Leadership

2018 Annual Report on Education Spending in England

This annual report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies on education spending in England provides measures of spending per student in the early years, schools, further education and higher education back to the early 1990s. Among the findings this year, the report shows that funding for 16- to 18-year-olds and for general further education has been cut much more sharply than funding for schools, pre-school or higher education.

Education spending is the second-largest element of public service spending in the UK behind health, representing about £90billion in 2017–18 in today’s prices or about 4.3% of national income. The level of UK education spending has risen significantly in real terms over time, growing particularly fast from the late 1990s through to the late 2000s, before falling in real terms from 2010 onwards. Whilst important, such overall trends in total education spending tell us little about what has happened to the different areas of education spending.

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      string(5913) "Schools serving more deprived pupils in England have already seen the largest falls in spending per pupil over the last decade, according to this report by the lnstitute for Fiscal Studies.School spending per pupil in England fell by 9% in real terms between 2009–10 and 2019–20. This represents the largest cut in over 40 years, though these cuts come on the back of a significant increase in spending per pupil of over 60% during the 2000s. Recent cuts have mainly been driven by cuts to school sixth-form funding and big reductions in the spending role of local authorities. Cuts look similar whether we compare against general inflation or school-specific cost changes over the last decade.The government has allocated an extra £7.1 billion for schools in England through to 2022–23. This will increase spending per pupil by 9% in real terms between 2019–20 and 2022–23 (as measured against expected general inflation) and near enough reverse the cuts of the 2010s. If we account for expected increases in teacher pay, the real-terms increase in spending per pupil will be lower, at 6%. In either case, school spending per pupil in 2022–23 is set to be no higher in real terms than in 2009–10.Secondary school spending per pupil fell by 9% in real terms between 2009–10 and 2019–20, partly reflecting cuts of over 25% to sixth-form funding per student. In contrast, primary school spending per pupil has grown by 4%. As a result, the per-pupil funding difference between secondary and primary schools fell from 30% at the end of the 2000s to 16% in 2019–20. This continues a long-run trend, with this funding difference already down from over 50% during the 1980s. Whilst empirical evidence shows high benefits to spending at younger ages, it is not clear evidence supports such a dramatic shift.This report analyses the extent to which plans are targeted at the likely challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as pre-existing challenges such as the teacher labour market and the state of school buildings.Key Findings:School spending per pupil in England fell by 9% in real terms between 2009–10 and 2019–20. This represents the largest cut in over 40 years, but came on the back of a significant increase in spending per pupil of over 60% during the 2000s. Over the 2010s, cuts in spending per pupil were lower in Wales (5%), but similar in Northern Ireland (10%). In contrast, spending per pupil in Scotland rose by 5% in real terms over the 2010s, reflecting extra funding to pay for increases in teacher pay totalling more than 10% over 2018 and 2019. Spending per pupil is highest in Scotland (£7,300), of similar levels in Wales and England (£6,100) and lowest in Northern Ireland (£5,800). The government has allocated an extra £7.1 billion for schools in England through to 2022–23. This will increase spending per pupil by 9% in real terms between 2019–20 and 2022–23 (as measured against expected general inflation) and near enough reverse past cuts. If we account for expected increases in teacher pay, the real-terms increase in spending per pupil will be lower, at 6%. In both cases, school spending per pupil in 2022–23 would be no higher in real terms than in 2009–10. Secondary school spending per pupil in England (£6,000) was about 16% higher than in primary schools (£5,200) in 2019–20. This is down from a secondary/primary funding difference of 30% in 2010–11, partly reflecting large cuts to school sixth-form funding. It also continues a long-run trend, with the funding difference down from over 50% during the 1980s. Whilst empirical evidence shows high benefits to spending at younger ages, it is not clear evidence supports such a dramatic shift. The school funding system in England provides greater levels of spending to more deprived schools to help narrow the achievement gap between rich and poor. During the 2000s, the funding advantage enjoyed by the most deprived schools grew from 20–25% in 2000–01 to 35% by 2010–11. Despite the introduction of the Pupil Premium in 2011, the deprivation funding premium shrank back to 25% in 2018–19. This can be partly explained by faster falls in deprivation inside London and a school funding system that did not adjust to such changes. In the long run, the new National Funding Formula should ensure the funding system is more responsive. However, the new formula will deliver funding increases of 3–4 percentage points less to schools in poorer areas up to 2021. We also see faster falls in spending per pupil of 13% for deprived secondary schools outside London since 2010–11. These patterns run counter to the objective of using school funding to ‘level up’ poorer regions. Given lost schooling and a likely widening of educational inequalities during lockdown, the government has announced a range of measures to help schools. These include a one-off extra £80 per pupil aged 5–16 and a national tutoring programme. Whilst the focus on tutoring is well aligned with empirical evidence, the plans are modest compared with the likely reductions in skills. Only the National Tutoring Programme is targeted at more disadvantaged pupils, making it harder to address the inequalities that have widened during lockdown. 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Leadership

