Alarm bells over child poverty follow spring statement anger
Official figures released last week showed that a record 4.5 million children were living in poverty in the UK. The figures (available here: https://tinyurl.com/bdzfum6u), which consider the number of children in ‘relative low income’ households after housing costs are taken into account, were for the year to April 2024.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, commented: ‘Our members see the reality of these numbers. In schools across the country, staff are increasingly carrying the responsibilities of the state. We have support staff washing pupils’ clothes, teachers feeding pupils from their own pockets, school leaders undertaking social work. This is not sustainable and should not be necessary in such a wealthy country.’
Alison Garnham, chief executive of charity Child Poverty Action Group, said the statistics were: ‘a stark warning that the government’s own commitment to reduce child poverty will crash and burn unless it takes urgent action. The government’s child poverty strategy must invest in children’s life chances, starting by scrapping the two-child [benefit] limit. Record levels of kids living in poverty isn’t the change people voted for.’
The latest figures continue an upward trend in recent years, and there is a suggestion this trend could continue in light of recent government cuts to benefits. Earlier this month work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall announced a package of welfare reforms which included substantial cuts to some disability benefits. This was followed, in last week’s ‘spring statement’ by chancellor Rachel Reeves, by an additional freeze on the health related element of universal credit. According to an impact assessment which has now been published by the government, these changes to the welfare system could push a further 250,000 people into poverty, including 50,000 children.
The spring statement had already drawn the ire of education unions, as it failed to contain any additional funding for schools. Although Ms Reeves used her speech to accuse the previous Conservative government leaving schools ‘literally crumbling’, the statement contained no increase in capital spending for existing schools and colleges (additional funding of around £100 milllion in the Department for Education’s (DfE) capital budget has been earmarked for ten new ‘technical excellence colleges’).
Julia Harnden, Funding Specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, commented ‘Nothing in the spring statement changes the bleak financial situation being faced by schools and colleges. The reality is that many will have to make further cuts to their budgets and thus the educational provision they are able to provide to children and young people. We look forward to the outcome of the spending review in June - which will determine departmental expenditure to 2028-29 - but the 1.2 per cent average real-terms growth set out in the spring statement looks very tight given the competing demands of different departments. It is ominous that the government says it intends to drive efficiencies across the public sector and we would once again point out that all possible “efficiencies” were exhausted long ago in schools and colleges and that any action to further drive down costs is better known as “cuts”.’
Separate to the spring statement, the DfE did announce £740 million of investment in SEND provision. The money will be used to deliver adaptations, expand specialist units in mainstream schools, as well as create new places in special schools. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT welcomed the funding as ‘positive’, but said it needed to be ‘just be the beginning of sustained investment and reform if the government is to truly get to grips with the SEND crisis’.