Increased teacher pension scheme contributions for state schools will cost an extra £830m in 2019/2020, it has been revealed today.

The news comes in a Department for Education consultation document into the rising contributions, which confirms that the government will meet the cost.

The estimated cost for independent schools in the same year will be £110m. The DfE has also revealed it funded the extra contributions for “centrally employed teachers”, who work in schools but are employed by local authorities. 

In the document, the DfE admits state schools are “in high levels of need for additional support for these costs” yet doesn’t say whether support will be available next year. It says in the document: “The funding of this commitment and any other funding beyond 2019-20 is a question for Spending Review 2019.”

Headteacher Jules White of the Worth Less? campaign - which organised a march of 2,000 head teachers on Downing Street in September in a protest over funding - said there were concerns about it might not be fully funded in future years.

He said: “Wave after wave of rising costs has already shredded our budgets. At the same time, we are being asked to cover not only our own core duties but that of other hard-pressed support services too. Unless the costs are met in full our debt will increase and our provision will be further eroded.

“Heads fear that, as has happened so many times before, ministers will sweep these potentially devastating new costs under the DfE carpet of obfuscation. We hope very much that this will not be the case.”

The document confirms the schools’ contribution will rise to 23.6 per cent from September 2019, a rise -  which headteachers have already described as “devastating” - of 43 per cent from the current rate which is 16.48 per cent.

Julia Harnden, funding specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said the uncertainty about funding after the first year was “jeopardising” schools’ ability to plans budgets.

She said: “We will be arguing very strongly that this cost should be fully funded by the government and that it must not fall on school budgets which simply cannot stand the strain of any additional costs. It is frustrating that there is so much uncertainty about what will happen after the first year as schools need to be able to plan their budgets to direct as much as they possibly can into the classroom, where it is needed most.

The online consultation begins today and will last for four weeks.