{"id":229020,"date":"2025-04-28T18:01:27","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T17:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=229020"},"modified":"2025-04-28T18:01:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T17:01:29","slug":"labour-warned-over-ruinous-800m-funding-shortfall-if-pay-rises-unfunded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/labour-warned-over-ruinous-800m-funding-shortfall-if-pay-rises-unfunded\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour warned over ‘ruinous’ \u00a3800m budget shortfall if pay rises unfunded"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Schools\u2019 costs will outstrip their funding by \u00a3800 million this year if improved pay rises for teachers and support staff are approved without extra funding, analysis shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labour ministers faced a barrage of complaints about school funding in Parliament today, as the leader of the largest academy trust warned of \u201cruinous harm\u201d across the sector if the pay rises don\u2019t attract new funding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u00a3800 million cost to the sector of pay rises is the equivalent of employing more than 13,000 teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Times <\/em>reported today that the School Teachers\u2019 Review Body had recommended to government a teacher pay rise \u201cclose to 4 per cent\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is higher than the 2.8 per cent ministers previously said would be \u201cappropriate\u201d for 2025-26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools were already going to have to fund some of the lower proposed rise from \u201cefficiencies\u201d. The government confirmed today there would be \u201cno additional funding for pay if recommended awards exceed what departments can afford\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also comes after support staff were offered a pay rise of 3.2 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding rising \u2018\u00a3800m less than costs\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Luke Sibieta, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies<\/a>, said: \u201cIf these pay offers are accepted, we estimate that mainstream school costs would go up by nearly 6 per cent in 2025-26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor comparison, mainstream school funding is due to go up by 4.3 per cent this year, or about \u00a3800 million less than costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Luke
Luke Sibieta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn its evidence to the pay review body, the government has assumed that schools could make efficiency savings of just over \u00a3500 million to fund for pay awards. That would leave a gap of \u00a3300 million that would need to be bridged from somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon Coles, chief executive of United Learning, the country\u2019s largest academy trust, posted on X that if the 4 per cent report was true \u201cthe one thing government can\u2019t do is accept that without funding\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said funding for his trust was only rising by 0.7 per cent per pupil next year, and funding for the national insurance rise was \u201c\u00a31.5 million less than its cost\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo we would have \u00a310.5m of unfunded costs. It\u2019s no good Treasury waving their hands and saying \u2018efficiency\u2019 \u2013 that would be ~400 job losses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSector wide, that would extrapolate to ruinous harm in the one well-functioning public service: tens of thousands of redundancies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tables turned as Tories slam funding<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In a sign that the issue is causing increasing concern across England, five of 21 education questions tabled by MPs in the House of Commons today were about funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding, schools minister Catherine McKinnell accused the Conservatives of leaving a \u201ctrail of devastation across our schools, with buildings crumbling and teachers leaving in their droves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough taking tough decisions at the budget to fix the foundations, Labour has been able to increase school funding by over \u00a33.2 billion, and as a result, there is a forecast of \u00a3400 million of headroom in schools\u2019 budgets nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding fell in real-terms during much of the Conservatives\u2019 time in office between 2010 and 2014, only finally returning to 2010 levels this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But looming unfunded pay rises, added to a shortfall in funding for the budget\u2019s national insurance contributions rise, have led to widespread warnings schools will have to cut provision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Stand up for our schools’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Richard Holden, a former DfE adviser and the Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay, said \u201cmany heads, teachers and support staff have been in touch with me worried about school budgets going forward\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Conservative MP, James Wild, said headteachers were \u201cwarning the gap in funding\u201d to cover the NICs rise \u201cis the equivalent of losing more existing teachers than the government is planning to recruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019ve heard that message loud and clear from headteachers on my recent school visits, and unfunded pay awards will just make this worse. Why isn\u2019t the education secretary actually standing up for our schools?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Louie French, the Tory MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup, said he had been contacted by schools \u201cwho are outraged that Labour\u2019s tax rises are forcing them to cut resources and staff while the government demands that teachers do more\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018An impossible situation\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The growing funding crisis is uncomfortable for Labour, which happily cheered on the unions\u2019 School Cuts campaign before the election. They now find themselves in its sights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leader of the National Education Union Daniel Kebede has vowed to make Labour MPs \u201cpay a high political price through our campaigning in their constituencies\u201d if teachers are denied an increased, fully-funded pay rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, accused education secretary Bridget Phillipson of leaving schools \u201cin an impossible funding situation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery MP here has headteachers who are stressed beyond belief at how to manage their funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo can the secretary of state guarantee worried headteachers up and down the country that they will not have to make teachers redundant because of her broken promises?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labour MPs also voiced concern about funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam Rushworth, the Labour MP for Bishop Auckland spoke of one school making four teaching assistants redundant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut there is an elephant in the room here, which is that the multi academy trust of which it\u2019s a member, the chief executive has had an increase in his pay of \u00a330,000 for the last two years, taking it to \u00a3275,000. That\u2019s equivalent of 12 teaching assistants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to the criticism, McKinnell said Labour made \u201cno apologies for doing what the last government failed to do in office, and the extra money from national insurance contributions means we can protect key educational priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe party opposite should be honest. What will they cut to pay for our schools?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added the Conservatives\u2019 \u201crecord in education was dismal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSchool buildings crumbling. Teachers leaving the profession. This is a government focused on returning education back to the centre of public life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School funding takes centre stage at education questions as Conservative MPs say \u2018heads stressed beyond belief\u2019 over budgets\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":229021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[449],"post-theme":[2425],"class_list":["post-229020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-school-funding","post-theme-school-funding"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t