Recommendation 13

The Spending Review 2021 confirmed an additional £4.7 billion of funding for the core schools budget in England by 2024–25.28 However, this followed real-term reductions in the two years to 2018–19, and a period of virtually unchanged average per-pupil funding in real terms between 2014–15 and 2020–21.29 We received written evidence from the Catholic Education Service, which told us that while funding had increased, it may not be meeting the increasing pressure of rising costs. It explained that one Catholic diocese reported an increase in funding of 16% since 2015/16, but an increase in staff costs of 20% over the same period.30 The 2019/20 SARA reported a similar trend, with General Annual Grant (GAG) funding from the Department, the primary form of grant funding to academy trusts, increasing by 8% while staff costs increased by 12% compared with 2018/19.31 The Department recognised that the pandemic has resulted in increased 23 Committee of Public Accounts, Financial sustainability of schools in England, Forty-Second Report of Session 2021–22, HC 650, 4 March 2022 24 Academy schools sector in England: Consolidated Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 August 2020, page 28 25 C&AG’s report, Financial sustainability of schools in England, HC 802, November 2021, para 1.22 26 Academy schools sector in England: Consolidated Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 August 2020, page 13 27 Q 38 28 HM Treasury, Autumn budget and spending review 2021, December 2021, para 2.20 29 C&AG’s report, School funding in England, HC 300, July 2021, paras 7, 17 30 AAR0001 – Academies Sector Annual report and Accounts 2019–20, Catholic Education Service, 24 January 2022 31 Academy schools sector in England: Consolidated Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 August 2020, page 15 Academies Sector Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20 13 schools’ costs in certain categories, such as ICT resources, caretaking and cleaning, and that some areas that generated inc