Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the annual cost to the public purse of putting a child through secondary state school education.

Annually, the department publishes the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), which includes information on the amount of core schools funding allocated by the department nationally as well as to each local authority. This includes the amount of funding allocated in respect of secondary pupils in mainstream schools, the ‘secondary schools unit of funding’. The DSG for financial year 2026/27 has now been published and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2026-to-2027.

In addition to the funding from the DSG, schools also receive additional school funding annually, for example through the Pupil Premium grant (in respect of pupils eligible for free school meals in the last six years), and capital funding.