The Department for Education is “not so good” at making “a positive case” for investment in schools to the Treasury, a senior official from the department has admitted. 

Tom Goldman, deputy director of the DfE funding policy unit, said the department is “not so good at setting out the possible benefits and gains” from putting more money into education.

Speaking at the School and Academies Show in Birmingham this morning, Mr Goldman said the next spending review would “decide what is and is not possible in terms of school funding and in terms of the budgets that individual schools are receiving”.

He said the department was “very focused” on “preparing the strongest possible case” to put to the Treasury.

Securing more funding for education

However, he said that while the DfE was effective at pointing out the pressures on schools, it was “much less good” at making a case for the positive impact which investment in education has on society and the economy. 

“I’m very struck that we’re very good at setting out the pressures on schools, and the potential impact of those pressures in terms of what might be lost, and that’s a really important part of the story,” he said.

“We are not so good at setting out the possible benefits and gains and advantages that we could secure for young people, for families, for the economy, its savings in other public services.

“We’re much less good at setting out that positive case for investment, so one of the things I’m hoping to get out of today is more of those arguments that we can corral, put to T [Treasury] and maximise our chances of a successful spending review for us.”