2020 Annual Report on Education Spending in England: Schools

22 Sep 2020

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Leadership Briefing 12.06 (138)"
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      string(5732) "spending per pupil will still be over 50 per cent higher in 2019–20 than in 2000–01. ■ While there is variation in per pupil spending across Local Authorities (LAs), it has fallen over timeand spending is now much more strongly linked to area characteristics. For example, in the early1980’s, the gap between the ten percent richest and ten percent poorest primary schools wasover 30 percent. By 2013-14 this had narrowed to 26 percent ■ Variations within LAs has become more significant over time. The ratio of primary to secondaryschool per pupil spending also still varies significantly across LAs, although the variance hasfallen over time. There is large variation in spending among the quintile of schools with the mostdeprived intake; ten per cent spent more than £9,000 per pupil, while ten per cent spent less than£6,200. ■ Due to the time it takes for policy changes to feed through into spending per cohort (i.e. the totalspending over a pupil’s school career) although annual spending per pupil is anticipated to fallfrom 2016 onwards, cumulative spending is expected to continue rising until at least 2020. The2020 GCSE cohort will be the first in 30 years to have received more funding in primary than insecondary school.Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents. ■ The NAO assert that the financial position of primary schools was reasonably stable in2015.However,they identify the emergence of financial challenges in secondary schools.Between 2010-11 and 2014-15, the proportion of maintained secondary schools spendingmore than their income rose from 34 per cent to 60 per cent. The proportion in deficitwas 15 per cent in 2014-15 and the average size of deficit for those schools in deficitincreased in real terms from £246,000 to £326,000. Between 2012-13 and 2014-15, theproportion of secondary academies spending more than their income rose from 39 percent to 61 per cent. The DfE does not know exactly why schools are overspending orunderspending, or how long these patterns are sustainable for. ■ Schools’ budgets will face further pressure from pay rises, the introduction of the nationalliving wage, higher employer contributions to national insurance and the teachers’ pensionscheme, non-pay inflation and the apprenticeship levy. DfE estimated that mainstreamschools will be able to make savings of around £3billion by 2019-20 without negativelyaffecting educational outcomes. ■ While DfE is aiming to support schools to do this, the NAO finds that DfE has not clearlycommunicated to schools how they should make these savings, so can’t be sure thateducational outcomes won’t be compromised. Indeed, the small sample of schools NAOsurveyed indicates that in order to reduce costs, some schools are planning to replacemore experienced teachers with younger recruits and to rely more heavily on unqualifiedstaff. To avoid a fall in educational standards the NAO recommend that DfE intervenemore often and earlier when financial concerns about schools arise. ■ The authors calculate that if the proposed NFF was fully implemented with no floors tocuts, schools would lose 3.1 per cent of funding in real terms by 2019–20. In general,Local Authorities (LAs) with the highest current levels of per-pupil funding will lose, andthose with the lowest will gain, although this pattern is not perfect. ■ Despite the additional funding schools now receive via the pupil premium, schools havenot unanimously seen increases in their overall budgets. Over 2010-11 to 2014-15, DfEgave£6 billion to schools under the pupil premium policy but reduced other school fundingin real-terms at the same time. As a result, total per-pupil funding has increased in only 55per cent of schools in real-terms. ■ The DfE estimate the full impact of the pupil premium will not be felt until 2018 for primaryschools and 2023 for secondary schools –the years when eligible pupils will havebeen funded for their entire education. Since its introduction the size of the attainmentgap between disadvantaged and other pupils in primary schools decreased by 4.7percentage points as of 2014, while the gap in attainment in secondary school fell by 1.6percentage points over the same period. While this is promising, the significance of theseimprovements is unclear and the gap remains wide. ■ Spending in secondary schools is most productive for those pupils who perform well in Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.primary school, with the top ten per cent of pupils making far more progress than thebottom ten per cent. ■ The impact of additional expenditure appears to have greater benefits for Free SchoolMeal(FSM)pupils. However, the estimated impact varies according to the methodologiesused. At Key Stage 2 estimates range from a few weeks’ progress to a term’s worth. AtGCSE an extra £1,000 of expenditure per pupil can, over time, raise attainment at GCSEby ‘a fraction of a grade’. The effects for larger amounts of expenditure are non-linear, soscaling up should not be attempted. ■ On average an additional £1,000 per student paid to schools in urban local authority (LA)boundary settings raised student test scores at Key Stage 2 by around"
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Leadership

