Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the permanent cost of pay rises for primary school teachers implemented in September 2024 has been factored into school budgets beyond April 2025.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The overall core schools budget is increasing by £3.2 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning the core schools budget will total over £64.8 billion compared to almost £61.6 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. This includes the £2.3 billion announced at the Autumn Budget 2024 and over £930 million being provided to support schools and high needs settings with the increases to employer National Insurance contributions from April 2025.
The funding announced at the Autumn Budget 2024 includes funding to cover the remaining costs of the 2024 teachers’ pay award in the 2025/26 financial year.
For mainstream schools, all of this funding has been rolled into the schools national funding formula in 2025/26, ensuring that it forms an ongoing part of schools’ core budgets.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the timing of the start of the school budget year in April and the academic year in September on schools' ability to budget effectively for staffing needs when pupil numbers increase in September.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Schools are generally funded on the basis of their pupil numbers in the previous October census, therefore meaning the funding that schools receive for the 2025/26 funding year will be based on pupil numbers as of October 2024. This practice means that the department can publish allocations with enough time to give schools certainty over funding levels and to aid in their planning. It also gives schools time to adjust to any declines in pupil numbers, before these have an impact on their funding.
However, the department understands that this can cause problems where schools are experiencing significant growth in pupil numbers. The department also allocates ‘growth funding’ to local authorities. This can be used by local authorities to support both maintained schools and academies in managing a significant growth in pupil numbers, in advance of this increase being reflected in schools’ core funding allocations.