School funding boosted by £4bn to level up education for young people

Children and young people across the country will benefit from an additional £4bn rise in funding for schools next year to help improve education and level up opportunity for all. This delivers on the Prime Minister’s commitment when entering Downing Street to level up school funding by pledging over £14 bn in primary and secondary education by 2022/3 – and goes further still.

This funding includes an extra £1bn for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) which represents an unprecedented 13 per cent increase compared to this year. This will help schools, local authorities and other providers provide the right care and support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

The funding can be used to meet a wide range of operational costs from hiring specialist teachers and facilitating training, to buying more educational materials such as textbooks.

The rise is being set out as part of forecast funding allocations set out today (Thursday 16 December), and follows the funding announced at the Spending Review. This means every local authority area is forecast to see a cash terms increase of at least 4.7 per cent per pupil in its mainstream school funding, alongside the high needs funding increases. 

This additional investment means that in total, the core schools budget will rise by £4bn next year (2022-23), or five per cent per pupil in real terms from this year – delivering more money for every child.

Schools Minister Robin Walker said:

“Every pupil, no matter where they grow up or go to school, deserves an excellent education and the chance to fulfil their potential.

“This £4bn funding boost delivers on the Prime Minister’s commitment to level up school funding – giving significant increases to every pupil in every school – and taken alongside our ambitious education recovery plan with additional investment of almost £5bn, will support every young person to catch up following the disruption caused by the pandemic.

“This additional investment also represents a significant boost to high needs funding, helping local authorities support pupils with special educational needs, and helping to ensure all young people can thrive and succeed.”

These funding announcements will mean £41.7bn in total goes to mainstream schools in 2022-23 – a cash increase of 5.8 per cent per pupil.  Every primary school will receive at least £4,362 per pupil, and every secondary school at least £5,669 per pupil.

High needs funding will total £9.1bn in 2022-23. Early Years provision has an initial allocation of £3.6bn for 2022-23, following the increased hourly funding rates announced on 25 November.

To help schools target support for disadvantaged children and young people, Pupil Premium rates in 2022-23 will increase by 2.7 per cent, in line with forecast inflation as published by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) at the 2021 Spending Review. This means that total Pupil Premium funding will increase to over £2.6bn in 2022-23, from £2.5bn in 2021-22, with funding rates at their highest ever level in cash terms.

The core schools funding comes alongside the Government’s investment totalling nearly £5bn, up to 2024-25, to help children and young people recover from the impact of the pandemic, which includes spending £1.5bn on a national tutoring revolution in schools and colleges.