The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system in England has faced unprecedented pressure over the past decade, and without substantial reform it will likely become unmanageable for local authorities over the coming years. Fundamentally, this is due to the rocketing number of...

Education spending is the second-largest element of public service spending in the UK behind health, representing about £99 billion in 2020-21 in today's prices or about 4.5% of national income. To make efficient and equitable policy choices, it is crucial to have a clear, consistent picture of...

Over the last 20 years, sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have experienced significant economic growth and consequently growing levels of motorisation. Though overall levels of motorisation in SSA are still relatively low, with a high number of poor-quality vehicles concentrated in large...

The Labour party has proposed a package of policies to remove tax exemptions from private schools. Most importantly in revenue terms, it has proposed levying VAT on private school fees. The revenue raised would then be used to increase state school spending and would be targeted at pupils from...

In the last few months, there has been a series of strikes by teachers in further education colleges across England over pay and conditions, and more strikes look set to impact the post-16 education sector this year. With inflation at around 10%, college teachers have experienced large...

After health, funding for Scottish councils is the second largest item in the Scottish Government's Budget. In the original 2022-23 budget as passed by the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Government allocated £10.6 billion to councils as part of the main local government portfolio, with...

The next wave of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data will be published in December 2023. This will relate to PISA tests taken in 2022, the first wave of data after the COVID-19 pandemic. In advance of these new data, this report seeks to take stock of performance to date...

Our sixth annual report on education spending shows changes over time across different stages of education, as well as geographic differences.

Given that education policy is a devolved matter across the UK, a natural question to ask is how school spending per pupil differs across the four nations of the UK. In this short report, we show how school spending per pupil has changed across the four nations of the UK over time. We also...