It wasn’t funded! (DfE liars!)

[MrsMurphyIWish]

Am so sick of reading this: A Department for Education spokesperson said: "The offer was funded, including major new investment of over half a billion pounds, and helps tackle issues teachers are facing like workload."

0.5% was to be funded only, rest would be out of current budgets which my school is already running at a deficit. We currently are using portaloos as our toilet system doesn’t work! Our head couldn’t possibly afford to pay staff and fix our building.

A “task force” would help with work load. We don’t need another (over paid) committee to tell us what we already know - we already have so many rehashed strategies about “working smarter, not harder” under corporate speak titles. Not one strategy can put right Ofsted toxicity, dealing with suicidal pupils, dealing with starving pupils - this is what affects teacher mental health. We take the burden of other’s mental health.

Anyway, AIBU to wish the media would actually write the truth and challenge the government on their double speak?

noblegiraffe
It's a bit of a saga. Last July, after the heads had finalised their budgets for September, the government unexpectedly announced that teachers would be getting a 5% pay rise in September. Headteachers had planned for about 3% as that was what the government had previously suggested.

The health and social care levy was reversed in September/October - head teachers no longer had to budget for the extra 1.25% levy they were budgeting for in July?

Schools were also allocated extra funding to help with energy costs;
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/investment-to-shield-schools-from-high-energy-bills-and-boost-to-budgets

Near the end of my link;
This funding comes on top of £1.8 billion of capital funding already committed this year for improving the condition of school buildings.

Perhaps you could explain why the National Association of Headteachers were reporting that their schools were running out of money?

And why both headteachers' unions have rejected this pay deal?

Because I think they might have more of a handle on school budgets than you.

You'll have read on my other thread by now, Clav that the DfE's own estimates put the cost of repairing school buildings to a safe standard at £11.4 billion.

Can you tell me if £1.8 billion is lower or higher than £11.4 billion?

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/repairing-englands-schools-will-cost-11-4-billion-dfe-admits/

There's also a huge misconception about Sen funding.

The LA will only top up after the school proves it has already tried to cover it with the 6k allocated for SEN. So, if it costs 11k for provision, they'll provide 5k.

However, the SEN 6k is notional funding and isn't ring-fenced.

Notional meaning that a certain amount of money is given according to how much SeN provision they expect you to have. (This is according to their calculations for size of school and average Sen for the country not what is actually in your school.)

So if extra children with Sen arrive there is no extra money for them although the school will have to pay for that provision regardless.

Schools which manage well with Sen attract pupils with Sen (as parents do their research -quite rightly). Even if the school cannot afford more children with Sen, they are often forced to take them because parental preference trumps everything.

This stretches the budget further and also creates a situation where TA support/counselling etc which is needed is all linked to a specific child's funding. This means that the contract is very temporary and limited in hours, with no guarantee of that improving even though the child is likely to stay there for years. This makes the job even less attractive. Any leeway heads had to change this is being taken away by the increase in running costs etc.

It's also all the other things which schools have to fund which aren't seen.

I don't know if people are aware but things like upkeep of the building also has to come from school budgets. There are some grants available for certain projects or to help out but if it's more minor, IE a paint job, replacement of a door which has been repeatedly smashed open (toilet doors/locks are the biggest issue here) then that has to be paid for by the school.

So every time the toilets are vandalised or whatever, that's over £100 taken from the budget which could be buying books or whatever.

It all adds up and the amount being given to schools in the budget just isn't enough to invest in a better future. :(

From that report

Schools and colleges in England will be allocated a share of £500 million to spend on energy efficiency upgrades, helping to save on bills during the winter months and manage energy consumption.

It's for investment in energy efficient fuel etc. IE, help to replace inefficient windows, add insulation or get solar panels. An average of £16,000 per primary - how many windows could you do for that?? Unlikely it would cover the whole cost!

@Littlebluebird123

Maybe we could use our £16000 to patch up the holes in our roof, that might save a bit of energy!

We are planning on buying energy efficient light bulbs.

noblegiraffe
Can you tell me if £1.8 billion is lower or higher than £11.4 billion?

