Schools have a “very strong claim” for additional funding in the coming spending review, the education secretary has said.
Damian Hinds said he would be making “the strongest possible case” to the Treasury on behalf of schools in the coming review.
Mr Hinds was speaking to Tes at the ‘Break the Cycle’ conference in London this morning. Asked about the funding situation, Mr Hinds told Tes: “I totally of course acknowledge that it’s difficult managing schools.”
He admitted that “resourcing is tight” because “society as a whole asks more of schools than used to be in the past... the picture is that funding is tight for schools.”
Mr Hinds went on: “We’re coming up to a spending review, and I will be making the strongest possible case for school funding in the spending review”.
He said that education was a “top priority” and would have a “very strong claim” in the review.
Mr Hinds made the comments at the end of a week in which the government came under renewed pressure over school funding.
On Monday MPs described the funding situation as a “national emergency” that was forcing headteachers to make “impossible choices”.
A few days later one MP, Jess Phillips, called on the prime minister Theresa May to pick up her son from primary school on Friday afternoons, after it was revealed the school could no longer afford to stay open then due to lack of funding.
And yesterday headteachers accused Mr Hinds of refusing to meet them to discuss funding shortages.
