School leaders pessimistic on school funding – despite new money from Government

Almost half of school leaders think the quality of education in England will decline during the next four years due to funding shortfalls.

Nine in 10 school leaders expect their school’s finances to get worse over the next two years, despite new funding announced by the Government.

The findings come in a survey conducted by the Academies Show with support and analysis by an independent research consultant, Mark Gill, which also found that 46 per cent of leaders felt that the quality of education in England would decline over the next four years.

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, described the findings as “quite tragic”.

The survey was conducted among senior leadership team members in maintained schools and academies across England. About 650 respondents took part in the online survey in September and October 2017 from email invitations sent by The Academies Show. The overall results are weighted to the approximate proportion of maintained schools and academies.

It was conducted in September and October 2017 – several weeks after education secretary Justine Greening announced an extra £1.3 billion for schools over the next two years, found from elsewhere in her departmental budget.

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