The November 2017 Budget and its focus on Education – what you need to know
27th November, 2017
Here is Ward Hadaway’s Education Team round-up of the notable announcements from the Budget affecting the education sector.
While teaching pay continues to be subject to public sector pay restraint, the Government has decided to focus on injecting funding into the sector in other ways.
This is a Budget delivered with Brexit lurking in the background – preparing the UK for life outside of the European Union is a primary driver for decision-making. There is a marked determination to upskill the UK to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
Several messages delivered are thought-provoking for education leaders – and, importantly, for the many teaching alliances and collaborations that exist throughout England.
The maths needs to add up
To have a United Kingdom fit to take its place again, independently, on the global stage we have much to do around securing the skills base we will need for that future.
For England (other UK nations having devolved responsibility for education) the Chancellor committed to a series of measures designed to encourage more maths teaching in schools, better outcomes and a teaching workforce ready to deliver.
The plans involve developing new schools with maths at the core of their curriculum. This can be achieved through the Free Schools programme as is currently the case with the planned delivery of a programme of new SEN focussed schools.
Mastery of Maths has, over the past few years, emerged as a preferred approach to the delivery of maths education on the part of DfE. A procurement exercise completed in the summer, identified the first publisher with material to be made available on a subsidised basis to schools adopting a new Asian influenced approach to teaching the subject. More publishers are expected to be listed and there will be expectations that maths teaching will be on that preferred basis.
Funding to support Mastery of Maths in 3,000 more schools is being provided. Alongside this, there is to be a new premium – an incentive to encourage additional pupils to select mathematics as an A-level or core subject.
Unsurprisingly, teacher training is considered to be in need of a cash injection to support the entry into the profession of the significantly greater numbers of maths teachers that will be required alongside this strategy.
Computer science also had its place in the budget
The Government’s vision of a Modern Industrial Strategy is emerging – a white paper is due to be published today. The strategy will guide Government in the many ways that its decision-making and targeting of Government investment to influence productivity – and with big emphasis on producing the right outputs.
The future is increasingly digital and that means an imperative around a workforce fit to deliver the future.
It is with that in mind that Computer Science takes centre stage. The aim is to triple the number of teachers engaged in computer science education. No specific deadline is set for achievement of that target but a new National Centre for Computing underpins the plans.
Addressing skills gaps
Further Education was not overlooked by the Budget and again additional funding is to be provided on a targeted basis. A revolution in technical education is underway with £20m of additional funding to support implementation of the new T Level qualification.
Housing and education demand
There were also the expected further measures to deliver more housing across the country. Housing and education are critically linked in two ways – ensuring that affordable housing is available is a necessity for the effective recruitment of teaching staff and where there is new housing there will be expectations of new schools.
No less than five new towns are to be supported by Government through to delivery. Making the housing market work remains, as the Chancellor admitted, a complex challenge.
If our expert education team can help you as you digest the implications of the Budget 2017, please get in touch.
Please note that this briefing is designed to be informative, not advisory and represents our understanding of English law and practice as at the date indicated. We would always recommend that you should seek specific guidance on any particular legal issue.
This page may contain links that direct you to third party websites. We have no control over and are not responsible for the content, use by you or availability of those third party websites, for any products or services you buy through those sites or for the treatment of any personal information you provide to the third party.
