Impact of new cuts to state school funding

[Novotelchok]

There are a lot of headlines just now about further cuts to state school funding - through inadequate central government funding of pay rises & NI increases, and pupil premium not going up enough. I'm not in England so only know what's in the papers - I'd be very interested to hear how this is impacting schools/ children / families.

I'm not a journalist, just an interested parent & a voter who is pretty worried by what seems to be Austerity 2.0.

Growth was good early 2024. If Labour had the same they’d be happy.

Now they’ve halved it. Taxing work is anti growth. It’s pretty basic economics.

That go for the private sector was never going to help. The last Labour gov knew they needed it.

But there needs to be more accountability for MATs.
As it stands at the moment they can get away with lots.

well said.

I don’t/don’t want to believe these cuts to Education are going to happen tbh.

All departments have been required to submit cost cutting ideas to the Treasury. Bridget Philiison has apparently submitted cuts to FSM provision. It would be ridiculous from a Labour Party perspective and I’d assumed was just a way of illustrating there’s nothing left to cut out of the Education budget?

I hope so anyway but guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

They have already said 1.4 billion cuts to education, the announcement today is in addition to that!
The NI increase isn't funded so coming out of existing budgets

I agree that some salaries in MATs are too high and it can be insulting for teachers and head teachers. And if MATs are just target pushing to please Ofsted and that is a whole silly expensive industry in itself that costs a lot, then it needs to go. However, the independence of head teachers needs to be maintained and some freedoms over the curriculum and hiring staff. Schools need to primarily be accountable to parents and children and parents need to be accountable to schools somehow. Education and health are not free at all, we all pay shedloads for it through our taxes and some accountability is required. But making the accountability go upwards to some higher body that rules over you, rather than the patient/pupil/their parents make zero sense to me.

They were already cutting budgets with the NI raise and pay rises coming out of existing budgets.

I can't say it looks like they've had a massive impact and the picture was just rosy before?

I absolutely get that but it’s a general measure and not specific to the Education sector.

If there are sector specific cuts coming to state education it’ll be beyond depressing.

I mean thats literally what this thread is about and plenty of links on here to illustrate the cuts.

Here is another one:
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/1bn-cuts-hospitals-schools-pay-rises-doctors-teachers-3567839?srsltid=AfmBOooxjIX7kzDaXtzF-k4bAlp4hc2rWzBX3vtsPHioHlf9Q737UU5g

This is ridiculous, spending £100,000 + to send a SEN child to a specialist private school is not affordable if they are cutting general education.

Whats annoying me about all of these announcements is that they are tinkering rather than meeting things head on and tackling policies that just aren’t affordable.

I missed that, where’s the announcement re £1.4 billion cuts to education please?

But have Labour supporters voted for more cuts? Is that the change they were hoping to bring in?
Are they happy their state educated children will be receiving even worse provision than under Tory?
Do they really hate education that much to applaud its destruction for the poor as well as for the "rich"?

I'm just wondering who are the "working class people" Labour represent these days... 🤔

I can't see much on the abolition of universal free school meals on Twitter. Lots of people are quoting an article about it by Peter Stefanovic (sp?!) but that has now been deleted.

But you also have to remember how much the government (all governments) hate teachers.

It won't be long before we hear the plentiful cry of
'If only we didn't have to pay teachers so much, schools would have more money to spend on the pupils'

Normally backed by the MSM posting pieces about how lazy teachers are, hours worked, holidays and golden pension.

It goes around in one big circle.

Surely VAT was sold in as improving state. Not cuts.

inews.co.uk/news/politics/1bn-cuts-hospitals-schools-pay-rises-doctors-teachers-3567839?srsltid=AfmBOorOwuIBrjB0xiJGwGFZOz_EyYtlMwqxIbo-5y1wYK4-9Akp5OyK

This.
Though I'm nit surprised tbh. The left have betrayed their voters a long time ago, and not just in the UK. That's why we are seeing the rise of the right wing.

Berardi is a Marxist philosopher and I'm personally rather wary about Marxism, but he sums it up concisely here https://critinq.wordpress.com

Education budgets are clearly under strain at the moment and I always thought the labour manifesto was pretty rubbish on education. They went with a policy of spite rather than something that would actually raise aspirations of what the state can provide. There was nothing to better manage Sen of increase investment

Now I very much hope DFE have given a list of unpalatable things to the Treasury as a tactic to avoid more cost-cutting in the being of ‘yes of course we can make cuts and are working very hard to do that. First thing cut meals for 4yos’. Starmer wont want to do it as Thatcher was called the milk snatcher for years after she cut free school milk.

What if Labour are doing this because they think voters want this? Because they are scared of Reform so they are delivering Reform style policies preemptively somehow? Is it possible?

Thanks for the link.

That’s not just education though, it’s the health sector too. And it’s moving funding from capital spending programmes to fund pay rises for teachers and doctors which is not a cut to the sector overall.

Tbh I’m worried about what may be announced tomorrow too but it’s useful to understand the facts.

I’d bet the Bridget Philipson proposals were leaked to scare the Treasury off.

Sorry, can someone explain what provisions you think are in the current bill? There is nothing in there on SEND except in relation to elective home ed. An insider has said there may be a white paper but that’s not a bill and nor is it confirmed. Devil, detail and all that.

No, they have taken in pupils from other state schools which are rumoured to be at risk of closure.

What I find most egregious about VAT on private schools is the really heartless sneering towards affected children from politicians (largely) and some members of the public. Very few children get to actively choose their school - whether they are in private or state is for the majority not their doing. Labour could have framed exactly the same decision in much more sympathetic language & brought VAT in at the start of a school year. The way they've done it has shown no sympathy or empathy towards affected children, so it's hardly surprising to me that they are now showing exactly the same disregard towards state educated kids.

I actually agree with restricting PIP - the cost has ballooned out of control - but it would have been far better to firstly bring in means testing. If winter fuel allowance and child benefit are means tested why isn't PIP?

I hope this is a tongue in cheek post. State schools have been stripping back for at least ten years. If anyone doesn’t realise how bad things are then please go and talk to your local state school teachers. We have nothing. No heat, no resources, massive classes and no support. There’s nothing to strip.