How are the school budget cuts affecting your school?

[Midthreademergencynamechange]

Either as a parent or teacher (or other member of staff in a school)?

Have the cuts had a tangible impact yet? What do you think will happen over the next few years?

I have a terrible feeling we are walking right into a crisis in education in this country ...

Our school (primary) seems positively awash in funds. (Parents recently got together to buy glue sticks and whiteboard pens and were told that there is no need, thank you very much.)

I suppose this is because there is one experienced teacher (presumably on a higher payscale), another in her 3rd year of teaching, and all others brand new.

This situation seems to allow for an inflated management and one or more TAs/class, no problem. (At least the inflated management sometimes covers teaching, saving on supply costs I guess.)

Nevertheless, the library has been closed.

I set our school budget last week, our primary school will have a quarter of a million shortfall in our income stream. Fortunately we have seen this coming and have been reviewing every SLA and making the dreaded efficiencies, including buying our own photocopiers which has saved us thousands. However we have a contingency that is healthy but it's ring-fenced for various projects but if we continue to do what we consider normal budgeting we will have a deficit of £331,000 in 2020.

It is a bloody nightmare, I have been a governor for over 25 years, the last time it was like this was in the mid 90s... I wonder who was running the government then? Our children and staff deserve better.

Illuminating document published recently by NASUWT (teachers' union) re the teachers' pay award 2018/2019. It obviously contains some criticism of the Government over school funding but the majority of criticism seems to be directed elsewhere.

The pdf document is called ^Where has all the money gone?
I had trouble copying extracts/linking so apologies if it comes out disjointed:

The funding which schools receive often does not reach the front line. Despite the school funding squeeze since 2010, much education spending still does not reach the front line. Substantial levels of unspent reserves, inefficient and wasteful school level procurement, together with excessive levels of academy trustee and CEO leadership pay, are now hardwired into the school system The NASUWT believes that there is need for urgent change in these areas, so that the available school and academy trust funding is used appropriately to support teachers to secure the best outcomes for all pupils.

Local authority maintained schools:

As of 31 March 2017, the total unspent balance across all local authority maintained schools was £1.7 billion. 2 The proportion of schools with a surplus was 90.0% on 31 March 2017.
The average surplus in each school with a surplus is £131,000.
The average surplus in each primary school with a surplus is £108,000 and the average surplus in each secondary school with a surplus is £373,000. For illustrative purposes, if the amount held in unspent balances in maintained schools in England is divided by the total number of teachers (in both maintained schools and academies), the unspent balance per teacher in England is £3,717. If the unspent reserve in the academy sector is taken into account in the calculation, the figure per teacher would be far higher.

For those schools which are in deficit, this does not necessarily mean that the school is experiencing funding difficulties Many schools experience short-term deficits because of increased pupil numbers which have led to greater expenditure to meet pupil needs. Funding for increased pupil numbers (known as ‘growth’ funding) is usually given to schools at least one year after the increase in pupil numbers has occurred.

Academy trusts:

In October 2017, the DfE published its first full Academy Schools Sector in England: Consolidated annual report and accounts. This confirmed the level of surpluses in academies:

The sector reported an operating surplus of £534 million for the year ended 31 August 2016. This represents an average operating surplus of approximately £90,000 for each individual academy school.

At 31 August 2016, 2,819 trusts had cumulative surpluses, with a total cumulative surplus of £2,287 million [i.e. £2.3 billion], 165 ATs had a cumulative deficit, with a total deficit figure of £50 million.

School spending issues are being exploited to justify the withholding of teachers’ pay, redundancies and the worsening of terms and conditions. Unfortunately, school funding issues are exploited to justify failing to use funding for teaching and learning purposes, including ensuring that teachers are appropriately paid
and have working conditions which support their key role and manage their workload. Inaccurate information about school funding, including fictitious school funding allocations, is circulating round the system, which is leading schools to believe that
they must cut expenditure on teaching and learning when this is unnecessary

The DfE, Education and Skills Funding Agency (EFSA) and local authorities must take responsibility for ensuring that schools are clear about the actual funding which they are receiving and will receive in the future.

