Education policy

Abstract

SummaryEducation spending has risen by an average of 3.9% per year in real terms under Labour. This is substantially faster than under the Conservatives between 1979 and 1997 (1.5% per year), but only slightly faster than the long-run historical trend before Labour came to power (3.7% per year). Schools, the under-fives and further education institutions have seen the most generous funding increases under Labour, with spending on higher education growing much more slowly.In 2006, the UK had the eighth largest level of education spending as a share of national income amongst 26 industrial countries. This follows a period between 1995 and 2006 when the UK saw the fourth largest increase in spending as a share of income amongst this group. Only the United States, Denmark and Mexico increased spending as a share of national income by more. UK education spending as a share of national income now exceeds its mid 1970s peak and is at a higher level than at any point since (at least) the mid 1950s.Within the education budget, the UK is a comparatively 'big spender' on early years education and services. In 2006 the UK had the 2nd highest level of spending per pupil in the preprimary sector amongst the 26 OECD countries for which comparable data are available.England's early years spending includes free part-time nursery care for three and four year olds, and the Sure Start programme, providing health and education information to parents with children under five. The Conservatives have pledged to support the provision of free nursery care for pre-school children, while the Liberal Democrats have expressed a long-term ambition to increase the hours of provision funded by the government, and extend the age range at which it is available. They have not, however, stated when they would seek to implement this extension.

Long-Run Trends in School Spending in England

“…1 This information has been taken and collated from a range of different sources on changes to LA finance and school finance over time, including Derbyshire (1987), Department of the Environment, Department of Transport and Local Government Finance (1987), Department of the Environment (1990), Levacic (1993), Pennell (1993 and1995), Emmerson, Hall and Ridge (1998), , , West et al (2001), Chowdry, Muriel and Sibieta (2008) and Department for Communities and Local Government (2014).…”

The distribution of school funding and inputs in England: 1993-2013

“…These were grants provided directly from central government to individual schools on the basis of a set formula. They tended to be very focused on deprived schools, making the funding system more targeted at deprivation than it otherwise would have been (Chowdry et al (2010)). From 2010-11 onwards, these specic grants have been rolled into the main Dedicated Schools Grant.…”

“…This is largely data driven as school-level data on funding is not available before 1999-00. However, there was little average growth in sta inputs in the 1990s (as seen in Figure 3) and there was little growth in overall education spending grew little over the 1990s (Chowdry et al, 2010). We are thus focusing on the period when schools spending rose markedly.…”

“…In 2012-13, total spending on schools represented ¿57 billion or about 23% of total service spending in England 1 excluding social protection (the 2nd largest component of public service spending behind health) 1 . School spending per pupil grew by an average of over 5% per year in real-terms between 1999-00 and 2009-10 (Chowdry et al (2010)). Since 2010, it has been protected in real-terms, in spite of large cuts to other areas of public expenditure.…”

The pupil premium: assessing the options

“…The school funding system is significantly more complicated and is described in detail in Chowdry, Muriel and Sibieta (2008). Here, we provide a brief summary, which is illustrated in Figure 2.3.…”