CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Education spending trends
1. The
Government sets great store by stability of funding; it needs
to ensure that budget holders across the education sector are
aware that funding will not rise at a significant rate over the
next spending review period and beyond. (Paragraph 8)
Education expenditure, by sector, in real terms
2. The
lower level of growth in investment in higher education compared
to schools and further education is a concern if the intention
is to maintain world class higher education in this country, including
the recruitment and retention of high quality staff. (Paragraph
10)
3. The Government
has already accepted that spending increases will be more modest
in the years ahead. The DfES needs to be explicit in stating that
growth in expenditure on education and skills will slow down significantly
in the coming period. For schools that may mean growth of 2-3%
a year in cash terms compared to 5-7% growth in recent years.
(Paragraph 15)
4. As the school population
falls over the next few years while the post-16 population rises
the case for the 16-19 phase becoming the main priority will become
increasingly hard to ignore. (Paragraph 16)
Schools' funding: new proposals
5. We
would welcome far greater clarity from the Government about the
precise objectives of the schools' funding arrangements for 2006-07
and, more particularly, when a new system comes into operation
from 2008-09. (Paragraph 22)
6. We expect to be
consulted at an early stage on the Government's plans for the
new schools funding system. (Paragraph 24)
7. We expect the Government
to take both transience and the provision of extra funding for
individual pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds into account
in developing the new formula. (Paragraph 25)
Efficiency savings
8. The
two main ways in which the DfES is aiming to secure these efficiency
savings, which will come largely from schools, is through more
productive use of teachers' time and through more co-ordinated
procurement of goods and services. Despite reassurances from Sir
David Normington and the Secretary of State, we are sceptical
about whether it will in fact be possible for £4.3 billion
to be found in this way. (Paragraph 29)
9. The Committee believes
it is imperative that the Department can provide concrete examples
of where schools (and other institutions) have achieved efficiencies
that have produced new resources to be used for productive purposes.
We will expect to see examples of such outcomes in the next two
years. (Paragraph 30)
10. Given that the
increase in expenditure on education is declining, we are concerned
that too much reliance is being placed on future savings which
may be difficult to achieve. The extent to which these savings
are transparent will be crucial. Unless the savings that the Department
is saying that it will be able to make are real savings which
will fund activity it may find itself struggling to maintain its
funding across the sector. (Paragraph 33)
11. We consider that
there is a real danger that efficiency savings will be claimed
but that evidence to verify those savings will not be available.
(Paragraph 34)
12. When the process
is complete, we ask the DfES to provide us with comparisons of
staff numbers and functions pre- and post-restructuring, including
any outsourcing from the Department to other agencies and expenditure
on consultants. This should provide evidence of the Department's
move to a smaller, more strategically focused role. (Paragraph
35)
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