A former government adviser has warned there is a 鈥渞isk鈥 that the 鈥減ositive story鈥 around school improvement in recent decades 鈥渕asks a growing array of challenges鈥 facing the sector. Sam Freedman, who worked at the Department for Education under Michael Gove, also warned it was 鈥渉ard to see how many of the challenges schools face 鈥 from teacher recruitment through to a run-down school estate 鈥 will be fixed without investment鈥. In a paper for , Freedman, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and adviser to Ark Schools, examined 20 years of school reform in England. He said decades of reform had 鈥渓ed to real improvements in standards, at least for maths, according to international tests, as well as a big increase in the numbers with post-16 qualifications and a much better reputation for schools. 鈥淐ompared to other public services this is a success story. But the risk is that a relatively positive story masks a growing array of challenges, especially around the lives of the most vulnerable pupils, and the impact this is having on schools and colleges.鈥 ‘Very little money is available’ Chancellor Rachel Reeves will set out her first budget on Wednesday, and over the weekend vowed to 鈥減rotects education priorities鈥. Although she has pledged to increase school rebuilding funding to 拢1.4 billion next year, it is not yet clear whether school revenue funding will increase. The Labour government has since taking office warned of a 拢22 billion black hole in the country鈥檚 finances left behind by the Conservatives, and warned it faces tough choices. Freedman warned the new government faced an 鈥渁rray of challenges across almost every policy area, including across the school system. 鈥淗owever, due to both the wider economic situation and political choices made by the new government, very little money is available to pay for solutions. 鈥淚t is hard to see how many of the challenges schools face 鈥 from teacher recruitment through to a run-down school estate 鈥 will be fixed without investment.鈥 He also warned 鈥渙ther challenges facing schools, including a lack of resources to support SEND students, increasing mental health issues and behaviour problems, also pose ongoing issues for government鈥. Real-terms cuts and ‘aggressive’ accountability Looking back at 20 years of reform, Freedman pointed to real-terms cuts to school and college funding, with post-16 worst-affected, and teacher pay. He also said the establishment of multi-academy trusts had been a 鈥渕ajor policy change鈥, and while some have been 鈥渉ighly successful鈥, others have struggled. 鈥淥ver time more and more schools joined MATs which offered additional support and funding security in return for ceding some control. 鈥淭hey became major players in the school system almost by stealth, and their purpose has never been clearly legally defined, or elucidated by government.鈥 The last 20 years have also seen a 鈥渕uch more aggressive鈥 approach to accountability, and over time schools have 鈥渋nevitably looked to game the metrics, and as budgets have been squeezed, these accountability measures have been tougher for schools to handle鈥. Tories abandoned focus on poorer pupils There had been 鈥渕ajor focus on socio-economic disadvantage鈥 under New Labour and the coalition government. But in the final years of the Conservative government 鈥渢here was a reversal of this focus, with changes to the funding formula directing funding to schools with better-off intakes, and a failure of pupil premium funding to keep pace with inflation鈥. Sir Peter Lampl Freedman warned there had been 鈥渘o real progress鈥 in closing the attainment gap between poorer young people and their better-off peers. There was some progress before Covid but the pandemic 鈥渓ed to a loss of all the gains made since 2011鈥. These challenges 鈥渟tand alongside wider issues related to child poverty, with relative child poverty falling in the UK before 2010, before following a broadly upward trend until 2020鈥. Sutton Trust founder Sir Peter Lampl said: 鈥淭he biggest education failure of the last government was to make little progress in tackling the gap in attainment between low-income pupils and their peers. 鈥淭he Conservatives lost their focus on disadvantage. It鈥檚 hugely damaging for both young people and the country that the talent of so many youngsters is being wasted.鈥 He said Labour 鈥渟ays it will break down barriers to opportunity but as yet, there is no sense that the scale of investment and policy action needed to deliver this will be forthcoming. We cannot allow another decade to pass without progress.鈥