department for Education still anticipates that the number of teachers will grow, albeit more slowly than pupil numbers, with potential implications for class sizes and contact time. In an attempt to address some of the variation in local funding levels and to address the disappointment from those who were campaigning for a new formula, the DfE increased the Dedicated Schools Grant by an additional £390m in 2015.

Since then, the per pupil units of funding for local authorities have been maintained at flat cash per pupil (with the Pupil Premium paid separately and in adddition). In 2016/17, Tower Hamlets remained the highest funded local authority, with a per pupil amount of £6906 and Wokingham was the lowest funded authority at £3991 per pupil, a difference of £2914 per pupil. These figures are lower than those shown in the previous image, due to the removal of High Needs and Early Years funding from 2013.

Free Schools
To be completed

School Cuts Calculator
School Cuts is an unaffiliated campaign, who are non partisan. Their data and methodology are public and available on their website for anyone to interrogate and use. It is important to note, the use of their data on this wiki, does not indicate any allegiance to the Labour party.

School Cuts provides a by school calculator that allows the public to check how government cuts are impacting. It has a very powerful search facility where a postcode can be entered and then an interactive map of the area shows all schools. By clicking on a school a detailed breakdown of the cuts affecting that school is presented.

Data Methodology for England
School Cuts use the Schools block funding allocations for 2015 / 2016 as the baseline. This gives the per pupil funding for every mainstream school. They compare these with the funding amounts from the Government’s illustration of the impact of the NFF that was realised through the COLLECT system. Funding to cover PFI costs have been removed from all sums.

They used the Office for Budget Responsibility’s estimate for inflation for the period 2015 to 2020.

They assumed that local schools’ forums would implement the National Funding Formula as the Government has recommended.

All the data is available at https://bit.ly/school_cuts_data Andrew Baisley, 6th February 2018

Data Methodology for Wales
School Cuts used Welsh government data to calculate cuts to Welsh schools over this Parliament, 2015 — 2020.

Using the 2015/16 funding as the baseline, they calculated the impact of cost increases and pupil number increases on school funding.

The website uses the following assumptions in making its calculations:


 * That inflation for schools will amount to 8.7% over the lifetime of this Parliament. This figure is in “Financial sustainability of schools” published by the National Audit Office on 14 December 2016 (page 15) and applies equally to schools in Wales and England.
 * That funding for schools in Wales increases by 2.86% over this Parliament in line with the increase in Welsh Government revenue, but that pupil numbers in Welsh schools increase by 3.68% as predicted, leading to a reduction in funding per pupil over that period.
 * That the above changes in funding and pupil numbers are distributed equally among schools in Wales.

The website also assumes that Welsh councils do not provide additional funding for their schools from other areas of spending. Where any Welsh council does provide additional funding, the figures for schools in that council will be lower than our predicted figure.

All the figures are in 2016/17 prices. Andrew Baisley, 22nd March 2017

The Calculator


Enter a school name, a postcode or the first part of the postcode to identify schools in your area. An interactive map shows the schools in your area. By clicking on the school a screen opens that shows you the total cuts for that school between 2015 and 2020. It also shows what that represents per pupil. As the highest proportion of costs in schools is wages, this typically means a loss of teachers. The estimate is on average 2 teachers per primary school and 6 teachers per secondary school. `

SEND in Crisis
Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) are seeing a crisis in funding. According to the Department for Education’s own figures, more than 2,000 children in England with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have no education provision at all.

Principles underlying the Code
The 0-25 SEND Code of Practice describes the principles that should be observed by all professionals working with children and young people who have SEN or disabilities. These include:


 * taking into account the views of children, young people and their families
 * enabling children, young people and their parents to participate in decision-making
 * collaborating with partners in education, health and social care to provide support
 * identifying the needs of children and young people
 * making high quality provision to meet the needs of children and young people
 * focusing on inclusive practices and removing barriers to learning
 * helping children and young people to prepare for adulthood

More information on the principles that underpin the Children and Families Act and the guidance is given in Chapter 1, Principles, in the 0-25 SEND Code of Practice. This document also details the legal requirements placed on local authorities and schools, requirements they struggle to adequately meet due to funding cuts even where some education is being offered.

Sign the Petition
School Cuts have a petition demanding adequate funding to meet SEND educational needs. The text of the demand is:

The Government has a basic duty to make sure all children can access school but instead it’s failing thousands of children who just want to learn.

In our country education for every child is a fundamental expectation. We shouldn’t accept anything less. That’s why as heads, teachers, support staff and parents we’re urging you to:


 * Properly fund SEND in all schools/colleges, ensuring no child has to wait for a place in school
 * Give funding back to local authorities so they can commission SEND support and services in line with what children in their community need

You can find the petition here. Please sign.

Articles to follow up
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/apr/25/free-schools-policy-under-fire-as-yet-another-closure-announced-plymouth https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/hygiene-poverty-schools_uk_5b27b938e4b056b2263c4841

SEND in crisis >> School cuts https://actionnetwork.org/forms/education-secretary-damian-hinds-urgently-fund-education-for-children-with-special-needs?source=facebook&

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jul/24/why-spend-840000-renovating-st-anthonys-free-school-close

Siphoning school funds to Tory areas. https://nyebevannews.co.uk/tories-caught-siphoning-education-budget-to-tory-seats/

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