It doesn't take a genius to work out that the funding system for schools is broken and that there is not enough money for us to run sustainably. The government are full of soundbites such as "the most money ever" and "new funding formula" and "largest increase in funding" but they are meaningless phrases that do not match reality.
The 2019 pledge did start to close the gap in funding and the £7.2 billion increase in funding across the three years did mean my school was able to post a surplus. After the pandemic the government then conducted a spending review and allocated a further £4.7 billion by 2024/2025. However, this does not go far enough, especially with the current inflation, cost of living crisis and energy bills. The government also allocated an extra £1.8 billion to catch up funding across the same period, which quite frankly falls remarkably short of what their own Catch Up Tsar requested.
To top this off, the government indicated that the top end of the teaching pay scale will get an increase of 3%. However, the STRB recommended 5%, so schools now need to find this extra cash from somewhere. Throw in additional National Insurance payments and hopefully a large pay rise for support staff, we are in a perfect storm where schools will fail financially and will need bailing out.
The government point to the number of schools carrying reserves, with almost £4 billion being held by academies, but this is surely prudent financial planning, may be allocated towards projects, may be restricted income or will have been eaten up since the pandemic. There are a number of schools on a financial precipice and action needs to be taken now.
The biggest problem with education funding is that there is no long term planning, but also no flexibility from the government to act when it is needed. To help the government, I have created a 10 step plan for education funding, which will require an investment. but as Rishi Sunak himself said, "Education today is the economy tomorrow". We must invest now so that our children get the best chance in life.
Immediately increase school funding by 10%. For 2022/2023 school funding sits at £53.5 billion, so an immediate increase of £5.35 billion. For ease, I would just increase all factors on the NFF by 10% this year. Therefore elements such as Pupil Premium will be included in this uplift.
Create a 5 year funding plan with a 4% increase in funding from 2023/2024 to 2027/2028. This may seem low, but the 10% increase this year would put us in a much better starting point.
Come to agreement with the unions of teachers and support staff to create a 5 year pay scale. This would include an 8% pay increase on all teacher pay scales, and a flat increase of £3000 on all support staff scales this year. I would then look to increase both by 4% in the subsequent years. I would also look to take school support staff out the NJC and create an education professionals pay scale.
Confirm that PE Premium will continue to be funded over the next five years.
Improve government procurement of resources such as energy to bring the best prices to schools directly.
Increase EY and HE funding by equivalent amounts to school funding - £350 million and £2.1 billion respectively.
Develop a robust plan for High Needs Funding. This is something that needs experts to work on and that is not me. I would ask the people who know about this to deal with it.
Role out the National Funding Formula to make it consistent throughout the country
Invest in school capital - the buildings need dealing with now. CIF is a time consuming lottery which needs simplifying. If schools have a leaking roof, it is incumbent on the government to fix it! Again, I would increase capital funding by the same percentages (£500 million)
Bring all schools funding into academic years, not financial years to remove complications. Any changes to funding will all be confirmed by April, so that school leaders can actually plan a budget without having to second guess what is coming!
This plan, I believe, would allow schools to be able to run efficiently and provide the best education for all. The total cost to the tax payer will be high, but I am sure that the money is there and can be found.
Total cost by year (schools funding not DfE total!)
2022/2023 - £61.5 billion (increase of £9.5 billion)
2023/2024 - £63.93 billion
2024/2025 - £66.52 billion
2025/2026 - £69.18 billion
2026/2027 - £71.95 billion
Let me know what your priorities would be and it would be great to start a discussion about this!