Your article is dated May 2021 and the data collection ran between 2017 and 2019 - my link is dated December 2022 and refers to £1.8 billion 'this year'. I am assuming that capital funding has been allocated every year since 2017 - although obviously not as much as £11.4 billion.

So you're agreeing, once more, that schools are not getting the funding they need.

Particularly when the DfE admits that there is imminent risk of school buildings collapsing and the situation is 'worsening'.

It doesn't sound like the money allocated since 2017 has been enough, does it?

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/school-buildings-risk-collapse-made-safe-pupils-unions

It's for investment in energy efficient fuel etc.

More energy support for schools here;

28 September 2022
https://www.energylivenews.com/2022/09/28/how-can-uk-schools-tackle-soaring-energy-bills/

Do you work in education Clav ?

Shame they seem determined to absolutely fuck women isn't it?

Have a look at the % of female teachers and nurses.

The Tories may know what a woman is ur thats as far as it goes. They are decimating two female dominated professions.

A “task force” would help with work load

Blimey-is that what their suggestion is?!

I wonder what gems this DfE quango will come up with for us…

I think the main issue is that people do not understand how schools are funded and how that money is allocated.

I was a school governor for many years when my children were at primary (I gave it up around 2017/2018) and the school budget was very tight then, with the 'profit' at year end to be gone within 3years. And the bursar was very tight with how the money was spent (and I mean this as good thing).

There was also a scheme funded and run by the government looking and assessing the roof for solar panels for a to off set the schools energy bills and to be able to sell back to the grid. But once again this was never followed through.

Ask part of the strike negotiations involving work, the government rejected doing anything about Ofsted, rejected binning performance related pay, rejected schools being required to have a work life balance policy and various other tweaks to workload which makes me think that the task force would get short shrift over anything they came up with anyway.

OP, it isn't the media who are lying, but the government and its departments. From your own OP that's clear.

It seems to be a strategy at the moment to obfuscate the truth.

Your point is right, though!

Brilliant-that’ll be money well spent then. I wonder how much the task force will cost?!

Small fry but paper has increased x3 fold.

Many other increases that drain the budget too.

Schools are fucked

Would make much more sense but to have individual schools with 'budgets' and 'governors' but just fund everything centrally. The whole concept of governors and a lot of other school management is outdated and inefficient. So have a finance manager in the school to keep track of needs and report then in - eg leaking roofs/SEN numbers and then have a centrally managed process of sending of teams to fix the roof/allocate TAs etc.
Then there would be no issue with pay rises etc /they would be awarded to the staff automatically.
(Also staff should be able to give a month's notice like in every other job - but that's another issue /maybe I'll start a thread about the anachronisms in the Education system)

Sounds good-like it used to be. We could call them LEAs….

They could supply pools of paid to scale supply teachers as well rather than having endless agencies who try to get qualified teachers to work a few days unpaid on a trial period to see if schools like them, or pay teachers on a TA rate.

I adore seeing Clavinova on threads as their work arguing that Brexit was going to be fabulous leads me to believe that she is a true blue Tory shill.

Agree with all of this.

But also, I'd say to some extent, the NEU and NAHT have been on the same page since at least January 2021. If the DfE aren't aware of that, that shows they are pretty out of touch, too.

Desperately shoe horning in articles about Keir’s donkey field is her favourite

The NAHT survey is obviously more concrete, but there were so many heads on Twitter saying the only way they could make the 4.5% pay rise was through cutting support staff, because there is nothing else left to cut.

Didn't even the DfE suggest it was only affordable for an "average" school. There are lots of schools and MATs which are already in deficit, and presumably therefore not "average" schools.

It also ignores other upcoming costs to schools- for example my LA have recently withdrawn their subsidy to post-16 transport. As a rural school, we will have to make up the deficit here or our sixth formers won't be able to get to us.

We're also facing having to replace a large amount of our IT before autumn 2025 when we will have to switch to Windows 11.

We currently run a large student support service, which is absolutely essential for our young people- it picks up all the ones who don't quite meet the threshold for CAMHS/social services/NHS to support and keeps them (largely) in school and safe. BUT I do wonder how much longer we will be able to fund this. We've already been told our class sizes (including sixth form) will be pushed to the max next year, and some courses are being cut as "non-viable".