Rising Costs Support for Schools 2022-10-24
2022-10-24
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Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Partial Answer
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Context
Schools in Warrington North face financial pressures due to inflation and increased costs for special educational needs and older school infrastructure. The current situation represents an effective 10% real-terms cut to this year's budgets, leading to concerns about balancing the books.
What plans do you have to help support schools with rising costs?
The Government are committed to supporting schools, investing £4 billion in the core schools budget this year. They have acted immediately on energy costs by including schools in the energy bill relief scheme and continue dynamic conversations with Treasury colleagues regarding school funding.
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Assessment & feedback
The specific ask for detailed representations made to the Treasury was not directly addressed.
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
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Context
Schools in Warrington North face financial pressures due to inflation and increased costs for special educational needs and older school infrastructure. The current situation represents an effective 10% real-terms cut to this year's budgets, leading to concerns about balancing the books.
Schools across my constituency face extraordinary financial pressures, particularly in special educational needs settings where costs per pupil are higher, and in older schools where the Government's failure to invest in the school estate means higher costs for heating and repairs. With inflation running out of control, which is an effective 10% cut in real terms to this year's budgets, senior management teams are desperately worried that they will not be able to balance the books, especially with higher demand for things such as breakfast clubs as parents feel the pinch. Can the Secretary of State please inform us what representations he has made to the Treasury to address the crisis in education funding?
Notwithstanding the significant increase in the schools budget last year, we are monitoring the impact of those global inflationary forces on schools across the whole country. We are in constant conversation with leadership, unions and headteachers about their finances. When it became clear that schools would be severely impacted by the rise in energy costs, we acted immediately to ensure they were included in the energy bill relief scheme.
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Assessment & feedback
The specific ask for detailed representations made to the Treasury was not directly addressed.
Response accuracy