A £13.8bn repair bill, and a SEND system the auditors call unsustainable.
Crumbling classrooms with a £13.8bn repair bill. A special-needs system the auditors call unsustainable. Half of families waiting longer than the law allows. Your kids' schools, by the government's own count, including what's genuinely improving.
10 figures, each with its official source.
Schools are 28% of government's £49bn total maintenance backlog. Based on DfE condition data collected 2017–19 at 2023-24 prices, the NAO says the true figure is likely HIGHER; a new condition survey completes in 2026. DfE allocated £2.1bn for school condition in 2025-26.
Pledge: all schools and colleges RAAC-free ahead of the next election (due 2029), with rebuilds at least in delivery by then. Of the 237 affected: 123 being rebuilt via the School Rebuilding Programme, 108 getting removal grants, 6 with alternative arrangements.
Up 12.5% in one year, the biggest rise since EHC plans began in 2014. 110,708 new plans were issued in 2025 (+13.3%). Demand is outrunning every funding settlement yet made.
The 20-week limit is a STATUTORY requirement, more than half of families waited longer than the law allows, and performance slightly worsened (46.4% in 2024). Fewer than half on time every recent year.
The NAO judged the SEND system 'financially unsustainable'; councils in the two rescue programmes alone forecast £9.1bn of deficits by 2028-29. The accounting override keeping this off council balance sheets was extended to March 2028; from 2026-27 a High Needs Stability Grant funds 90% of eligible historic deficits.
Big improvement on 61% in 2024/25, but the secondary target was also CUT ~20% (23,960 → 19,270), flattering the percentage, and it was still missed. Vacancies fell to 1,600 (from 2,200), yet the overall teacher workforce SHRANK by 1,900 against the pledge of 6,500 additional teachers.
Improving (down from 19.95%) but still nearly DOUBLE pre-pandemic (10.86% in 2018/19), and severe absence (missing half of school) rose again to 2.39%, nearly triple 2018/19. A cohort-scale problem no recovery programme has yet fixed.
Down 2% on the year and below the 2023 peak (83,750), partly reflecting 12% fewer unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in care (6,540). A rate of 67 per 10,000 children.
In real terms a 0.1% FALL per pupil on the year (£8,390 at 2025-26 prices). Cash funding is up 65% since 2010-11, but much of the recent real growth has been absorbed by SEND costs rather than mainstream budgets. Excludes SEND-reform investment due with the Schools White Paper.
A pledge broadly DELIVERING: 501,700 children aged 9 months–2 years registered (up from 72% take-up in 2025) after the entitlement doubled to 30 hours from September 2025. Take-up is lowest for the youngest (46% of 9–11-month-olds vs 92% of 2-year-olds).