School Funding in England Since 2010 - What the key Evidence Tells Us

8 Feb 2018

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Leadership Briefing (139)"
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      string(5756) "Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.SCHOOL FUNDING PRESSURES IN ENGLANDKeywordsSchool funding,pressures,local authority,maintainedschools,balances, cashflow, deficit,financialstrugglesSummaryThis new report by the Education Policy Institute examines the latest trends in local authoritymaintained school balances, and assesses whether all schools will be able to meet costpressures over the next two years, following recent government funding reforms.It shows that the number of state secondary schools falling into deficit in England has almost trebledin the last four years to more than a quarter.The EPI report focuses on local authority schools because the data is publicly available. It excludesacademies, which account for about 60% of secondaries and 20% of primaries in England.The research adds to growing evidence of the financial struggles faced by a significant minority ofschools. The report also found two-thirds of council schools spent more than their income in 2016-17,while 40% have had balances in decline for at least two years in a row.Key Findings: ■ The number of local authority maintained secondary schools in deficit reduced from 14.3 per centin 2010-11 to 8.8 per cent in 2013-14. Strikingly, however, over the period of four years up until2016-17, the proportion of local authority secondary schools in deficit nearly trebled, expandingto over a quarter of all such schools – or 26.1 per cent. The average local authority maintainedsecondary school deficit rose over this 7 year period, from £292,822 in 2010-11 to £374,990 in2016-17. ■ The number of local authority maintained primary schools in deficit has also risen. In 2010-11, 5.2per cent of local authority primary schools were in deficit – this reduced in the following year to3.7 per cent, before staying at a level of around 4 per cent until 2015-16. However, in 2016-17,the proportion of primary schools in deficit increased significantly, to 7.1 per cent. The averageprimary school deficit also noticeably increased, from £72,042 in 2010-11, to £107,962 in 2016-17. ■ At a regional level, the South West had the highest percentage of local authority maintainedsecondaries in deficit over this period – with 22.1 per cent of schools in deficit in 2010-11, risingconsiderably to over a third of schools (34.9 per cent) in 2016-17. The East had the lowest – with7.5 per cent of local authority maintained secondary schools in deficit in 2010-11, rising to 17.5per cent in 2016-17. ■ The North East had the highest number of local authority maintained primary schools in deficit inWeek Commencing 26th March 2018https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Schools-funding-pressures_EPI.pdfLeadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.2016-17 at 10.1 per cent. The East of England consistently had the lowest, with 2.6 per cent indeficit in 2010-11, rising to 3.4 per cent in 2016-17. ■ A large proportion of local authority maintained schools are now spending more than their income.Over two-thirds of local authority maintained secondary schools spent more than their income in2016-17. Significantly, such events are not just occurring for one year – we find that 40 per centof local authority maintained secondaries have had balances in decline for at least two years in arow. ■ Similar figures are found for local authority maintained primary schools – in 2016-17, over 60 percent were spending more than their income. A quarter of local authority maintained primarieshave had a falling balance for two years or more. ■ Funding allocated by the government through its new National Funding Formula for schools(NFF), fails to meet pressures on schools budgets produced by this cost alone. This is despitethe announcement of an extra £1.3 billion in funding for schools by the government in July 2017. ■ As many as 40 per cent (around 7,500 schools) are unlikely to receive enough additionalgovernment funding in 2018-19 to meet these pay pressures alone. For 2019-20, this proportionrises to nearly half of state-funded mainstream schools in England (around 9,000 schools). ■ Schools are facing a variety of cost pressures, yet this analysis shows how many schools arestruggling just from this staffing cost alone. In addition, our assumption of 1 per cent staff payincrease over the next two years is cautious – with the government having signalled that futurerises in teachers’ pay may be higher than the current 1 per cent cap over the next few years. ■ For a significant proportion of schools in England, being able to meet the cost of annual staff payincreases from a combination of government funding and their own reserves looks highly unlikely,even in the short term. ■ In response to pressures, schools have undertaken various efficiency measures to deliver costsavings, such as switching suppliers, reducing energy usage and reducing the size of leadershipteams. ■ However, education staff account for the majority of spending by schools – around two-thirds. It islikely that schools will find it difficult to achieve the scale of savings necessary without also cuttingback on staff. Many schools will face the challenge of containing budget pressures and"
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Leadership

