No major new spending was announced for schools in Rishi Sunak’s budget earlier this week. Gavin Williamson’s promise to provide every region in the country with specialist 16-to-19 maths schools, was reiterated, as was the Conservative manifesto promise of £25,000 per year on average for every secondary school to invest in arts activities, and £30 million a year to improve PE teaching.

The Chancellor also reiterated spending commitments of £7.1 billion extra for schools by 2022, with plans to increase per-pupil funding next year by an average of 4%. Schools North East’s previous analysis of these figures showed that there will be a regional disparity in funding levels and that fewer North East schools would see benefits, despite our higher levels of disadvantage. 

However, it has also been revealed that the DfE’s capital budget has been cut with £100 million less next year, meaning less money to repair school buildings.

The bulk of funding was for Further Education with £1.5 billion promised over five years to improve college buildings.

Schools North East Director Chris Zarraga said ‘Schools North East recognises that this budget will focus on responding to the current crisis, and that major announcements for school spending were made last year. However, we reiterate that this funding is not enough to reverse the real time cuts felt by schools. The increases are not spread evenly, and some of the areas which need it the most will lose out. We hope that the next budget will bring a focus on severely underfunded areas such as SEND and high needs.’

Funding for SEND and high needs is of particular concern to Schools North East as the North East has the highest proportion of pupils with SEND, with 15.8% of students reporting SEND, compared to a national average of 14.9%. The region also has a higher proportion of students with EHCPs than the rest of the country. We are supporting the WorthLess? Campaign in conducting a survey on SEND and high needs funding. Please complete the survey to help us offer a complete picture which properly represents the North East.