Schools funding in 2024 will return, in real-terms, to levels last seen in 2010, meaning there has been no real-terms growth in 14 years.
Critics say this 14-year funding freeze is an indictment of the government’s commitment to education, going as far as to label the 2010s “a lost decade”.
The figures are set out in the 2022 annual education report of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (Drayton et al, 2022), which says that the additional £2.3bn announced in the Autumn Statement means schools are “in a better position” to meet increasing costs including rises in teacher and support staff salaries, energy bills, and food costs.
However, the report sounds an alert over the precarious funding situation for further education colleges and sixth forms, which are someway off being returned to 2010 levels in real terms.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said this week that the funding for colleges and sixth forms remained ”woefully inadequate” and had resulted in “cuts to curriculum options and student support services”.