School Funding Pressures In England

22 Mar 2018

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      string(3396) "This report from RS Assessment on test results in maths, reading, grammar, punctuation and spelling show that attainment has dropped across all subjects and year groups in 2020. The data on over 250,000 primary school pupils across England is based on widely used tests and show the most significant decreases in maths papers, while Year 3 and 2 pupils faced the steepest drop-off of any cohort.The data shows an average standardised score decline of 8 points in maths, 6.3 in reading and 7.2 in grammar, punctuation and spelling across all pupils compared to 2019 data, with greater reductions seen for pupil premium eligible pupils. This is a stark contrast to the average annual gains of 0.5 points since the current curriculum began in 2016. The tests were scheduled to take place during the summer term; however, pupils sat them four months later, at the beginning of this autumn term, due to the school closures.Main Findings:The attainment gap between pupils eligible for pupil premium and those who are not has widened significantly.  Across all three standardised subject papers offered by RS Assessment and all six year-groups, those eligible for pupil premium experienced a steeper decline in standardised scores than other pupils.  There are also considerable differences by school type. Those with higher levels of deprivation, situated in urban areas or located in the north or midlands, tended to show more significant declines. Among Year 2 pupils – who are between six and seven years old – those eligible for pupil premium dropped by an additional 2.4 points compared with their peers in maths, and an additional 2.3 points in reading.  Pupil premium eligible pupils in Year 6 were most affected in grammar, punctuation and spelling, dropping an additional 1.4 points beyond their classmates. The least difference between pupils eligible for pupil premium and others were seen in Year 3 maths, a difference of 0.8 points; Year 5 reading at 0.5 points; and Year 4 grammar, punctuation and spelling, where pupil premium eligible pupils were just 0.6 points behind their peers.  Beyond the significant overall drops in subjects, notable differences were also seen between topics within subjects. For example, attainment in fractions was affected more than number, while punctuation fared worse than spelling. In maths, fractions and geometry topics were the most affected, with attainment dropping by 14 percent across all year groups. Meanwhile, operations and statistics dropped by 12 percent, measures by 9 percent, and number by 8 percent. In the grammar, punctuation and spelling tests, punctuation was hardest hit with an average 14 percent drop in attainment. Grammar followed closely behind, dropping 13 percent, followed by vocabulary at 11 percent and spelling at 10 percent. For the reading tests, comprehension dropped by 10 percent across all years, while inference decreased by 9 percent and Language, Structure and Presentation (LSP) by 10 percent.  The Year 1s taking the Reception paper also showed concerning drops in attainment. Comprehension scores decreased an average of 15 percent, phonics attainment dropped by 16 percent and Reading for Meaning (RFM) lost 14 percent.Link: The Impact of Lockdown on Children’s Education: A Nationwide Analysis"
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Leadership

The Impact of Lockdown on Children’s Education: A Nationwide Analysis

16 Nov 2020