Recycled announcement of recycled money
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT - The Teacher's Union has commented on today's announcement by the Secretary of State for Education of a £1.3 billion funding boost for schools, and support for schools in becoming more efficient.
“This appears to be a recycled announcement of recycled money, reflecting previous ministerial statements.
“It is unclear whether this funding will be new money, or simply existing school funding which is to be recycled.
“There is no guarantee that it will be sufficient to ensure that the Conservative Party’s manifesto pledge, that no school will lose out because of the National Funding Formula, will be met.
“The NASUWT has argued consistently that the quantum of school funding intended to accompany the National Funding Formula was too low, and has maintained that no school should lose real terms funding as a result of changes to the National Funding Formula.
“With regard to the Secretary of State’s announcement that the DfE would be supporting schools to become more efficient, they have been doing this for years to no avail. Since 2010, the excessive freedoms and flexibilities they have given to schools, and their obsessive focus on deregulation, has left the Government powerless to control spending at school level. Consequently spending on vanity projects, duplication of services, consultancy fees and the wares of a multitude of ‘snake-oil salesman’ has increased, while spending on teachers has decreased.
“Despite the announcement schools are still no clearer on the formula for funding schools for 2018/19. The uncertainty therefore continues.”
