Foreword to Where Has All the Money Gone? 2026 by the General Secretary

A new Prime Minister; time to end profiteering in our schools and colleges 

Education is in crisis. Our teachers are overworked, undervalued and under-resourced. Meanwhile, the priorities of the education system are gradually changing.

A system once dedicated to pupils and inspiring the future of our country now has a structure geared towards something else: profiteering. 

This report has uncovered not just waste in our sector, but top-slicing, commercialisation and profiteering.

Teachers do not enter this profession to get rich quickly, yet those looking for a get-rich-quick scheme have landed on their feet, thanks to the academisation drive that has been pursued in England for more than 20 years and the fragmented system which has resulted.

Some multi-academy trust CEOs have set their own salaries at more than £500,000 a year. At the same time, teachers are told every year to do more with less.

Teachers are expected to deal with larger classes with fewer resources and less classroom support. 

But it gets worse. As the last Education Secretary’s White Paper acknowledged, SEND provision is in crisis. Yet what the White Paper failed to address was the profiteering we highlight here.

Our research, which we shared with the Department for Education, found that the average cost of state-maintained SEND provision was £23,900 per pupil per year. Yet increasing numbers of SEND pupils are being placed with private providers, costing the state an average of £61,500 per pupil per year. 

We now have a new Prime Minister who has promised to deliver on the commitments Labour made when it entered office.

Education desperately needs “the biggest wave of insourcing for a generation”.

Teachers urgently need a commitment to tackling burnout of colleagues and the recruitment and retention crisis. More than ever, pupils need a government committed to investing in their schools. 

We have a clear message for Andy Burnham and Lucy Powell. You have the commitment to devolution and local democracy that should guide our education system. You have the opportunity to fix our future. We now need you to work with us – to work with teachers. 

Profiteering has infiltrated every part of our education system, from for-profit supply agencies charging an average 38% mark-up, to exam boards paying CEOs more than £350,000, to multi-academy trusts where executives earn hundreds of thousands of pounds, and consultants billing schools exorbitant fees. This culture of profiteering must end. 

A better education system is possible. Andy and Lucy, you can help fix our future. 

I hope you find this report as eye-opening as I did. 

General Secretary Matt Wrack

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