Parties’ education spending will leave sixth forms worse off

According to analysis from the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), all three parties’ proposals will leave spending on sixth forms around 10 per cent lower than secondary schools.

According to the analysis, while the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats are all proposing to spend more on 16 to 18 education over the course of the next parliament, only Labour’s spending plans will result in a real-terms increase (8 per cent in real terms).

The other two parties’ plans would only do enough to keep per-pupil spending for 16 to 18-year-olds constant in real terms.

The IFS analysis says: “Over the last 30 years, spending on education for 16 to 18 year olds has fared substantially worse than other areas of education spending. For example, the figure below shows that spending per 16-18 year-old pupil in 1990–91 was more than 50% higher than spending per secondary school pupil, but by 2017–18 it was 13% lower. It is not clear why students in 16-18 education should receive 13% less in resources than pupils in secondary schools, or indeed 40% less than students in higher education.”