Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to written statement HCWS171 published on 1 July 2026, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of requiring schools to absorb approximately 1% of pay costs on school budgets.

The department is providing schools with £700 million in additional funding in the2026/27 financial year and £1,115 million in 2027/28 to support them with overall costs, including the costs of teacher and support staff pay awards. This means the core schools budget will increase by £2.3 billion in 2026/27, totalling £67.6 billion, compared to £65.3 billion in 2025/26.

We set out in the government's evidence to the School Teachers' Review Body last autumn that All schools are expected to continue to secure better value from existing budgets, alongside the additional funding provided by government, to help support pay awards.

We recognise that for many schools the teachers’ pay award will mean reprioritising some of their budget to go towards new pay costs. This is in line with asks to the rest of the public sector to drive better value from existing budgets to help rebuild public services.

Schools are accustomed to managing their resources responsibly, and they are not alone in their efforts to do this. We established the ‘Maximising value for pupils’ programme in December 2025, using the collective buying power of 22,000 schools to help every school get more from every pound, so that money reaches the classroom where it matters most. From reducing energy and supply staff costs, to helping schools unlock better returns through our banking comparison tool, to giving leaders sharper benchmarking tools, we are addressing real opportunities across the system.