Govt announces huge cut to schools funding, redundancies

[noblegiraffe]

Yesterday the government announced that there would be huge cuts to schools funding and this would mean larger class sizes, less support for SEND pupils and a smaller subject offering.

You might have missed this as it was framed as a generous pay rise for teachers.

This pay rise will be massively below inflation and therefore represent a large pay cut for experienced teachers, where ‘experienced’ means that they have been teaching for 5 years. The pay rise for new teachers is well below (due to inflation) what was promised in the 2019 Conservative manifesto as necessary to tackle the teacher recruitment crisis. schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-announces-5-pay-rise-for-most-teachers-in-2022-23/

However, poor as the pay offering is, the critical issue is that the government isn’t going to fund it. Schools would need to fund these pay rises from their existing budgets, which will mean that either teachers don’t get the pay rise (this happens) or there will be cuts and redundancies in schools, or both.

School funding itself will only rise by 1.9% which, as everyone is acutely aware, will not be enough to deal with the across-the-board price rises. schoolsweek.co.uk/school-per-pupil-funding-to-rise-by-only-1-9-per-cent-next-year/

Schools have already made redundancies, cuts to SEN provision and subject provision over the last 12 years of dire education funding. We are now cutting deep into the bone of educational provision.

So when the government talk about accepting in full the pay recommendation from the pay review body whose hands the Treasury tied, or about selfish unions and greedy teachers, in the end it’s going to be the kids who are losing out, when their class sizes increase, their SEN provision is reduced, they can’t take the subjects that they want, and their school can’t provide them with a qualified teacher.

Yes.

Even this inadequate award will have to be financed by school budgets. That means cuts and redundancies.

That’s horrific. Teachers are leaving the profession in droves, especially the experienced ones. I’m an ex teacher myself and one of my kids has SEN. I really can see that this is going to have miserable consequences for, not just teachers, but every child in the classroom.

While schools also face increases in energy and most other inputs too. Deliberate taking the opportunity to rebase public sector costs, except the pensions of voters?

They have royally fucked the country!

Yep, it was almost the same for NHS. 3% is funded, everything else comes from budgets that are already agreed and allocated for the year (as they were done in April). Once again another way to cut funding for our public services.

I agree. It's awful, and teachers and children will suffer as a consequence.

So what can we do?

Absolutely dreadful but please remember that because no teachers learn about Sen in the pgce, and many senco get paid extra but again don't actually know anything about Sen.... there is already no Sen provision in school.

Added to that, the school/head do not avail themselves of the law around Sen so concerned parent's are still being batted off or being told they can't ask for a pgce because their child is not a year behind.

The culture is to make do and manage with a struggling child and get the problem passed through to secondary school. The culture is to sweep these children under the carpet, "manage" the parents, and make sure that the problem doesn't actually become the school issues.

Parent's are unaware until many times years down the line as they try and work out why their child isn't learning.

As they spend years fighting the smoke and mirrors they come to the realisation that the school isn't on the same page when it comes to their child.

Noble I mostly admire your posts on here but please, don't use Sen as the rallying flag.

You didn't seem concerned or bothered recently on that thread with the mum distressed and wondering what to do with Sen.
You just reminded us that teachers have zero knowledge of Sen mate.

• ehcp not pgce!

Vote for someone else in the next general election 👌

Can I just point out that it’s the same for doctors surgeries. Husband is a partner in a GP practice and is going to have to fund pay increases for their salaried (non-partner) doctors with no additional contribution from the government. To balance the books, he’s looking at either a pay cut for partners or redundancies (spoiler: redundancies aren’t a practical option with patient demand at current levels). It’s royally fucked.

@RockandRollsuicide I completed my PGCE two years ago and did a lot of work on SEN including a day shadowing a specialist TA, a day shadowing a high-needs form and a day at a special school for SEN pupils with a focus on initiatives that were transferable to mainstream schools. I think things are changing, but I can see how it often feels like there’s a lack of understanding as teachers try to address varied pupil needs in an often crowded and underfunded environment.

Excellent analysis Noblegiraffe. This is exactly what will happen. On top is the doubling (at least) of schools energy costs. It’s a pity the media don’t report the detail in this way.
I wonder how many of the candidates for PM send their own kids to state schools.

You just reminded us that teachers have zero knowledge of Sen mate.

No I didn’t say that, I said that teachers did not diagnose SEN in response to a poster complaining about lack of recognition among teachers as dyscalculia as a specific, separate SEN. If the people who do diagnose SEN don’t recognise it or diagnose it, that’s not on teachers.

there is already no Sen provision in school.

Making stuff up doesn’t help your case here either. There is SEN provision, there are people, including SENCOs trained in SEN. However TAs and support staff were the first to be made redundant in the original austerity years of this government. SEN provision is deeply inadequate, but not non-existent.

@LadyRoughDiamond

Was that a compulsory unit, does every part of pgce now include shadowing a Sen specialist.

It didn'tfeel like there was a lack of understanding at all.

There was no understanding.

