The government has announced it will absorb spiraling costs of SEND provision from 2028, scrap the two-child benefit cap and invest millions into secondary school books and playgrounds across England in the budget today.
Here’s everything schools need to know about chancellor Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget.
1. Government to absorb SEND pressures
The government has confirmed it will absorb the rising cost pressures of SEND provision from 2028 when the statutory override allowing councils to set deficit budgets comes to an end.
The Office for Budgetary Responsibility estimates this will leave the government facing a pressure of £6.3 billion in 2028-29, with no plans set out yet to address it, and no plan for existing and rising council deficits – set to hit £14 billion soon.
You can read more about that here.
2. Two-child benefit cap scrapped
The chancellor confirmed the government will be scrapping the two-child benefit cap for universal credit from April 2026, which government claims will lift 450,000 children out of poverty.
The OBR said this would cost an estimated £3 billion by 2029-30.
It comes after The National Governance Association, the National Association of Head Teachers, the Association of School and College Leaders, the National Education Union, NASUWT and Unison warned the prime minister in September there was a “critical need” to scrap the policy.
The letter read: “No child deserves to live in poverty, full stop. But the educational impact of the poverty that continues to rip through our communities and schools cannot be overstated.”
3. £5m for secondary library books
Reeves announced £5 million of new funding for state secondary schools to buy new books. This equates to £1,400 per school.
It builds on an earlier pledge of £10 million in funding to provide every primary school in England with a library by 2029.
According to the government, currently 1,700 primaries do not have one.
Both investments coincide with the government’s planned National Year of Reading 2026.
4. £18m for playgrounds
Government will also invest £18 million over two years in up to 200 playgrounds across England.
But budget documents do not detail where these playgrounds will be, and whether they are within school settings or not.
5. Private school VAT boost
The OBR’s report says the government’s introduction of VAT on private school fees will raise £40 million a year more than expected.
This is driven by an updated forecast for average earnings that is used to project school fee growth.
Estimates for the number of children expected to leave the private school system in the long term – around 6 per cent of the private school population – remain unchanged.
6. But no extra school revenue funding
Despite the hopes of unions and other sector leaders, the budget did not contain a further increase in overall school revenue funding.
This year’s spending review set out plans to raise the schools budget from £64.8 billion this year to £69.5 billion in 2028, a cash-terms increase of £4.7 billion by the end of the spending review period.
But sector leaders had hoped for extra cash at the budget to fund rising cost pressures, including under-funded pay rises.
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