A report published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reveals that between 2010 and 2019, total public spending on education across the UK fell by £10bn, or eight per cent, in real terms.
The 2021 Annual Report on Education Spending in England, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, states that the funding drop led to a fall in national income devoted to education spending from five per cent in 2007 to 4.4 per cent in 2019.
“If education spending had remained at five per cent of national income, it would have been £16bn higher in 2019,” the report states.
It notes that there was a three per cent real-terms increase in education spending in 2020, but this “mostly reflects the temporary extra levels of support during the pandemic”.
Pupils in disadvantaged areas have been worst hit by the cuts, researchers say, highlighting that the most deprived fifth of secondary schools saw a 14 per cent real-terms fall in spending per pupil between 2009 and 2019, compared with nine per cent drop for the least deprived schools.
Researchers criticise government policies, including the National Funding Formula and Pupil Premium, over failures to support poorer areas.
The National Funding Formula provided bigger increases “for the least deprived schools than for the most deprived ones between 2017 and 2022”, the report states.
“The Pupil Premium has also failed to keep pace with inflation since 2015. These patterns run counter to the government’s goal of levelling up poorer areas,” it adds.
Luke Sibieta, IFS research fellow and an author of the report, said: “Recent funding changes have worked against schools serving disadvantaged communities. This will make it that much harder to achieve ambitious goals to level up poorer areas of the country and narrow educational inequalities, which were gaping even before the pandemic.”
In the most recent Comprehensive Spending Review Chancellor Rishi Sunak pledged an extra £4.4bn for the schools budget in 2024.
The sum, combined with existing funding, should reverse cuts to 2010 levels, researchers say but warn this will mean schools have faced 15 years with no overall growth in spending. “This squeeze on school resources is effectively without precedent in post-war UK history,” the report states.