And no will to understand either.

Since my dd experience ( which we are still going through) I've since spoken to so many people who said the school behaved abominably.
I had to seek help outside of the school.

It goes way beyond the usual excuses!

Some teachers really do get vicious when presented with Sen.

@RockandRollsuicide unfortunately courses seem to vary depending on provider, but I believe they’re expected to cover SEN teaching as a topic.
These days, when it comes to SEN teaching, I’m a big believer in the larger the school the better the provision. Staff will have experienced a wider variety of needs and the school will generally be better funded.

I've since spoken to many people in education and they have varying degrees of knowledge about Sen or may specialise in different Sen.

However the main point is a teacher with knowledge of Sen can start the ball rolling they can point the child to senco ,they can suggest all the basics to the parents.

Hearing check's, behaviourial optometry, doctor..

The remark you made was defensive, and facetious because everyone knows teachers cant diagnose Sen. Especially the mate. It wasn't a kind answer to a concerned parent, so I am wondering why you're piggybacking on Sen ?

But of course teachers with knowledge of Sen can use tips to unlock learning, flag to the parents that something is wrong, try different strategies re phonics/reading, and not blame the parents if their child is struggling to read.

Of course teachers with no knowledge of Sen can also do this.

Thank you very much for highlighting this, @noblegiraffe. I hadn't yet clocked that there was no additional funding for this.

As a school governor, this is extremely concerning. With a huge amount of hard work, applying for charitable grants and developing opportunities for the school to generate external income, we have finally managed to produce our first balanced budget in around 6 years. The funding that we get from the government simply isn't enough to cover our essential costs - this was confirmed by the ESFA consultant who was sent out to look at why we kept submitting deficit budgets.

This paltry pay increase - richly deserved and much-needed as it is - will push us back into a deficit budget again. There is only so long that our excellent school can keep going if we continue to eat into our reserves at the rate we're currently going, so it seems inevitable that we'll be forced into a MAT, that will probably just end up draining away even more resources from the school. From the outside, we look like an immensely successful school - I don't think parents have any idea how precarious our financial situation is.

I'm no longer surprised by any shit that this government throws at the public sector - indeed, I have come to expect it. It's depressing nonetheless. These children are our future, and it seems that we are not going to invest in them.

Well I've been doing lots of research and many teachers have said sen is a non compulsory unit and it's small.

Senco similarly unfortunately are not actually trained in Sen they literally just co ordinate but what is there to coordinate when no one has the faintest idea of what's wrong?

Sen should be a compulsory unti in pgce.
All senco should be trained to a high level.
Schools should have Sen trainers come in to give tips.
Schools with struggling readers need to try other reading methods aside from phonics!

Schools need to know the law around ehcp and not give parents false information.
Schools need to listen to parents.

Many of these things are free.

Completely agree, OP.

I hope that come the Autumn, when there are strikes, that people remember what the government are actually doing here. I hope they can see past the media framing the situation as just leftie workshy teachers not caring about the kids and demanding more cash.

What are schools going to do when home ed students are potentially forced back into schools, or refused permission to deregister?

It's going to get much worse with the Schools Bill.

There is not enough training given on SEN but even way back when...and I am talking thirty years ago when EHCPs were statements, you still had some inset on providing for individual differences.
But noble is correct...teachers can refer to sendco/express a concern if they suspect a SPLD that has not yet been picked up, but they do not diagnose. Only a specialist can do that. Referrals cost money by and large and many do not have the budget, hence you having the Wait and Watch approach.
The Quality First Teaching approach in primary does appear to allow schools to insist they are meeting the needs of the child (even if you may suspect this is an exaggeration).
But even with a diagnosis/EHCP, the child does not always get what they need.
Extra budgets and funding is clearly the answer, not more cuts. It is bloody depressing.

RocknRoll to clarify, because you seem determined to push this and suggest that I don’t care about kids with SEN which is a) pretty insulting and b) way off mark, you have got the wrong end of the stick about what was said on the other thread. The post in question wasn’t a response to the OP, the ‘concerned parent’, but another poster complaining about teachers not recognising dyscalculia as an SEN. It is the people who diagnose SEN who do not recognise it, hence it not being a diagnosis that is generally made.

Can we now please focus on the discussion here, rather than drag up other threads?

I was a SENCo for many years. I was trained, I had post graduate qualifications. But, and it’s a big but, I had a staff of TAs, access to the school’s EP, Literacy Support, Traveller Education service, Speech Therapy and behaviour management support.

There still wasn’t enough of it, even then. Now, I know that those outside agency supports are like hens teeth. Some of the things that have changed is that parents, if they can, are prioritising private reports. Of course parents should have expectations that the school they send their child to will meet their needs, but it has been pointed out very clearly, that the money for all this support is not forthcoming. It won’t be long before there isn’t any sort of state education if this continues.

Wow, what a depressing news. The country that doesn't care about educating children. What kind of future we are headed?

Agree with this. Except, the country does care about how some children are educated, but those ones won't be affected by these cuts!