Families face rising costs and service cuts as Education Authority announces £30m savings plan

Parents across Northern Ireland are bracing for higher school meal prices and potential changes to transport and music provision after the Education Authority (EA) confirmed a series of cost-saving measures to address a £300 million funding shortfall.

The EA said the “regrettable” measures, which aim to deliver up to £30 million in savings, will begin to take effect this month. However, the organisation warned that even with these cuts, it will be “some distance” from breaking even.

“Living within allocated funding – whilst meeting rising service needs – has been an increasing challenge,” the statement said.

“The current year’s financial position for the Education Authority is a projected shortfall of circa £300m. This is not a situation anyone at EA wants to be in. It is nevertheless the reality.”

Impact on families and schools

Among the most immediate impacts for families will be a 50p increase in the cost of a school meal for paying pupils in nursery, primary and special schools, with equivalent percentage rises for cafeteria items in post-primary schools.

The new prices will come into effect from January 2026, marking the first increase since 2017/18.

The EA stressed that pupils entitled to free school meals will not be affected by the change. It said that even after the increase, prices would “remain well below the cost of producing a meal.”

Transport costs are also under review. The Authority plans to implement savings in home-to-school transport, including renegotiating payments to taxi operators and reassessing individual transport arrangements that fall outside its legal obligations.

The cost of taxi transport has become a major financial burden, with the EA revealing that its annual taxi bill has more than doubled in five years – from £19.4 million in 2020/21 to nearly £39.8 million in 2024/25.

Cuts to non-statutory and contracted services

Because nearly all of the EA’s services are statutory, the organisation said there is little flexibility to make significant reductions without breaching legal obligations.

Around 85% of its annual expenditure is spent on staff salaries, meaning large-scale cuts would require a funded redundancy scheme – something not currently available.

As a result, the EA has targeted discretionary services such as its Music Service, which provides instrumental tuition and ensemble opportunities to pupils. The Authority confirmed it would seek to increase income through higher fees to help offset delivery costs.

Savings will also be made by suspending new referrals to external providers of Education Other Than at School (EOTAS) services, and by ending some agency contracts and reducing overtime within the EA’s corporate workforce.

“While these measures will inevitably have an adverse impact on services, it is also the case that they can only make a partial contribution to achieving a break-even budget,” the EA added.

Limited room to manoeuvre

Unlike in previous years, the Department of Education has advised that no additional significant funding allocations are expected, leaving the Authority with few options.

The EA acknowledged the “difficult reality” of balancing financial pressures with its duty to deliver essential education services.

“Virtually all EA’s services are statutory in nature – thus those services cannot be lawfully stopped,” it said.

The organisation said it would continue to “engage with stakeholders” as the measures take effect, but accepted that “adverse impacts on services” are unavoidable.