Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of real-terms changes in school budgets due to the impact of inflation.

The 2022 Autumn Statement announced significant additional investment in schools. The core schools budget will increase by £2 billion in both 2023/24 and 2024/25. This is over and above totals announced at Spending Review 2021. This year, schools' funding is £4 billion higher than last year, rising by another £3.5 billion in 2023. Taken together, that means a 15% increase in funding in two years. The Institute for Fiscal Studies have said that this additional funding will fully cover expected increases in school costs up to 2024, and will take per pupil spending back to at least 2010 levels in real terms.

The additional funding will enable head teachers to continue to concentrate funding in the areas that the Department knows has a positive effect on educational attainment, including high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most, as well as help schools to manage higher costs, including higher energy bills and staff pay awards

The Department also provides a range of school resource management tools, designed to help schools get the best value from their resources, and help direct funding towards improving outcomes for their pupils.

The Department understands that each school’s circumstances are different. Where schools are in serious financial difficulty, they should contact their Local Authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.