Behind the 'real terms' con, schools face cuts

Seventeen per cent of children in England are eligible for free school meals, and their schools are allocated £430 a pupil, increasing next year to perhaps £800 a pupil. Of course, this is just a case of a politician claiming double credit, as the spending review last November included this increase, and we already know that the funding is planned to double again to £2.5bn by 2014/15. But in the present climate, we should be pleased that this increase in funding has been safeguarded.

Let's try to assess what it is really like in schools. Going back to the November spending review, the Treasury said: "There will be real terms increases of 0.1 per cent in each year of the spending review for the five to 16s school budget, including a £2.5bn pupil premium. Underlying per pupil funding will be maintained in cash terms." The 2010 Budget assumed inflation of two per cent. Even with the pupil premium increase, school budgets were only planned to increase by 2.1 per cent, so 0.1 per cent in real terms – close enough to zero not to matter. But inflation reached 4.5 per cent in August 2011, so spending power is in fact well into negative figures.