Austerity measures have impacted adversely on families’ incomes, with households facing the biggest income fall since the 1970s, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), and increasing levels of child poverty, as highlighted by the charities Save the Children, the IFS and the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).

Family income and child poverty have been impacted on by benefit cuts, public sector pay policies, the loss of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), increases in higher education (HE) tuition fees and the interest charged on student loans, alongside unemployment and the wider effects of recession.

The Education Act 2011 brought in changes that include allowing different types of state-funded schools to have increased ‘freedoms’, including over curriculum provision, admissions, school finances and changing policies; for example, allowing schools to charge for non-core curriculum subjects.

These increased freedoms have been accompanied by changes to the ways schools can be monitored in the public interest.

In the light of growing concerns expressed to the NASUWT by teachers and parents and the information from the IFS, CPAG and Save the Children, the NASUWT instigated a longitudinal study to ascertain any changes to the costs incurred to families in the context of their children’s education.

This Report is the third annual survey of parents, grandparents and carers conducted by the NASUWT on this issue.