Costing the curriculum
Summary
New funding formula, increased pupil numbers, academies, teacher recruitment… this Insight looks at the issues surrounding educational funding, planning and the difficulties in balancing the books whilst maintaining or improving school attainment.
Format
PDF
Published
Dec
Author
CIPFA
FREE
At a time when many government departments were experiencing funding cuts of 20% or more education, like health, received more stable settlements.
However, education spending per pupil rose. A ‘nominal’ increase for 5-16 year old pupil funding was at the expense of funding for 16-19 year-olds which suffered a 14% drop in real terms during the last Parliament, and funding for capital investment in education real estate which dropped by 34% in the same period.
With initiatives in the pipeline such as the introduction of an apprenticeship levy, the delay in introducing a revised national funding formula and the encouragement of more schools to join collaborative academy structures education faces further uncertainties in financial terms. Concerns about pupil numbers and the increasing issues schools face when trying to recruit teachers mean that in some areas salaries are being adjusted to reflect an imbalance between demand and supply.