Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to (a) increase school funding and (b) support secondary schools to reduce debts.

Spending plans beyond 2019/20 will be set at next Spending Review and these decisions cannot be pre-empted. The Department is committed to securing the right deal for education and ensuring schools are able to plan their budgets effectively for future years.

While the core schools and high needs budget is rising from almost £41 billion in 2017/18 to £43.5 billion by 2019/20, the Department recognises the budgeting challenges schools face. That is why School Resource Management Strategy was published in August 2018, which sets out the support, current and planned, to help schools make the most of their available resources. The strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-excellent-school-resource-management.