School leaders know fixing problems a marathon, not a sprint

If one thing was clear from the emails that came pouring in after the autumn Budget, it's that school leaders and other education experts see fixing problems in England's education system as a marathon, not a sprint.

That's because there are big challenges. Universities warn they're at risk of going bust, targets have been missed for rebuilding crumbling schools, teachers are leaving the profession and the system designed to help children with special education needs and disabilities (Send) has been dubbed "broken".

What all these experts are not quite agreed on, however, is how quickly the government should be pacing itself at this early stage.

There are those who were hoping for a sprint start this week.

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), which has led teacher walkouts in recent years, said new funding announcements were "insufficient" and the government needed to "move much faster".

The £2.3bn increase to the core schools budget - a real-terms increase of 1.8%, according to the Education Policy Institute (EPI) - includes £1bn for Send.

The £1.3bn left over for mainstream schools would put head teachers in a "very difficult position", said Mr Kebede, given the struggles they have in recruiting teachers and keeping them in the job.

Others are conceiving of the Budget as something of a steady start - maybe a jog - and hope the pace will ramp up later on.

Julia Harnden of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said the £300m announced for further education "does not match the government's ambition for a major focus on skills", and that the £6.7bn for school and college buildings - including removing dangerous concrete and turning empty classrooms into nurseries - "does not cover the shortfall that already exists".

"Although there are many things in [Wednesday's] Budget to be positive about, there is an awful lot more to do and much of what we have heard represents relatively small spending commitments which do not match the level of investment that the education system requires," she said.

Some think the government still has time to build up that pace, though, and should be looking ahead to the next spending review, due in the spring, as a milestone.

"The extensive neglect of schools under Conservative governments meant it was always going to be difficult to give school leaders all the financial support they needed in this Budget alone," said Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the school leaders' union the NAHT.

“It is a start based on good intentions, but it must be backed up by further ambition and investment in the multi-year spending review due next spring.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said the Treasury had shown that it "recognises the need to invest more" in further education this week, and that he hoped for a "better, longer-term" plan next year.

“We do not expect this picture to change overnight, but we do want the government to set out an investment plan for the next three to five years," he said.

The EPI said any long-term plan for colleges should involve allocating funds based on the proportion of disadvantaged students who study there. "This alone would cost £340m a year", it said - above what has been allocated for next year.

And as the government gets off the starting line with funding announcements, it will be acutely aware of calls for other whole-system reforms later on down the road.

The Local Government Association, which represents councils, wants to see "fundamental reform of the Send system, focusing on improving inclusion in mainstream settings and writing off councils’ high-needs deficits".

ASCL said a new Send plan was needed to "ensure funding always gets to the frontline", while the NEU said it was in discussions with the government about what reform should look like.

Universities, whose main calls for financial help were not met in this week's budget, also say they want to work with ministers on a new blueprint for higher education. They say decisions need to be made soon, including raising tuition fees in England in line with inflation.

Ministers are part-way through an expansion of free childcare hours - a reform brought in under the Conservatives that will remain under close scrutiny, particularly as the £1.8bn announced by the chancellor last weekend was actually pledged by her predecessor, Jeremy Hunt.

As the government embarks on its marathon, every decision will have to be made against the backdrop of falling pupil numbers over the coming years - and that around 35,000 children could join the state sector as a result VAT being added to private schools.

It's a rocky road ahead.