Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the accuracy of the information provided by schoolcuts.org.uk, maintained by the National Education Union.

Following criticism by the UK Statistics Authority, School Cuts have recently amended their website. The campaign compares data on schools’ budgets published by the Department for Education with an estimate of cost pressures on schools since 2015-16. This is used to create a cumulative figure, covering 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19, which is presented as a single figure representing ‘cuts’ that schools have faced.

Our record has been to prioritise school funding, while taking difficult decisions on public spending elsewhere. Core funding for schools and high needs has risen to £43.5 billion this year – its highest ever level in cash terms, and since 2017, the national funding formula has given every local authority more money for every pupil, while allocating the biggest increases to the schools that have been most underfunded. We do recognise that schools have faced cost pressures, and have an extensive programme to help schools make the most of the funding available to them.