Seema Malhotra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the current sources of financial pressure on schools; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb

The Government has protected funding for schools in real terms, so that it will rise as pupil numbers increase. However, like other public services, schools will face additional pressures in the next few years. The sources of these additional pressures are:

• Annual salary increases for staff

• The introduction of the national living wage from April 2016

• The increase to employer national insurance contributions from April 2016, affecting all employers who offer a defined benefit pension scheme

• The increase to employer pension contributions for the Teachers’ Pension Scheme from September 2015

• The introduction of the apprenticeship levy in April 2017, which will affect all employers with a paybill above £3 million

• General inflation

Working with the sector, the Department has published a collection of tools and guidance to help school leaders, governing boards and business management professionals to improve their schools’ financial health and use their budgets more effectively. This can be found at: http://www.gov.uk/government/collections/schools-financial-health-and-efficiency

“