Education: Finance

(asked on 28th June 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of education funding for 16 to 18 year olds.


Answered by
Anne Milton Portrait
Anne Milton
This question was answered on 3rd July 2018

We recognise that every young person should have access to an excellent education. This is why we announced in the last spending review that we will continue to protect the base rate of funding for all 16 to 19-year olds until 2020. We are also providing disadvantage funding (over £500 million in 2017/18), and other uplifts in addition to the base rate of funding for programmes that are more expensive to deliver, such as large academic and technical programmes and those with higher costs.

We have announced funding increases to strengthen education for 16 to 18-year olds in key respects. The department is providing extra funding to support institutions to grow participation in level 3 mathematics (an extra £600 for every additional student), and to pilot additional support for post-16 basic mathematics. Our commitment to the 16 to 19 sector has contributed to the current record high proportion of 16 to 17-year olds who are participating in education or apprenticeships since consistent records began. Furthermore, a substantial investment was announced in technical education for 16 to 19-year olds, rising eventually to an extra £500 million a year when T Levels are fully rolled out.

We are considering the efficiency and resilience of the further education sector, and will be assessing how far existing and forecast funding and regulatory structures meet the costs for a high quality provision. This work will align closely with the Post-18 Funding Review to ensure a coherent vision for further and higher education.

Reticulating Splines