Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, comments on a report from the Sutton Trust, which states that schools are continuing to face spending cuts.
“This research shows the contradiction which exists between the government’s aspirations for the education system and the amount of money that it is prepared to provide to realise those aspirations. That contradiction is perhaps most stark in the fact that many schools are having to cut resourcing for SEND support at exactly the time the government has launched a programme of major reforms which involve far more expectations on mainstream schools. Although the government has made some additional funding available, this is unlikely to be sufficient to support reforms on the scale envisaged or address existing funding shortages.
“The mismatch between expectations and resources is a long-standing issue in our education system which undermines the provision that schools can provide and is resulting in a workforce which is increasingly feeling burnt out and demoralised.”