Birmingham’s school spending holds steady as global peers cut budgets, for now

Birmingham schools are weathering the storm of global education underfunding better than many of their international counterparts, but new figures suggest the city’s advantage may be short-lived.

A UNESCO report released Thursday shows that developing countries now spend more on repaying foreign debt than on education, a trend that has accelerated since 2022. The report, based on 2025 data from 48 nations, found that debt servicing consumed an average of 14.3 percent of government revenue in those countries, while education spending fell to 12.8 percent. In Birmingham, the equivalent local figure, the proportion of city council education spending per pupil, stood at 18.2 percent in the 2025-26 financial year, according to the council’s latest budget papers.

But that gap is narrowing. Birmingham City Council’s Schools Forum, meeting on June 30 at the Council House in Victoria Square, approved a 1.9 percent increase in the local schools block funding, well below the 3.4 percent inflation rate for education services recorded by the Office for National Statistics in May. The net result: a real-terms cut of about £142 per secondary pupil in Birmingham.

Local spending under the microscope

The contrast with other cities is stark. In Accra, Ghana, the municipal education budget fell by 8 percent in real terms last year, leaving class sizes in public primary schools averaging 52 pupils, according to a study published by the University of Ghana in June. In Birmingham, the average primary class size in maintained schools was 27.4 pupils in January 2026, according to the Department for Education’s latest census.

But the City Council’s own figures reveal a more precarious picture. The Dedicated Schools Grant for Birmingham, the main funding stream for local schools, totals £1.2 billion for 2026-27, a nominal increase of 2.1 percent. However, rising special educational needs costs have consumed £89 million of that sum, leaving less for mainstream classrooms. The High Needs block, which funds support for pupils with complex needs, absorbed 22 percent of the total DSG, up from 18 percent in 2023-24.

The pressure is especially acute in areas like Handsworth and Kingstanding, where schools with high proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals are relying on reserves to keep programs running. Handsworth Grammar School, for example, has used £340,000 from its reserves over the past two years to maintain its after-school literacy program, according to minutes from the school’s governing body meeting in May.

What happens next

The council’s next budget review is scheduled for September 23, when the Schools Forum will decide whether to redirect funds from the central school services block to the high needs block, a move that could further squeeze mainstream budgets. Meanwhile, the government’s Spending Review, expected in October, will set national education funding levels for 2027-30.

For parents and school leaders in Birmingham, the message from the UNESCO report is a warning: without sustained investment, the city risks falling into the same cycle of debt-driven cuts seen elsewhere. The council has so far avoided the worst, but with inflation still above target and demand for special needs support rising, the margin for error is thin.

Beacon Church of England Primary School in Ladywood has already announced it will reduce its before-school club offering from five days a week to three starting in September, citing funding pressures. Headteacher Karen Matthews told the school’s parent-teacher association last week that the decision was “not taken lightly” and that the school was losing £18,000 a year on the program.

Birmingham’s schools may still be better funded than those in many developing nations, but the trend lines are moving in the same direction. The question for the city’s 450,000 students is how much longer that relative advantage will last.