Across government, the message is clear: money is tight. Over the past year, every department has been asked to find savings, to tighten belts, to deliver more with less.
Public service leaders are rightly worried. Local authorities are under severe pressure. The NHS is facing impossible choices. And yet, despite all of this, one area of government seems to be moving in a different direction: education.
In recent weeks, it has become apparent that, behind the scenes, the Department for Education has been fighting hard for additional investment - billions more than expected, and significantly more than most other departments.
Hard-won funding increases
These aren’t small adjustments or sleight-of-hand reallocations.
This is real money, fought for and won in the toughest of fiscal conditions. It is being directed to the most crucial areas for schools and communities: teacher pay, free school meals and core school budgets.
At a time when so many school leaders are forced to find new ways to stretch each pound, this matters.
It matters because we can pull back on some of the decisions we were bracing ourselves for: reducing support, cutting teaching assistant hours, cancelling enrichment opportunities.
Pressures remain
Of course, this not a panacea. The gap between what schools need and what we receive is still real.
The pressures remain acute, particularly for those serving the most disadvantaged communities. We still face huge challenges in recruitment and retention. And for all the new funding, we are still managing shortfalls left behind by years of underinvestment.
But this victory is about more than funding. It is about what it signals. It shows that education and young people have moved up the country’s priority list. We’re now seeing evidence of a government department making the moral and political case for education as a national priority.
Take the issue of free school meals. While the expansion is modest in scope, it expands one of the best interventions to tackle child poverty.
Then take teacher pay. For two years we have seen increases that begin to reverse the dramatic real-terms fall in pay that did so much damage to recruitment and retention.
In both cases, the funding is not accidental. It has come from listening to school leaders and fighting for us behind the scenes when the public finances remain parlous.
Three lessons to learn
So, what might we take from this as a profession?
Firstly, accept reality. This is not 2007. If we wait for the days of expansive, above-inflation budget increases to return, we’ll wait a very long time.
We can’t wish that world back into existence, but we can improve the world we’re in. That means working strategically, thinking long-term, adapting and, of course, continuing to speak up for better funding for schools.
Secondly, acknowledge that progress is being made - not because we should be grateful for scraps, but because recognising momentum allows us to build on it.
We must not give in to cynicism because cynicism, if left unchallenged, becomes inertia. It closes down possibility. And possibility is what our young people deserve.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, embrace the determination we are seeing from the secretary of state.
In our schools and trusts we should match that determination and double down on being unashamedly ambitious for children. We must deliver an ambitious vision for high-quality inclusive education for the communities we serve.
A new era
In my 26 years working in schools, we have seen two types of secretaries of state across both parties. There are the allies who truly back schools and young people and are willing to fight behind the scenes for us; and there are those who are not.
There have been fewer of the former than the latter, but in delivering more funding for schools, this secretary of state has shown she is an ally to children, schools and families.
These remain difficult times - but in this fiscal statement I see some hope. That maybe, just maybe, young people and schools are moving back to the centre of national life.
Jonny Uttley is CEO of The Education Alliance, a Yorkshire-based multi-academy trust
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