Unprecedented increases in energy costs and rapid increases in the costs of food, alongside wider increases to the cost of living, have created significant pressures on schools and families across England since 2021.
While our recent NFER cost of living research highlighted a number of key issues, we still know relatively little about how financial pressures are currently impacting schools.
Drawing on newly published Department for Education (DfE) data on the financial positions of local authority (LA) maintained schools in England in 2022/23[i], we investigate: how has the financial position of these schools changed in 2022/23? And, is it likely to improve or get worse in the near future?
