Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much public funding has been spent on the schools efficiency taskforce; how many people that taskforce employs; how many schools that taskforce has visited; how much efficiency savings that taskforce has found; what estimate she has made of the savings that taskforce will make in the future; and whether she plans to undertake an assessment of the value for money of that taskforce.

In July 2017 we announced an additional £1.3 billion for schools and high needs across 2018-19 and 2019-20; in addition to the schools’ budget set at Spending Review 2015. This means funding per pupil for schools and high needs will be maintained in real terms for the next two years.

Alongside our substantial investment, we are committed to helping schools maximise efficiencies. As part of this support and where appropriate, we will provide efficiency experts to schools. This additional support will be focused on providing practical advice to maximise efficiencies. These experts will start working with schools in early 2018 as part of our initial pilot. This pilot will allow us to better assess the impact of the support going forward.