School leaders have been left “bitterly disappointed” by a lack of new investment in education in the chancellor’s 2023 Autumn Statement.
The headline announcement in Jeremy Hunt’s statement was a cut in national insurance, but there was little in his plan aimed at schools specifically - despite hopes for funding across several areas of the sector.
Geoff Barton, Association of School and College Leaders general secretary, said ASCL was “bitterly disappointed that the Autumn Statement contained barely a mention of education”.
He added that it is “lamentable” that the chancellor didn’t mention the school building crisis, asbestos, school funding, staff shortages or SEND funding.
Similarly, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union Paul Whiteman said: “Yet another education promise has been broken immediately after being made.
“Far from being prioritised, as pledged by the prime minister at the Conservative conference, education has apparently been sidelined in this announcement.
“There was virtually nothing pledged for schools, and this statement did not touch upon the big challenges facing them.”
NEU teaching union general secretary Daniel Kebede said “the chancellor’s statement does nothing to repair the damage caused by 13 years of Conservative cuts”.
Mr Hunt did acknowledge the recruitment and retention problems facing schools, but said the changes announced to national insurance would make things “easier”.
He said that England delivers “world-class education”, saying that 9- to 10-year-olds are now the fourth-best readers in the world, referring to the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls).
Since 2015, England’s 15- and 16-year-olds have risen seven places in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development rankings for maths, he added.
The most recently published Programme for International Student Assessment results placed the UK 18th for maths, up nine places from the previous Pisa cycle.
Funds to tackle antisemitism
Amid the Israel-Gaza crisis, Mr Hunt announced that £7 million will be available over three years to tackle antisemitism in schools and universities.
In October, the government said £3 million of additional funding would be provided to the Community Security Trust (CST), an organisation established to protect British Jews from antisemitism and related threats.
Mr Hunt said today: “I am deeply concerned about the rise of antisemitism in our country, so I am announcing up to £7 million over the next three years for organisations like the Holocaust Educational Trust to tackle antisemitism in schools and universities.
“I will also repeat the £3 million uplift to the Community Security Trust.
“When it comes to antisemitism and all forms of racism, we must never allow the clock to be turned back.”
In a parliamentary debate on the plans, following the Autumn Statement, Conservative MP and Commons Education Select Committee chair Robin Walker welcomed the fall in national insurance paid by employees from 12 per cent to 10 per cent.
He said this would give teachers an extra £630 a year in take-home pay.
However, the 10 per cent increase in national living wage would put “great pressures” on both “schools employing teaching assistants”, as well as on nurseries, he said.
In response, the chancellor said that, for many schools and nurseries, the problem is “recruitment” and “finding people to fill the roles that they have”.
“These changes will make it much easier,” Mr Hunt told the House of Commons, without elaborating.
Unions’ £1.7 billion demand not met
Today’s statement comes after education unions wrote to the chancellor in September calling for a £1.7 billion increase to school funding per year to prevent cuts to provision. Unions had also called for a £4.4 billion per year uplift in capital funding to address the school buildings crisis.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak has included “delivering world-class education” as a long-term decision his government will be investing in.
He said last month that education will be a main priority in every Spending Review as it “is the best economic policy, the best social policy and the best moral policy”.
“It is the best way to spread opportunity and create a more prosperous society,” Mr Sunak added.
