Four in five schools worse off under government spending plans

New figures, released today by the School Cuts coalition, reveal that four in five of England’s schools will be worse off next year than they were in 2015. Despite additional funding announced by the government in August, our analysis shows that over 80% of schools – around 16,000 – will still have less money per pupil in 2020 in real terms than they did when the cuts began to bite in 2015. After relentless campaigning by head teachers, school staff and parents, the government finally accepted that schools have suffered billions in funding cuts. Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised school funding would be “levelled up across the entire country” and that there would be “no winners or losers”. This is not the case. New analysis by the School Cuts coalition (attd.) paints a very different picture. The allocation to schools in 2020/21 still needs ￡2.5bn to reverse the cuts which have taken place since 2015. This means that children in almost all local authorities in England are still losing out. Around one third of all schools will see real-terms cuts to their budgets next year because school costs are greater than inflation. Schools with the highest levels of deprivation are the worst affected. Sixth form and college students continue to be hard hit. Our analysis shows there will still be a shortfall of ￡1.1bn next year in the funding required to reverse devastating cuts in 16-19 education. Even after an additional ￡700m, the High Needs Block will still be ...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: News Press release Jon Richards school school cuts Source Type: news