Increase in schools funding under fire

Core funding for schools is set to increase next year, but teachers' leaders and heads have warned it will not account for the rising costs schools are facing.

Schools minister Will Quince has announced that core schools funding will increase by £1.5bn in 2023/24 compared to this year, which he said came on top of a £4bn increase in 2022/23.

But headteachers' leaders said the increase in the funding settlement does not take into account the" huge inflationary pressures" schools are under, with inflation hitting a 40- year record of 9.1% in May and expected to reach as high as 11% later this year.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that while heads welcomed the settlement, it came after" years of real-terms cuts ”.

Mr Barton added: "The squeeze on education funding over the past decade and the settlement for 2023/24 does not remotely take into account the huge inflationary pressures which schools and colleges are now experiencing.

“The Government has short changed education for many years and, unfortunately, that has left the sector in a very difficult financial situation."

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said: "This announcement is very damaging to our children's education as it looks like this Government is returning to the bad days of austerity and away from any sense of levelling up."

He said the £1.5bn increase to school funding "might have looked good" when first announced in the 2021 spending review but now follows a surge in inflation, meaning it is a "big real-terms cut for education spending".