BESA research suggests maintained schools’ budgets increase above rate of inflation

EB News: 04/02/2015 - 16:50

The findings of the survey carried out by the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) suggest that primary school budgets have increased by 4.1 per cent to £1,022,000 and secondary budgets are up by 2.2 per cent to £4,502,000.

Forecasts predict a further increase of 2.3 per cent across all schools for 2015/16 resulting in a typical primary school seeing an additional £28,000 per annum and secondary schools expecting an extra £70,000.

In terms of the implications for resource expenditure, the sector has also seen an increase of 4.2 per cent in primary schools (£40,270 per school) and 4.4 per cent in secondary schools to an average of £171,520 per school.

At a time when the Government is working to reduce the current skills gap between the number of technology jobs and the people qualified to fill them, the research has revealed a significant increase in expenditure on technology, with schools currently realising an increase in their budgets of 6.6 per cent.

Caroline Wright, director of BESA said, “Our research shows schools have a positive outlook for school funding. However we must be mindful that this research was carried out before the Prime Minister’s announcement earlier this week that a Conservative Government would provide an extra £7 billion for extra places for rising numbers of pupils at a ‘flat cash’ rate that would reduce with inflation.”