IFS - School spending per pupil highest in Scotland, lowest in Northern Ireland

25 Oct 2021 04:48 PM

In the current year (2021–22), core school spending per pupil is expected to be highest in Scotland (over £7,500), similar levels in England (£6,700) and Wales (£6,600), and lowest in Northern Ireland (£6,400).

Whilst there were real-terms cuts to school spending per pupil across all four nations over the past decade, policymakers have increasingly made different choices in recent years.

Figures are in 2021–22 prices and represent new estimates of school spending per pupil across the UK from IFS researchers. Figures relate to total day-to-day school spending on children aged 3–19 by schools, local authorities and funding agencies. This analysis was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and forms part of a larger programme of work examining trends and challenges in education spending across different phases.

Luke Sibieta, IFS Research Fellow and author, said:

‘Over the last decade, there were cuts to school spending per pupil right across the UK. In Scotland, large recent increases mean that spending has more than recovered and core spending per pupil is now likely to be over £800 higher than in the rest of the UK. Despite recent increases, spending per pupil in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is still close to or just below levels seen a decade earlier.

‘However, it is important to remember higher spending need not automatically translate into better educational outcomes. Indeed, international comparisons of test scores suggest numeracy and science scores were declining in high-spending Scotland relative to the OECD average up to 2018. It remains to be seen whether extra spending in Scotland since 2018 will arrest this trend.’

Josh Hillman, Director of Education at the Nuffield Foundation, said:

‘This IFS analysis shows that the increasing divergence in education policy between the four nations of the UK extends to school spending per pupil, where funding to support Scottish pupils has held up better than for their counterparts in the other nations. A major cause for concern is that funding for education recovery programmes in response to the pandemic is much lower across all four nations than those being implemented in comparable countries.’

Comparisons of school spending per pupil across the UK