Bridget Phillipson has tried to calm outcry among Labour MPs over a £6 billion special needs black hole by accusing independent Government forecasters of being ‘misleading’.
The Education Secretary is understood to have sent out reassurance to MPs on WhatsApp following an outcry over special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) funding.
Her woes were further compounded by Britain’s largest teaching union threatening yesterday to call national strikes.
In Wednesday’s Budget, the Government announced council overspend on SEND would in future be absorbed by central departments.
In response, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which is funded by the Treasury, said the £6 billion needed for 2028-29 might eat into school budgets.
And the Institute for Fiscal Studies said this hole could only be filled from cutting schools spending, cutting SEND spending or somehow finding the money from elsewhere.
However, yesterday, Mrs Phillipson’s WhatsApp message said the money would come from ‘overall Government’, rather than the core schools budget, and that savings will also be made via reforms.
‘OBR content here is being presented in a way which is quite misleading,’ she said in messages revealed by Politics Home.
Bridget Phillipson (pictured) has tried to calm outcry among Labour MPs over a £6 billion special needs black hole by accusing independent Government forecasters of being ‘misleading’
She said the Government’s upcoming SEND reform white paper will contain proposals to ‘bring cost down’, such as ‘more local specialist places reducing demand for travel/ more costly private provision’.
The OBR had predicted that schools would suffer a 4.9 per cent drop in funding if the Department for Education were to pick up the whole tab.
The analysis caused widespread worry across the sector yesterday.
Laura Trott MP, Shadow Education Secretary, said: ‘There is a hidden £6 billion black hole which will either lead to a cut to schools and mass teacher redundancies, or a £6 billion cut to special educational needs provision.’
Liberal Democrat Education spokesman Munira Wilson called the black hole a ‘damning indictment’ of a ‘failure to get a grip on the system’.
She added: ‘The Government must not solve this crisis by raiding the budgets of mainstream schools.’
Iain Mansfield, head of education at Policy Exchange, said: ‘The OBR has revealed a ticking time bomb at the heart of the education budget.
‘Spending on SEND is out of control. We are over-diagnosing normal childhood behaviour and medicalising natural development. Unless the SEND system is radically overhauled… budgets will keep going up and up – and those most in need will not get the support they require.’
Julia Harnden, deputy policy director of ASCL, said putting SEND costs onto the schools budget would mean ‘the closure of more small primary schools, much larger class sizes, and deeper cuts to curricular and extra-curricular provision.’
And Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: ‘We hope that the OBR’s fears are wrong and that the reforms to SEND expected in the new year will bring clarity on how the new spending will be handled and not eat into the core schools budget. It would be a grave mistake for the Government to pursue this path.’
Mr Kebede also caused Mrs Phillipson another headache yesterday by threatening strikes.
Her woes were further compounded by Britain’s largest teaching union threatening yesterday to call national strikes (pictured: NEU General Secretary Daniel Kebede)
Leaders of the NEU will meet this Saturday to discuss starting strike ballot procedures (pictured: a picket during a strike in 2023)
Leaders of the NEU will meet this Saturday to discuss starting strike ballot procedures, with up to 500,000 teachers potentially walking out in the autumn of next year.
The NEU had been waiting for reassurances in the Budget that the up-coming teacher pay rise will not have to be funded by schools making cut-backs elsewhere.
However, nothing was said – leaving the union fearing schools will have to fund the 6.5 per cent rise across three years out of their existing budgets.
Mr Kebede said the Budget ‘offers nothing to an education system running on empty’.
He added: ‘The NEU will not accept the continued underfunding of our schools.
‘Our national executive will meet this Saturday to decide next steps. We must convince this Government to change course – even if that means balloting for strike action.’
Mr Kebede will meet with members of the union’s executive on Saturday to discuss holding an indicative ballot to ascertain members’ appetite for strikes.
A successful indicative ballot would then lead to a full strike ballot.
National strikes would cause widespread disruption, with schools closing and parents having to find last-minute childcare.
Last month, the Government suggested that teachers should get a 6.5 per cent pay rise spread between 2026 and 2029.
However, the union is saying it is below inflation, and is demanding extra funding for schools to pay for it, otherwise cuts will have to be made to running costs, including potential redundancies.
A DfE spokesman said of the strike: ‘Despite deeply challenging choices about public spending, mainstream school funding will rise again next year, receiving almost £51 billion. We’re giving schools the tools to help every child to achieve and thrive.
‘We have already made pay awards worth almost 10 per cent over two years, and our recent proposals mean teacher pay would rise by almost 17 per cent across this parliament, equating to a significant real terms increase over the five years.’
They said of the OBR warning: ‘This claim is incorrect – we are clear that any deficit will be absorbed within the overall government budget. These projections also do not account for the much-needed SEND reforms this government will bring forward.’
