The education secretary will be “making representations” to the Treasury about “significant” funding pressures faced by schools, but whether they avoid cuts is down to the new prime minister as he decides the “priorities of the government”.
Kit Malthouse appeared in the House of Commons for his first education questions since taking up the job last month.
However, with Rishi Sunak due to take over as prime minister this week following Liz Truss’s resignation, today’s session may also have been Malthouse’s last.
Here’s what we learned.
1. PM will choose whether to ‘prioritise’ education
Malthouse and his team faced several questions about the impact of soaring cost pressures on schools.
Recent reports said 9 in 10 schools face deficits this year. Education organisations have demanded action to plug an estimated £2 billion funding shortfall – the equivalent to 38,000 fewer teachers.
The education secretary said he recognised that “schools are under significant pressure, as is most of society, and we have to work together to try to get through it in good shape”.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will deliver another financial statement next Monday.
Malthouse added: “We will obviously be making representations to Treasury colleagues as we move towards the [financial statement] and indeed beyond about what those pressures are so that the chancellor and the new prime minister are able to make choices within a priority framework which reflects the priorities of the government.”
2. ‘Wait and see’ what Sunak says on schools bill
Before she announced her resignation last week, Liz Truss was preparing to scrap the government’s flagship schools bill, signalling the reforms it set out were no longer a priority for ministers.
But reforms are now back up in the air.
Asked why he had “dropped” the bill, Malthouse said: “As you will know the legislative timetable is under review, or was under review of the previous prime minister.
“We wait for the opinion of the new prime minister of what his priorities may be in the months to come, but for the moment we’ll have to wait and see what he has to say.”
3. DfE ‘hoping’ to respond to SEND review this year
The political turmoil and growing cost of living crisis had prompted fears the government’s response to the SEND review could be delayed well into 2023.
But childhood minister Kelly Tolhurst said the department was “currently looking at those responses and we’re hoping to respond by the end of the year”.
She also denied the review was an attempt to cut spending on high needs, saying it “was not and is not an opportunity for us to reduce the support and needs that children with special educational needs require”.
4 Malthouse ‘alarmed’ by anti-Michaela ‘aggression’
Malthouse and his predecessor Michael Gove heaped praise on the Michaela Community School today.
Performance data last week showed the school achieved a progress 8 score of 2.27, meaning pupils achieved on average over two grades better than expected. This was the highest progress 8 score in the country.
Michaela has been dubbed the strictest school in the country, with silent corridors and other controversial policies such as ditching SEND labels and giving detentions for failing to have a pen.
Malthouse visited the school earlier this month, but said: “I have to confess though to being rather alarmed by the aggression that school attracts from the wider educational establishment, particularly on social media.
“And while the head of that school is very outspoken, she’s outspoken because it seems she has a cause. And what was very gratifying at the weekend was to see that in the progress 8 scores, she proved that she was right.”
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