Department for Education

Eleven Education Secretaries have served since 2010: Michael Gove, Nicky Morgan, Justine Greening, Damian Hinds, Gavin Williamson, Nadhim Zahawi, Michelle Donelan (for two days), James Cleverly, Kit Malthouse, Gillian Keegan and Bridget Phillipson. Each arrived with a plan. Gove rewrote the curriculum and expanded academies. Williamson presided over the pandemic exam chaos that saw A level results determined by algorithm and then reversed within days. Zahawi was moved to Chancellor. Donelan resigned within days. Keegan inherited the RAAC concrete crisis. Phillipson is now abolishing single word Ofsted judgements and expanding free school meals. The policy direction changes with every reshuffle. The children stay in the same schools.

The government says the core schools budget will rise by £4.7 billion in cash terms by 2028/29. Once the free school meals expansion and the teacher pay award are excluded, that real terms increase amounts to roughly 1 percent per pupil per year. Strip out the ringfenced items altogether and it is closer to a real terms freeze. Schools are being told they have more money. Many will not feel it.

The SEND crisis is the most acute pressure in the system. Spending on high needs provision has almost doubled in real terms over the past decade, driven by rapid growth in the number of pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans and a shortage of places in state funded special schools. Councils have been forced to pay for places in independent special schools, where fees nearly doubled in real terms between 2018/19 and 2024/25 and now exceed £2 billion. The gap between expected spending and funding on SEND is forecast to reach £6 billion by 2028/29. A statutory override is currently keeping SEND deficits off council balance sheets, but it expires in March 2026. The government has promised reform. It has not yet produced a fully costed plan.

Further education and skills have been cut hardest and discussed least. Total spending on 16 to 19 education, adult skills and apprenticeships is around £14 billion in 2025/26. That is still 25 percent below its 2010/11 level. Classroom based adult education spending has been cut by 54 percent in real terms since 2010/11. The apprenticeship levy now generates nearly £840 million more per year than the apprenticeship budget spends. Higher level apprenticeships (level 4 and above, often degree apprenticeships used by large employers) have consumed a growing share of spending while the tradespeople, technicians and engineers the economy most needs remain in shortage. In September 2025, responsibility for apprenticeships and adult skills was transferred to the Department for Work and Pensions, an admission that skills policy had not been working under Education.

The teacher workforce is under pressure from both ends. The government pledged 6,500 additional specialist teachers by the end of the Parliament, then confirmed this target does not include primary schools. Secondary and special school teacher numbers rose by 2,346, but primary school teacher numbers fell by 2,900. The department spent £700 million on initiatives to address teacher shortages in 2024/25. Schools still struggle to recruit maths, physics and computing teachers. The system trains teachers and loses them at roughly the same pace.

School buildings tell their own story. The RAAC concrete crisis of September 2023 forced dozens of schools to close classrooms or relocate into temporary buildings, not because the problem emerged suddenly but because maintenance had been deferred for years. The department has committed £2.1 billion for school condition in 2025/26, up from £1.8 billion. The School Rebuilding Programme covers 518 schools in delivery with 100 more starting, backed by £2.4 billion per year over four years. That sounds substantial until measured against a school estate where many buildings date from the 1950s and 1960s and the maintenance backlog continues to grow.

The department can point to genuine achievements. Literacy and numeracy standards have improved. More children stay in education longer. The expansion of free school meals to all families on Universal Credit from September 2026 will reach 100,000 additional children. The Pupil Premium directs £2.9 billion to schools serving disadvantaged pupils. Early years entitlements are expanding, with £8.2 billion committed in 2025/26. These are real investments.

What increasingly concerns parents, teachers and employers is the gap between spending and outcomes. Britain devotes £101 billion a year to education. Employers still report skills shortages across construction, engineering, digital technology and healthcare. The SEND system is heading toward a £6 billion funding gap. Adult education has been cut by more than half. Primary teacher numbers are falling. The apprenticeship levy generates surpluses that are not reaching the workers who need training. School buildings are crumbling. Each new Secretary of State arrives promising to fix the system their predecessor redesigned. The children in the middle experience the turbulence.

The public does not judge education through spending announcements or inspection frameworks. It judges it by whether children leave school equipped to build secure and productive lives. On that measure, after decades of reform, rising budgets and 11 Education Secretaries, the department's record remains less convincing than the volume of activity would suggest. The buildings need repair. The teachers need replacing. The skills pipeline is broken. The SEND system is in crisis. The money is going in. The question is why so many of the same problems keep coming out.