CYP Now - Schools and colleges worse off in education funding squeeze, report finds

Post-16 education providers are in a "particularly difficult position" as settings, from early years to universities, face a "funding squeeze" following Jeremy Hunt's autumn statement, the Institute of Fiscal Studies warns.

An extra 200,000 young people are expected to enter post-16 education by 2030, researchers say. Picture: Adobe Stock/David Schaffer/KOTO

An additional £2.3bn in funding for schools in England, announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in November's autumn statement, takes school spending per pupil in 2024 back to its “most recent high point in 2010”. But despite helping schools to face rising costs, this funding represents “no overall real-terms growth in 14 years”, the report into annual educational spending in England reveals.

Researchers found that colleges and sixth forms have experienced “the largest cuts in spending per pupil up to 2019”, cuts which are only due to be partially reversed.

Spending per student is set to rise by nine per cent between 2021 and 2024 but college spending per pupil in 2024 will still be around five per cent below 2010 levels, while school sixth form spending per sixth-form pupil will be 22 per cent lower.

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