This week’s Budget Statement is potentially the last chance for the Chancellor to put some meat on the bones of the Government’s ambitions for education before the General Election.
In the Prime Minister’s party conference speech last year, he stated that education would be the Government’s main funding priority for every spending review from now on. However, the Autumn Statement that followed was a damp squib for the sector, limited to just a two-year £50m apprenticeships pilot for engineering. That’s a drop in the ocean compared to the significant investment that’s going to be needed to meet the various challenges facing the education system.
So which measures should the Chancellor set out in the Budget Statement to best support the most disadvantaged children and young people in education?
An urgent priority must be investing in measures to tackle the attainment gap – the difference in education outcomes between low-income students and their better-off peers – in schools. This gap has widened considerably since COVID, wiping out a decade of progress. And it’s only likely to worsen as we navigate the perfect storm of the ongoing cost of living crisis, high rates of persistent absence and surge in mental health issues among pupils.
