Autumn Budget 2024: What policy changes can we expect in education?
Now the Autumn Budget has been delivered, What policy changes can we expect in education and when will they be implemented? Let’s explore this . . .
On Wednesday 30th October, Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s Chancellor of the Exchequer and the first female Chancellor, delivered The Autumn Budget 2024.
This is the first budget under the new labour government and the first labour budget in over 14 years. Economically there are great challenges and this government has a tough road ahead of reform, change, and financial recovery to manage.
Every public service ⏤ including education ⏤ needs reform and an injection of cash. However, with the UK deficit at record levels and GDP unhealthy (although showing signs of improvement), it’s going to take time, and money isn’t simply going to pour into the education sector during the next fiscal year, or the one after that.
So, with that in mind, here are the highlights of what the Chancellor has for the education sector in her first budget:
- Core school funding will increase by £2.3 billion a year
- Within that is the £1 billion for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) (there is NOT an additional £1 billion on top of the £2.3 billion as some have said).
- This extra funding will help ensure the recruitment of 6,500 new teachers.
- It will also support the creation of 3,000 new school-based nurseries.
- Funding for free breakfast clubs will be tripled to give children the “best start in life” and the “best start to the school day”.
- The DfE will get £6.7 billion in capital funding to repair school buildings.
These announcements cover 2025-26. We expect more to come following a multi-year spending review in the spring of 2025.
Four key education funding announcements from Reeves:
— Loic Menzies (@LoicMnzs) October 30, 2024
1. Tripling investment in breakfast clubs
2. £2.3 billion for core school budget
3. 300 million for FE
4. £1billion for SEND to improve support and ensure the system moves towards financially stability.
Institute for Fiscal Studies Response
The IFS tend to respond, interrogate, and critique new budgets with varying degrees of viciousness. The director of the IFS, Paul Johnson, was critical of the budget's connection to reality, particularly with regard to longer term spending:
"Much the most striking aspect of the spending decisions is how incredibly front loaded the additional spending is. Day-to-day public service spending, after inflation and the additional cost to public sector employers of rising NI, is set to rise by 4.3% this year and 2.6% next year, but then by just 1.3% each year thereafter … I am willing to bet a substantial sum that day-to-day public service spending will in fact increase more quickly than supposedly planned after next year. 1.3% a year overall would almost certainly mean real terms cuts for some departments. It would be odd to increase spending rapidly only to start cutting back again in subsequent years."
"When it comes to settling with departments for the period after 2025-26 keeping within that 1.3% envelope will be extremely challenging. To put it mildly..."
Labour’s Pre-Election Education Pledges
As we reported after the election, these were Labour’s plans and pledges for education in this country:
Labour campaigned on breaking down barriers to opportunity, and this is influencing its approach to education, in the same way that Tony Blair campaigned on “Education, Education, Education.”
The new Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson MP, has already made a start on one of Labour’s biggest pledges: the recruitment of 6,500 new teachers.
There’s a new website for this: “Every Lesson Shapes a Life,” directing potential candidates to the Get into Teaching website, where they can access support and advice.
Phillipson has made several appointments, generally well regarded, including Sir Kevan Collins and Sir David Bell. As reported in Tes Magazine , she told school leaders that she needs their help to deliver on Labour’s education pledges.
These pledges were announced by King Charles III at the state opening of Parliament, with many included in a Children’s Wellbeing Bill, such as free breakfast clubs in every primary school and pulling multi-academy trusts (MATs) back into the national curriculum.
Labour’s Key Educational Policies:
1. Deliver high and rising standards in early education:
- With childcare that delivers life chances for children as well as work choices for parents (3,000 new school-based nurseries)
- Boosting early language skills and spotting children who need support sooner
2. Support all our children to achieve and thrive:
- With free breakfast clubs in every primary school, driving up attendance and standards
- Mental health support in schools & communities for all our young people
- Improving how data is shared to pick up special educational needs and disabilities earlier
3. Create a better system for inspecting and improving our schools:
- End single-word Ofsted judgments and bring in report cards with annual checks on safeguarding and attendance. (Easy win?)
- Inspect multi-academy trusts as well as schools themselves
- Introduce a new focus on improving schools with new regional teams to drive better outcomes for children
4. Enable school staff to help our children to succeed:
- With over 6,500 more teachers in schools
- All new teachers to be qualified
- A new national voice for school support staff
- A Teacher Training Entitlement for all our teachers
- Everyone in our schools is treated with the respect they deserve.
5. Prepare young people for their futures:
- With a broader and richer curriculum and a full review of how it’s assessed
- A strong core of literacy and numeracy alongside access to sports and arts subjects
- A new focus on speaking and listening skills
- Ensuring all our children have the digital skills they need
6. Equip young people with experiences to get them ready for work and ready for life:
- With professional careers guidance in all our schools & colleges
- Two weeks’ worth of work experience for all students
7. Plans for Reading & Literacy:
Labour’s manifesto highlights specific policies aimed at improving literacy and reading skills:
- A new focus on speaking and listening skills
- A strong core of literacy and numeracy
- Inspect multi-academy trusts as well as schools themselves
- Boosting early language skills and spotting children who need support sooner
- Improving how data is shared to pick up special educational needs and disabilities earlier
While we don’t yet know if there will be specific changes to teaching English, reading, writing, and phonics, the government is planning a curriculum and assessment review. Once completed by the DfE, we may see changes across specific subject areas and key stage groups.
On 25 September, the DfE announced an 8-week consultation, a “national conversation” on the current curriculum and assessment system to help shape the future of education.
This is being led by Professor Becky Francis, with the call for evidence launched just over a month ago. As the DfE notes: “Responses will be invaluable in shaping the direction of the review and pivotal to the recommendations Professor Becky Francis and her expert panel put forward in 2025.”
“Spanning from key stages 1 to 4 and 16 to 19 education, the review will look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people, and the barriers which hold children back from the opportunities and life chances they deserve – in particular those who are socio-economically disadvantaged, or with special educational needs or disability (SEND).”
The improving the curriculum and assessment call for evidence runs from 25 September to 22 November 2024 (get involved via the link).
Despite the changes announced before and during the Autumn Budget 2024, we might find that more significant educational reforms only come in from the 2025 budget onwards. This would allow for evidence-based changes to drive the necessary reforms, and for those to influence new budgets in future fiscal years.
