IFS researchers have provided the first detailed assessment of the Government's ambitious plans to reform school funding in England - the Government itself having failed to quantify the likely effects of the proposals on which it has consulted.

The research shows that, after years of failure to develop and implement rational reform, the current system continues to allocate money in ways which mean that similar schools can receive very different amounts. Inevitably reforms, including those proposed by the Government, would involve significant disruption for schools, creating large numbers of financial winners and losers. Even under a reform that sought to minimise the amount of disruption, roughly one in six schools would see cuts in funding of 10% or more compared with existing policy, while one in ten schools would see their funding increase by 10% or more.

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