school budget | Schools Week

Surge in school cuts ‘threatening Labour’s opportunity mission’

Poll for Sutton Trust charity finds rise in leaders laying off staff and cutting curriculum as funding storm hits schools

How could schools be held accountable for excluded pupils?

Various government reviews, at least since the 2010 white paper, have claimed that the way to improve alternative provision is to make schools take greater responsibility for the pupils they exclude. Leaked documents suggest the Timpson review of exclusions will repeat this recommendation, but how might it work? Cath Murray takes a look Last autumn […]

Why the DfE’s plan to spend £2.3m on cost-cutting consultants is a great deal for schools

My twitter timeline heated up a bit last night when I saw quite a lot of negativity to the Schools Week Story about the DfE spending £2.3m on a ‘new army of cost-cutting consultants, set up to help schools save money’. This was seen as a universal waste of money – why not just give […]

Beware the government’s sleight of hand on academy finances

The government’s new method for calculating school budgets obscures the true number of schools in financial deficit, explains Jon Andrews The Department for Education yesterday published new statistics on the revenue balances of academy trusts. This does not provide data for individual trusts let alone individual academies, this is expected later in the year, but provides […]

Schools need more money or they’ll have to start cutting staff

Schools are increasingly forced to live beyond the meagre means the government gives them, a situation that can’t last according to the EPI’s Jon Andrews Ten years ago, I was working in the Department for Children, Schools and Families on school efficiency. Amongst other things, I was tasked with developing guidance for local authorities on […]

School leaders urge chancellor to plug education funding shortfall

School leaders have urged chancellor Philip Hammond to pump billions of pounds more into the education budget to wipe out real-terms cuts that have plunged schools into a funding crisis. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the National Governance Association (NGA) have called for the chancellor to “deliver the investment schools so desperately […]