By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT

This week we’ve had the pleasure of hosting the BBC’s education editor, Branwen Jeffreys, to interview pupils, staff and parents/carers at Bishop’s and Duke’s Schools. The purpose of this was to get a view on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on schools ahead of the conclusion of the Government’s Spending Review next week. The Spending Review will set out what the Government priorities for spending will be over the next few years and how this will affect funding for education, health, etc.

There are some huge decisions here and these are complicated by the need to pay for the extra spending to deal with the pandemic and also the cost of moving to being carbon neutral by 2050. There is no doubt that the additional funding we’ve received so far for things such as catch-up tuition, laptops, summer school programmes and academic tutors has made a positive impact on our pupils, however what is also very clear is that the process of all pupils ‘catching up” is a long term one, which will require additional funding for a number of years.

When politicians make big decisions, the language around the decision and the justification for making that decision can be really important. For that reason, I think that we should stop talking about education spending and use the word “investment” instead. When governments make decisions when resources are limited, talk about reducing “spending” sounds attractive and easy to justify, but talk about cutting “investment” is much harder to justify, as clearly a lack of investment will create problems in the future.

There are few more important investments any nation can make than in its future through ensuring that its young people have the best possible education. The better educated a nation’s population is, the stronger the economy will be in years to come. Covid-19 has magnified long term problems linked to disadvantage and if we don’t invest in our education system, these problems will get worse rather than better. The problems are also unevenly spread over the country and there is a desperate need for extra investment to support the hard work that many schools in areas like the North East are putting into giving their pupils the best possible start in life.

So what do schools need from the spending review? Firstly we need certainty over funding. This should mean a return to the previous system of fully funding all future, well-deserved, cost of living pay increases for staff. At the moment we are in the ridiculous position of setting a three year budget in July each year before knowing whether there will be any cost of living pay increases for the autumn, let alone the two years following. This means that if there is a pay increase, we have to find the cost from making further savings from the existing budget. As around three quarters of the costs for schools are for staffing, this is a huge problem. Returning to the long-standing system which was in place under previous governments would help schools plan much more effectively and give certainty over budgeting.

The second wish would be for the additional funding we’ve received for Covid-19 catch-up, tuition, laptops, etc. to be continued for at least the three years covered by the spending review. We are very grateful for the additional money we’ve received so far and it is making a difference, but ‘catch-up’ isn’t going to happen over just one year. Since returning in September, we’ve had a huge amount of further disruption to learning caused by the massive increase in Covid-19 cases amongst pupils and staff, which is likely to continue throughout this school year.

Earlier in the month, I was one of over 100 school leaders to sign a letter from the Confederation of School Trusts calling on the Government to provide additional funding for schools of around £5 billion to help pupils catch up. This is a huge sum, but it is only around one-third of the £15 billion that the Government appointed school catch-up advisor, Sir Kevan Collins, said was needed for England’s school system. I hope for the sake of all of the children in our schools that our Government has the vision and courage to make this level of investment. If they do then I believe that they will get many times the value back from having a generation of young people who will reach their potential and not be held back by the impact of the pandemic increasing existing disadvantage.