No Funding for Schools in Spring Statement
In this week’s Spring Statement, no new funding has been announced for schools. The Spring Statement prioritised spending for the police to tackle knife crime, alongside announcements regarding housing and the environment.
Instead Chancellor Phillip Hammond has announced that, pending a Brexit deal, he intends to launch a spending review before the summer recess. This would be due to conclude by the Autumn Budget announcement and would set funding for a number of government departments including the Department for Education for the next three years.
This announcement comes after news last week that Education Secretary Damian Hinds refused to meet Head Teachers to discuss their concerns about funding. The Worth Less? Campaign contacted over 3 million parents to tell them that requests to meet had been rejected twice. This has been part of ongoing concerns about the state of school funding and increasing calls to tackle the school funding crisis. A debate on the issue was held in Parliament last week after a petition spearheaded by St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School Head Teacher Andrew Ramanandi from Gateshead attracted over 100,000 signatures.
The news also comes as Schools North East prepares to launch a national funding campaign to engage schools, parents and students in calling on the government to tackle the funding crisis. Keep an eye out for the launch of the campaign next week.
You can read more on the Spring Statement here.