Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled the party’s election pledges in a 59-page document on Sunday, but has been accused of failing to address the full extent of the funding crisis affecting early years settings, schools and colleges.
Despite promises by the Conservatives to deliver an extra £14bn in funding for schools, the National Education Union (NEU) said what the party was offering schools was “too little too late”.
Reacting to the document’s launch, Dr Mary Bousted, NEU’s joint general secretary, said: “This manifesto seems very relaxed about the exclusion of young people and has no positive ideas on how to help schools work with families and local authorities to prevent or bring down the number of child exclusions.
“We need zero tolerance for cuts to child mental health services and family services rather than zero tolerance for vulnerable children.”
In addition to the extra funding for schools the Conservatives announced earlier this year a further £780m in new funding to support children with special educational needs.
The manifesto also outlines plans to create a £1bn fund to provide more affordable childcare before and after school and during the school holidays.
In terms of post-16 education and training, the party is promising to invest almost £2bn to upgrade further education settings and create a new National Skills Fund worth £3bn.
Policies announced for youth justice would see new laws requiring schools, police, councils and health authorities to work together through Violence Reduction Units to prevent serious crime.
The party has also pledged to invest £500m in youth services for young people.
The Early Years Alliance said the announcement of the £1bn new childcare fund was “loose change” from the Conservatives.
The alliance said it understood the funding would deliver £250m a year for at least three years in addition to a £250m capital spending boost for wraparound childcare used after school or during holidays.
Neil Leitch, the alliance’s chief executive, said funding levels had remained unchanged from 2015 despite rising costs in wages, pension contributions and business rates.
“That underfunding has plunged the sector into crisis, creating a huge and growing shortfall of two thirds of a billion pounds and forcing thousands of providers to close.
“Perhaps it was too much to expect a serious conversation about the future of the sector during this election - but that is what is urgently needed.
“Instead, we’ve had offers of more ‘free’ hours from the other political parties and this loose change from the Conservatives,” he said.
The Association of Colleges (AoC), which represents more than 90 per cent of further education colleges in England, raised concerns over the Conservatives’ lack of commitment to raise funding for 16- to 18-year-olds further than an increase announced in September.
“Neither is there mention of the sustainable investment needed across all of post-16 education and skills, including apprenticeships,” said, AoC chief executive David Hughes.
“The National Skills Fund has real potential but will not be enough on its own given the severe cuts to adult learning budgets and the pressures on funding for apprenticeships for SMEs and young people,” he added.
However, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers welcomed the additional £3bn funding pledged to support school leavers.
The association’s chief executive Mark Dawe said: “All three main parties appear committed to some form of skills account for individual learners, which we would consider a positive step with the right to train or retrain.
“Equally positive would be the establishment of the £3bn National Skills Fund if it is allocated correctly to employers and learners to encourage good-quality training provision.”
