Nine in 10 schools will see lower per-pupil funding in real terms from next September than in this academic year, according to projections from the relaunched “School Cuts” campaign website.
The website, maintained by the NEU teaching union, and a key campaigning force during the 2017 general election, has been relaunched today with new data.
Analysis by the website finds that, of 20,094 schools with comparable data, 18,060 (90 per cent) will have lower per-pupil funding in real terms in 2023-24 than in 2022-23.
Meanwhile, 12,952 schools (68 per cent) face lower per-pupil funding in real terms next year than in 2015-16.
According to the website’s “school costs index”, which takes into account increasing staff salaries and other non-staffing costs, real-terms per-pupil funding will be cut on average from £6,028 in 2022-23 to £5,881 in 2023-24.
The updated website can be found here, and allows users to look at specific schools, and whether they will face cuts next year.
Schools have warned of an array of financial pressures this year - including rising energy prices and staff salary costs - and have been calling on the government for more funding to meet these costs.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said the union demanded proper school funding, “which at least keeps pace with inflation, which returns funding to at least 2010 levels and which allows teachers and support staff to have fully funded pay rises, which at least keep pace with inflation”.
“This would avoid cuts to support staff, increased class sizes and cuts to subject choice that are inevitable on the current direction. It would mean schools not falling even further into disrepair,” he added.
“Schools have been on their knees for too long and cannot weather yet another age of austerity. The government must change course on education funding and invest in our futures.”
And John Jolly, CEO of education charity Parentkind, said real-term cuts would mean that school leaders and teachers “will face the next school year trying to do more with less, at the same time as sky-rocketing inflation”.
“It’s time for sensible economics in education, where quick savings aren’t put before the long-term success of future generations”, he added.
Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has previously found that spending per pupil in 2024 will remain 3 per cent below 2010 levels, accounting for actual costs faced by schools.
Luke Sibieta, IFS research fellow, said that cost increases faced by schools looked ”just about” affordable in 2022-23, as overall growth in funding per pupil is relatively high this year (7.7 per cent) and is still likely to be above the growth in school costs (6 per cent).
“Next year looks much more problematic, however, with growth in funding per pupil expected to fall below growth in school costs,” he said, writing in the summer.
The School Cuts website has courted some controversy in the past.
The criticisms had focused on confusion over whether the website covered Wales, whether the pupil numbers were accurate, and that the presentation mixed confirmed reductions in school budgets with projected ones.
Back in 2019, former deputy Conservative Party chairman - and later education secretary - James Cleverly wrote an open letter to the general secretaries of the NEU calling for them to issue an “urgent clarification” on the site.
He accused it of using a “methodology which is fundamentally flawed and skewed towards generating ‘cuts’”.
And in the same year, UK Statistics Authority chair Sir David Norgrove said figures on the website risked giving a “misleading” picture of the depth and scale of reductions in funding.
In a statement published later in 2019, the UK Statistics Authority also said that the union had made changes to the website to explain its methodology.
The new website makes clear that it refers to cuts in England only, and the NEU says that the methodology has been adjusted.
The relaunched website now focuses on projected cuts for next year, whereas the 2019 incarnation looked at cuts that had already happened.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We understand the challenges facing schools driven by high inflation. To support them at this time, we are providing schools with £53.8 billion this year in core funding, including a cash increase of £4 billion for this financial year. This is a 7 per cent per pupil increase in cash terms across schools and high needs.
“All schools will benefit from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, reducing how much they need to spend on their energy and giving them greater certainty over their budgets over the winter months. We are also providing schools with tools and information to help get the best value for money from their resources.”
