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SPENDING on schools is a case in point. It has soared from £22.4 billion in 1997-98 to £35.4 billion in 2004-05.

Thanks to David Blunkett, Labour’s first education secretary, teachers are considerably better paid. The average teacher gets £32,000 a year. Maths and science teachers are likely to be on £40,000-plus. Head teachers in secondary schools crashed the £100,000 barrier a few years ago. Even primary school heads in London can now earn £70,000 a year, plus perks.

The government says hundreds of millions are also being spent on improving school buildings and building new schools. Ministers boast there are 40,000 more teachers and 100,000 more support assistants in classes.

The problem, however, is that for all this change, school performance has hardly altered. Last week’s exam league tables showed that almost 60% of 16-year-olds fail to get even a C grade in maths and English at GCSE. In 1997, 45% of 16-year-olds managed five GCSEs at grades A* to C. Last year the proportion was up at nearly 54%, but the figures were boosted by giving vocational qualifications GCSE equivalence.

The government’s own spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, has also produced evidence of ministers’ failure. Its latest report, published two weeks ago, pointed out that there are still about 1m children in schools that do not provide a satisfactory education. “We estimate that around 980,000 pupils (13% of the total in state schools) are, in 2005, receiving an unsatisfactory education,” the report said.

Even Blair’s new city academies programme appears to be faltering. Despite costing an average of £27m each to build, the performance of several of the shiny new schools has been savaged by inspectors. Last week the £31m Bexley business academy in south London was judged “inadequate” by inspectors from the Office for Standards in Education who cited poor teaching standards, ill discipline and low exam results as key problems. They issued the school with a “notice to improve”. Blair meanwhile reiterated his plans to create 200 academies by 2010.

Other expensive educational initiatives have fared little better. Ministers were recently told by the National Audit Office that there was not much to show for £1 billion spent on schemes to tackle truancy and poor behaviour in schools. Despite this vast expenditure, truancy rates in school in England and Wales are still increasing.

WITHIN the NHS things are little better. Six years ago this month, Blair gave a Sunday morning interview to Sir David Frost. The NHS was under pressure as a result of a winter flu crisis and Blair had to be seen to act.

From the comfort of Frost’s sofa he announced that the government would dramatically increase health spending in Britain. It would grow from just over 6% of gross domestic product to the EU average of more than 8%, he said.

Brown, while initially angered by Blair’s leaking of what he saw as his big announcement, duly obliged and taxes were raised so billions of pounds in new investment could be poured into the NHS.

Last week details emerged of a Treasury presentation on the consequences of all this largesse. Just as with schools, much of the extra money had gone into salaries rather than improved services, the report showed. Britain’s GPs, nurses and consultants had become the best paid in Europe.

Research from the King’s Fund, an independent health watchdog, shows that 59% of the extra money pumped into the NHS since 2001 — the point at which the taps where turned on — has gone on staff pay. Consultants and GPs have had salary increases worth up to 50% over three years, with GPs now earning more than £100,000 a year on average. Nurses have also had substantial increases.

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