Former senior civil servant sets out five areas the government must address in its spending plans
This Spending Review will be a defining milestone for this government. Yet, I'm less confident it will be in the way the Department for Education needs it to be.
Since I returned to the civil service in 2010, I've been saying how tough every Spending Review will be, but this one feels especially tricky. Deep-rooted problems and pressures persisting from the pandemic, the global economic environment and threats to European security makes the numbers even harder to add up.
With financial wriggle room narrowing, here are the five measures – aside from schools spending – I'd like the department to prioritise in its Spending Review settlement.
1 A settlement rooted in a compelling cross-government agenda for children.
We have to start with the child at the heart and mobilise the services they, their carers and families need around them. The DfE's key areas – early years, schools, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), children's social care, further education, higher education and skills – cannot improve life chances on their own. There needs to be a funded plan that aligns children's needs with health, local government, housing, policing, justice and more. It is going to be difficult to move forward without a credible plan on tackling child poverty. It is time to revitalise the “Opportunity Mission” with a joined-up outcomes-focused strategy.
2 An explicit roadmap to rebalance spending from crisis to prevention.
Barnardo's submission to the Spending Review highlights the need for an “urgent shift from crisis-driven interventions to proactive, preventative support”. This shift was also a focus for the last government. The reality is you need to do both. The Budget committed to a more preventative approach. I want a clear plan with a focus on:
- Early years – including quality not just availability and cost of provision
- Support to families, such as the Families First Partnership Programme funded through £500mn in 2025/26
- A holistic approach to school attendance and education participation
- A revitalised youth agenda.
3 A compelling and confidence-building approach for young people up to 25 years old.
Despite the extra £745mn for school places announced in March, the relative silence on SEND has created a vacuum for the government which the Spending Review needs to put to bed. The sensible message that mainstream can be more inclusive is being seen by some parents as a failure to back special schools and do SEND on the cheap. It is actually recognition that mainstream education can do better alongside special schools and Alternative Provision. So far, the government has been too narrowly focused on schools – characterised by the early decision to move SEND back to the schools group in the DfE – where it had come from when I took it on with barely any resources. Schools are clearly essential but SEND children and young people need nurseries and childminders, social workers, health care professionals and supportive employers too.
4 Direction and ambition for children's social care.
In contrast to SEND, the post-election period brought a clearer commitment to delivering measures in the Independent Review of Children's Social Care. We've had a steady and encouraging drip feed of commitments and funding – if not all new – and a welcome focus on safeguarding. The big question is how to scale and accelerate this, especially in family support, fostering and council children's services. One area that does need to be urgently revisited is support for children and young people with “complex needs”. The current debate seems to be stuck on the problems – both cost and quality – with residential provision. It is time to inform debate about the type of provision with a much greater focus on meeting the specific needs of this group of children and young people and hearing their own voices.
5 Transparency about priorities, milestones and trade-offs.
The government cannot afford everything it wants to do. None ever can – so don't blame the Treasury. What it must do is have an honest and public conversation about what it wants to achieve, by when, how to measure success and, crucially, what it cannot do. If the department's running costs and staffing settlement is going to be as tight as current public discussion suggests then this is going to be key for successfully delivering its priorities. You cannot delegate navigation of this to civil servants alone, especially if demanding both greater productivity and innovation. It might also be time for the DfE itself to ask whether it has got the balance right between its central functions and those of the sector-facing groups covering policy delivery for families and the regions.
While there is no escaping this will be difficult to deliver I remain optimistic. Ministers are clearly committed and the department has a good track record in negotiating its Spending Review settlement. However, the schools budget often crowds out the rest. I just hope that whatever the numbers end up being, my five asks feature highly.
