An hour-long speech without the word 'education', and £60 million for PE
What happened
The Budget on 28 October 2026 contained several measures for schools in England, though education was not mentioned in the Chancellor's speech. The Department for Education's funding will rise by £60 million a year for new PE and school sport partnerships, expected to begin from April 2027. There is up to £5 million a year for three years from 2027-28, so up to £15 million in total, to improve access to books for young children. This money goes to organisations such as BookTrust and Dolly Parton's Imagination Library rather than into school budgets. The stated aim is for at least 75% of children to reach a good level of development by 2028. A £15 million fund over three years will support work to prevent misogyny and improve outcomes for women and girls, delivered through the Office for the Impact Economy. Grants can pay for mentoring, education programmes and training. It follows plans the Department for Education set out in September for school guidance, training and resources. On special educational needs and disabilities, the government committed to reimbursing councils for 90% of SEND deficits built up to the end of 2025-26. Central government is due to take over SEND funding from 2028-29. Julia Harnden, deputy director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was "concerning that the chancellor spoke for an hour and the word 'education' did not pass his lips even once".
Why this matters
School budgets are not set by a single announcement. They are set by the gap between what a school receives and what it has to spend, and that gap is where this Budget gets uncomfortable. Three pressures are stacking up at once. First, pay. The National Living Wage rises 3.9% from April 2027, which affects support staff, catering and cleaning costs. No additional school funding was provided to cover it. Second, inflation. The Office for Budget Responsibility now forecasts consumer price inflation of 3.4% in 2027, up from 2% in its March forecast. The planned 3% teacher pay rise for next year could therefore land below inflation. Third, the overall envelope. Reporting on the Budget noted that departmental spending would need to be around £7 billion a year higher to maintain the 2025 Spending Review plans in real terms. Then there is SEND, which is the single biggest financial problem in English education. Annual local authority SEND deficits are forecast to rise from £2.8 billion in 2025-26 to £5.7 billion in 2027-28. That is a doubling in two years. These are deficits carried by councils for support that children are legally entitled to. The government's commitment to cover 90% of deficits accumulated to the end of 2025-26 is real money and real relief. But it stops there. No commitment has been made for deficits after that date, and those are the ones forecast to grow fastest.
What the evidence actually says
This is a Budget where the framing matters more than usual, so here are the figures with their caveats attached. On the £60 million for PE and school sport, it is not clear from the Budget whether this is additional to the government's existing commitments. That is an unresolved question, not a criticism. The existing commitment it sits alongside is substantial but contested. In May 2026 the Department for Education announced more than £1 billion over three years for school sport, including £580 million for a new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network and almost £200 million for facilities. That Network replaces the Primary PE and Sport Premium, which gave schools around £320 million a year directly. Schools Week has reported that the replacement's annual funding is around 22% lower than the premium it replaces. In July the DfE raised 2026/27 transition funding from £100 million to £150 million, paid as a one-off, at a reported median of roughly £8,000 per eligible school. So on school sport the government can accurately say total investment has risen, and school leaders can accurately say the money reaching schools directly has fallen. Both are true, because the money is being routed differently. Readers should be wary of anyone presenting only one half of that. On spending projections: the OBR projects mainstream school spending to fall by an average of 0.7% a year in real terms from 2023-24 to 2031-32, with a steeper 2% a year projected from 2028-29 to 2031-32. These are projections based on current plans, not announced cuts, and plans can change. On capital: departmental capital budgets will be cut by a further 1% from 2027-28 to 2029-30, raising £3 billion towards the £15 billion Defence Investment Plan. The Budget does not say which school building or maintenance programmes, if any, are affected. On SEND: the OBR assumes underlying SEND spending rises 0.4% a year in real terms after 2028-29. That assumption sits against deficits forecast to double by 2027-28, which is a tension worth watching when central government takes the system over.
Practical advice
If you are a parent, governor or school leader, here is what is worth doing with this. If your child has SEND, nothing about their legal entitlement changes. An Education, Health and Care plan is a statutory document and funding arrangements between councils and central government do not alter what it says. If provision in the plan is not being delivered, that is a matter to raise with the school and then the local authority, with the plan in hand. If you are a governor, ask your school about the PE and sport funding transition specifically. The question is not how much national investment there is, but what your school receives directly in 2026/27 and what it expects from April 2027. The answers have moved. If you are budgeting for a school, note the April 2027 date on both the National Living Wage rise and the PE partnerships money, and that no extra funding accompanied the wage increase. If you have a preschool child, the books money goes through organisations such as BookTrust and the Imagination Library, not schools. These schemes are free to families and worth looking up directly, because the benefit only reaches you if you sign up. Treat projections as projections. A forecast that school spending falls 2% a year from 2028-29 is a statement about current plans, not a decision that has been taken. Hold it loosely. If you are talking to your MP about school funding, the strongest numbers are the specific ones: SEND deficits doubling from £2.8 billion to £5.7 billion by 2027-28, and no commitment yet on deficits after March 2026.
What to know
Budget 2026 gave schools in England £60 million a year for new PE and school sport partnerships from April 2027, up to £15 million over three years for children's book access through organisations such as BookTrust, and a £15 million misogyny prevention fund over three years. On SEND, the government will reimburse councils for 90% of deficits built up to the end of 2025-26, with central government taking over SEND funding from 2028-29. No commitment covers deficits after that point, and those deficits are forecast to rise from £2.8 billion in 2025-26 to £5.7 billion in 2027-28. The pressures are real: a 3.9% minimum wage rise from April 2027 with no extra school funding attached, an OBR inflation forecast of 3.4% for 2027 against a planned 3% teacher pay rise, and a further 1% cut to departmental capital budgets from 2027-28. The word "education" did not appear in the Chancellor's speech. For most schools, the practical picture is extra money for specific programmes against a tighter core budget. Sources: Tes (Jabed Ahmed), "Budget 2026: everything schools need to know", 28 October 2026, https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/budget-2026-everything-schools-need-know; Schools Week, "Schools expect cuts to PE provision after funding shake up", https://schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-expect-cuts-to-pe-provision-after-funding-shake-up/; HM Treasury, "Budget 2026 speech" (Chancellor John Healey), 28 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/budget-2026-speech. This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a careers adviser, your school or college, or another qualified professional.
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