Commenting as the Public Accounts Committee publishes its report on the financial sustainability of English schools, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“The Public Accounts Committee is right to point out that some schools are much harder hit by underfunding than others – which means some children are getting a worse deal. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds in particular have been the victims of over a decade of underfunding and neglect by government.

“Over the last few years, we have seen a new funding formula that directs money away from the most disadvantaged, a pupil premium policy change that has led to the some of the poorest families not receiving funding they should have been entitled to, and a failure to deliver on long overdue SEND reforms.

“And the government’s investment into education in the last Spending Review only takes us back to 2010 levels, representing a failure to invest in children’s futures for over a decade.

“In light of all that, talk of ‘levelling up’ starts to sound entirely hollow. If the government is to achieve their stated goal of ‘levelling up’, they need to look carefully at the impact their reforms are having and address the variations in hardship the PAC have identified.”