Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, has commented on an Education Policy Institute report which looks at current school finances.
“The increase in the percentage of secondary schools in deficit to over 30 per cent is predictable and a direct consequence of the Government’s refusal to adequately fund the education system. Cost pressures in the education system and the increase in secondary school pupil numbers mean more secondary schools will face a deficit in future years. There are 326,000 more pupils than in 2015/16 and yet there are 5,000 fewer teachers and 10,700 fewer staff over the same period.
“The report shows that despite cuts in educational provision, school finances are continuing to deteriorate. Analysis by the NEU shows that 4,819 schools – that’s a quarter of primary schools (25 per cent) and one in six secondary schools (17 per cent) – received no cash increase or suffered an actual cut to their funding, despite school costs shooting up dramatically. More than half of all secondaries and almost half of primaries are being forced to spend more than their income this year, so deficits are going to increase and ‘surpluses’ are going to fall anyway unless something is done about overall funding.
“The Department for Education’s definition of ‘excessive balance’ is a five per cent surplus for secondary schools. This is not ‘excessive’, as any business leader would tell you, and represents less than 10 days of a school’s running costs. The report concludes that there is not enough money in so called ‘excessive balances’ to cover the deficit balances. The report identifies £250 million in ‘excessive uncommitted’ balances: this is 0.6 per cent of the Dedicated Schools Grant and therefore a drop in the ocean.
“This is a Government that appears to care nothing for the quality of education our children and young people receive. It is time they listened to the head teachers, teachers, school staff, and parents who are saying ‘enough is enough’ and ensure our schools are properly funded.”
* Read School revenue balances in England here
* Education Policy Institute https://epi.org.uk/
* National Education Union https://neu.org.uk/
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