Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP

Chancellor of the Exchequer

HM Treasury

1 Horseguards Road

London

SW1A 0AA

Date: 7th November 2017

Dear Philip,

Education funding for primary and secondary school pupils and 16 to 19 year olds

I am writing to you ahead of the November Budget to urge you to urgently address the education underfunding crisis faced by children and young people in our schools and sixth forms.

School cuts

There is deep public concern about the current and future levels of school funding.  Heads, teachers, parents and pupils know that school budgets have been cut, and that both present and future levels of financial commitment fall far short of what is needed to maintain real terms 2015/16 funding.

Last month, teachers from my constituency in Brighton travelled to Westminster to deliver the same message.  Schools are being badly affected by inadequate funding.  Schools are losing staff, charging for trips and clubs that used to be free, using PTA charity money to buy stationery.  Head teachers are desperately juggling budgets to avoid the most harmful cuts – at the expense of the work they really want to do educating children, and for which they came into the profession in the first place.

This is a real crisis that Ministers cannot deny.  Using clear methodology[1]the school cuts website calculates the following key facts:

·         £2.8bn has been cut from school budgets since 2015

·         £52.5k average cut to primary schools

·         £178k average cut to secondary schools

Despite the scale of the cuts to date and the increasing funding pressures on schools from rising inflation and pupil numbers, amongst other pressures, the Secretary of State for Education reallocated just £1.3bn to core school funding in July.  Whilst this move demonstrated an acknowledgement of the huge political opposition to the education cuts regime, it is not an adequate response.

Using the school cuts website data referred to above, I have calculated that by 2020 the schools in my constituency of Brighton Pavilion will have lost a total of over £1.7m (£1,705,300), representing a loss equivalent to 37 teachers (please see detailed data at the end of this letter).

One purpose of this letter is to stress to you the continued pressure and crisis that our schools face due to underfunding.  During last month’s mass lobby of Parliament on this issue, Paul Whiteman, the General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, made clear the need for action:

“School budgets are at breaking point. They need at least an extra £2bn per year to avoid having to cut staff, cut classes, or limit what they teach. The autumn budget is the last chance for money to make it to schools this year. Unless the Chancellor finds more money to protect education, we will be perilously close to the end of the line for high-standards.”

On behalf of all of the pupils, parents, teachers and head-teachers in my constituency, I urge you to listen and respond by allocating the new funding that those who run our schools day to day are very clearly saying is urgently needed - now and for future planning.

I have also met recently with pupils from schools across Brighton and Hove, to hear their views on the funding crisis hitting their schools.  The young people I met delivered a united message:  that you as the Chancellor need to make more funding available for schools in the upcoming Budget.  One twelve year old pupil from Dorothy Stringer School in my constituency told me how this crisis was making him understand why politics matters.  I sincerely hope you will listen to him.

Underspend on education for 16 to 19 year olds

My deep concern about education funding cuts also applies to the funding available for education for 16-19 year olds.  The Department for Education recently responded to one of my Parliamentary Questions about the 16-to-19 education budget, revealing an under-spend of £106 million last year. 

When you add that figure to the underspends previously revealed in the 2014/15 and 2015/16 financial years - £135 million and £132 million respectively – it is clear that a total of £373 million of funding intended for sixth-form students has not been made available to educate these young people over the last three years.

This dramatic £373m underspend should be delivered to the education frontline.  Low student numbers do not justify the Government’s policy of holding this money back. 

Sixth form education is already chronically unfunded compared with other countries and other phases of education and serious cuts to education funding for 16 to 19 years olds were introduced in 2011, 2013 and 2014.  It is my understanding that sixth formers in England are now only funded to receive half the tuition time (around 15 hours per week) of sixth formers in other leading economies. This is unacceptable.

You will have heard on the news that the Support Our Sixth-formers funding impact survey report was published recently.

The survey indicates that:

•        50% of schools and colleges have dropped courses in modern foreign languages as a result of funding pressures, with A levels in German, French and Spanish the main casualties.

•        Over a third have dropped STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) courses.

•        67%have reduced student support services or extra-curricular activities – with significant cuts to mental health support, employability skills and careers advice.

•        77% are teaching students in larger class sizes

•        50% have reduced the delivery hours of individual courses

•        66% have moved from a 4 subject offer as standard to a 3 subject offer

•        72% do not believe the amount of funding they will receive next year will be sufficient to provide the support required by students that are educationally or economically disadvantaged.

Following meetings this summer, school sixth form and college leaders reported to me that they face huge financial pressures.  Young people attending BHASVIC and Varndean in my constituency, and also attending FE colleges such as Greater Brighton Metropolitan College (MET), are directly affected.

No doubt you will be aware that the chairs and principals of 140 colleges have written an open letter to Theresa May on this issue.^[2]  I urge you to take account of their expert opinion that “Our students are now in danger of studying an impoverished curriculum, which has already reduced in breadth and choice, and cannot prepare our young people to take their place in employment and compete in a global economy.”

You may also already be aware of two recent key recommendations from the Sixth Form Colleges Association – to which I strongly urge you to agree.  Firstly, to introduce a £200 per student uplift in funding to improve the education and support offered to sixth form students.  This uplift is vital to address funding pressures and would help improve teaching on study skills, employability skills, careers advice, mental and physical health support, and the enrichment activities available to students – all of which are suffering in the current funding climate.  The estimated £244 million per year cost could be partly funded by using the under-spend referred to above.

New money is justified on the basis that funding rates for sixth formers have been fixed since 2013, and a modest uplift would go some way to reflect the inflationary pressures and cost increases that schools and colleges have faced during that time.

Secondly, I urge you to support a review of sixth form funding to ensure it is linked to the realistic costs of delivering a rounded, high quality curriculum. At age 16, pupils face a 21% drop in education funding. This reduces the number of hours of teaching and support available, yet there is no educational basis for such a reduction.  It also runs entirely counter to the requirement to participate in education and training until the age of 18.

The scope of such a review is important. The recent commitment to invest £500 million in technical education is welcome, but will not impact on the vast majority of sixth form students who are pursuing academic or applied general qualifications. There remains a pressing need to address the chronic underfunding of mainstream sixth form education in England.   Without further investment, our young people will be at the sharp end of yet further cuts to courses (particularly STEM and languages), class sizes will continue to increase, and there is a very real concern that some school sixth forms will disappear.

A review is urgently needed to ensure we remain internationally competitive, and that we are giving young people the best possible education. 

I should be grateful for your response to this letter.

Yours sincerely,