OSR Adjudicates on Gillian Keegan Funding Claims

The Office for Statistics Regulation has replied to a letter from the National Education Union about Government claims on school funding and the evidence they presented for their claims.

As a result, the Department for Education has had to accept that it failed to provide the adequate information in its evidence document to school leaders on 28 March.

Commenting on the adjudication, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: 

“Gillian Keegan should learn from this adjudication, that she should not be using national-level costing to tell individual schools what they can or cannot afford.

“The evidence document just shows how out of touch the education secretary is with the reality in our schools.

“It is now very important that Gillian Keegan begins to understand and articulate the reality of school funding. Schools are not funded on a national average. The majority of schools will not be able to afford even a 4.5% pay rise without making cuts to provision.

“The Government needs to commit to investing in this generation of children, their schools and the people who work in them, including through bigger pay rises.”

Department for Education said:

“We made a pay offer to unions that was fair, reasonable, and recognised teachers’ hard work. As per our published calculations, the pay offer would also have been fully funded, and we welcome the Office for Statistics’ recognition that we have communicated this transparently.  

“Just this week thousands of schools will receive additional funding, as part of the extra £2bn of investment we are providing both this year and next. As a result, school funding will be at its highest level in history next year, as measured by the IFS.”