Ill-judged research has also led some schools, MATs and employer organisations to claim that teachers’ pay and other teaching and learning expenditure is unaffordable
For example, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) published a report in March 2018 which claimed that schools could not afford the annual pay increase for teachers. The Report claimed that it would not be ‘feasible’ for schools to meet the cost of even a one per
cent pay award, despite 6.4 per cent of schools’ income being held in unspent balances by schools. The EPI Report is highly misleading The percentage of schools with deficit budgets rose by three per cent to ten per cent by March 2017, with a decrease in the average surplus by £11,000 to £131,000 for 90 per cent of schools. However, the EPI Report has drawn the conclusion that over 60 per cent of schools spent more than their income in 2016-17. No wonder the EPI has noted that the figures in their report differ from published statistics on school balances. Most importantly, the EPI Report has ignored the £2.3 billion held in reserves in the academy sector and has drawn its conclusions from research into a tiny fraction of the total 17,922 local authority maintained primary and secondary schools...'

OldBean2
How healthy is your contingency fund and what projects do you plan to spend the money on? Are your current pupils and staff suffering because the school is holding too much money in reserve?

Clavinova, I read your post with interest however whilst some of what you posted is true but most of it is not quite that simple.

There is an expectation that you will carry a contingency fund of at least 5% of your full school budget... and believe me, there will come a time when you will need it. 80% of your budget should go on staffing, however most schools need more than that as we do not get increases in line with salary increases. Next we have reduced numbers of children on Pupil Premium as parent move to Universal Credit, poverty levels stay the same and you can have families were older siblings qualify but younger one do not.

Next if we commission projects to start, we will not necessarily be invoiced within the year, so monies that we have committed end up "sitting" in our contingency fund. Currently we have a dozen projects on the go, from roof replacement to boilers, our fencing must be replaced and more security cameras (we have a drug issue in the surrounding area and they have already captured a million pound drug deal happening). The school is Victorian and maintenance is constant and unrelenting even though we have a great premises manager. Our pipe work is in the final stages of being replaced and I probably know more about Legionnaires than I am comfortable with. This is just a small part of the work we are doing, add onto this everyday costs of stationery, wear and tear to the fabric and contents of the school you get an idea of the juggling act we undertake.

If I relied on the LA I would not be able to tell you what was in the Bank but I have a tenacious Bursar who is across it all. We do not get our year end statement until the end of June, yet are expected to set a budget by half term. I smile when new governors who come from business splutter when we explain how the budgets are made up and that we may end up with other income streams during the year from the LA or from grants that we seek out. School budget are becoming more of an art than a science as we juggle to stretch and spend them to provide the best education or our children.

Lots to think about then. Perhaps parent bodies should make some enquiries at their individual schools though before writing to their MPs or marching - parents at a school in Bromley were recently made aware of an unspent fund of £1.4 million (3 years of voluntary contributions) plus another £1 million from other sources just sitting in the bank.

OK, voluntary contributions are an awkward one, it is probable that they have been given for a specific use ie, if they have been given by a PTA, only the PTA can direct their use... and sometimes what they want to buy does not align with what the school needs. The other route can be legacies which can be a nightmare for an organisation to administer. I have s friend who works in legacy administration and she has had such oddities as funding for Salvation Army ribbons for tambourines... think of someone leaving funding for leather footballs or Latin Primers and you get to understand what the issues might be.

Next, is the contingency, you are required to give your LA an explanation of how you intend to spend your contingency if it is not happy, it can claw back the excess and redistribute. They may well have plans for it. You need to ask for the budget minutes, these meetings take place in May, although budgets should be reviewed termly to check virements and, over and underspends. They should tell you what the plans are for these funds. I would expect this month's minutes to be signed off by the end of term. I hope that is helpful.