Major school bodies call for improved funding ahead of Autumn Budget

A number of major school bodies have written to the Government warning it of the impact of significant real terms funding cuts to school budgets.

The letter, signed by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the National Association for Head Teachers (NAHT) and the National Education Union (NEU), said recent cuts have resulted in “rising class sizes” and “cuts to the curriculum”.

The warning follows recent figures, published the Institute of Fiscal Studies, which show that school funding has been cut by eight per cent per pupil over the past eight years.

The school bodies have also warned that recruitment is not keeping pace with demand and “too many experienced professionals” are leaving the public sector prematurely.

According to the letter, the education system has 5,400 fewer teachers, 2,800 fewer teaching assistants and 2,600 fewer support staff since 2010.

A major contributor to this, it argues, is a fall in remuneration, with average teachers’ salaries decreasing by around 10 per cent in real terms between 2005 and 2017, with the majority of teachers set to continue receiving a real terms pay cut despite the recent announcement to increase teacher pay by around 3.5 per cent.

The school bodies are also concerned that this pay award will not be fully funded, with schools expected to find the first one per cent from budgets which are “already at breaking point”.

“Our grave concern is that the only way that schools will be able to afford the pay award this year is by making cuts to the hours that people work, or by making redundancies. Ultimately, this only harms the pupils that we work so hard to support,” says the letter.

“The recommendations of the STRB must be met in full and the cost of this must be fully funded by the government.”

It adds: “It is also vital that funding is improved to schools and colleges as a matter of urgency in the forthcoming budget and that future spending meets the needs of the school system in the years ahead.”