'Continual degradation' of funding having massive impact warn education chiefs in joint call

In a joint statement they called for a recurring budget to be given to educational bodies to ease financial pressure leaking into the 2023/34 budget from 2022/23.

The joint letter from the heads of bodies representing all schools in Northern Ireland, said that services here are under-funded by £500m for the 2023/34 financial year due to varying factors, compounded by inflation and an increased need for services.

The collaborative forum called for several measures to be agreed upon and implemented including sufficient funding that equitably values children here, and in Britain after a study of educational spend per pupil in the 2021/22 put Northern Ireland fourth when compared with the rest of the UK.

This also follows an additional £2.3 billion given to schools in England in the Chancellor’s budget.

The letter was co-signed by the chief executives of the Education Authority, Catholic Council for Maintained Schools, Council for Integrated Education, Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta, the Catholic Schools Trustee Service, the Controlled Schools Support Council, Governing Bodies Association NI and the Transferors’ Representative Council.

The bodies said sufficient core funding for schools in Northern Ireland must be delivered without funding gaps, with over 50% of schools are expected to report a funding deficit on March 31.

The also called for a £500m backlog to be addressed to carry out maintenance on the schooling infrastructure, warning that currently the funding is only adequate to repair items deemed ‘critical’, meaning they pose a risk to children.

They are also seeking confirmation that the EA will be adequately funded so schools can rely on services provided by them and the implementation of an ‘ambitious’ strategy for all our children and young people and to provide, promote and enable leadership across the education system.

The statement read: “Education body leaders remain very concerned about the ever growing, unprecedented, pressures facing education which will carry into the next financial year and the potential detrimental and significant impact this could have for children and young people. For example, on the day to day running of schools, Special Educational Needs support, transport and catering, and ultimately on the educational experience and outcomes of our children and young people.

"Cost saving initiatives for more than a decade have significantly deteriorated the spending power of funding provided for our schools, children and young people. If the 2011 annual budgets of the legacy Education and Library Boards had simply been increased to keep pace with inflation each year, the budgets would be £150m per annum greater than they are today. In addition, the Education Authority has been forced to implement cost reductions of a further £150m since 2015. Taken together this points to a continual degradation of the education sector funding that amounts to more than a billion pounds over the last decade,” the chief executives added.

"The financial outlook for 2023/24 is significantly more challenging than anything the sector has faced to date. The funding provided by the Secretary of State in the Autumn Budget Statement (November 2022), whilst very welcome, was non-recurring in nature and therefore the underlying financial pressures of almost £300m that the Education Authority (EA) was reporting earlier in 2022/23 have not been addressed.”