The Department for Education’s top civil servant has told MPs the efficiency savings he is demanding from schools are “doable” without increasing class sizes, restricting the curriculum or damaging academic performance.
Jonathan Slater, permanent secretary at the DfE, this afternoon told the Public Accounts Committee that none of its suggestions on how schools save money would have a negative impact on standards, and he did not want schools to reduce their curriculums.
In response, MPs told him schools were already doing this.
“I would not say it’s easy,” Mr Slater said. “I would say it’s doable, because I have seen evidence of schools doing it.
“The advice that we shared with schools back in January 2016 compared them with the 50 most alike schools, bearing in mind their level of attainment and free schools meals, and showed how their costs and performance compared with other schools.”
He also said the department had not lobbied for schools to be exempt from the apprenticeship levy, which, for many, will add to the financial pressures caused by rising pension and national insurance contributions.
Mr Slater said he viewed the levy as an “opportunity” for training in schools, rather than a cut, which MP Caroline Flint described as a “thin” answer.
He noted that a DfE study, due to be published shortly, had found no correlation in the past between efficiency savings made by schools, and their performance.
His appearance followed that of three headteachers, who outlined the effect financial pressure on schools was already having.
Liam Collins, headteacher of Uplands Community College, said the school was being cleaned less often, the grass cut less often, its ICT systems had not been upgraded, and the budget for staff training had been reduced.
He added that the school had cut its pastoral team, at a time when concerns about mental health are increasing, and it now had to ration access it.
Asked if the government understood the pressures on schools, all three headteachers answered “no”.
Kate Davies, headteacher of Darton College, Barnsley, said: “My job is made significantly harder by the fact there is a total lack of understanding, and to allude to the fact that we can make even more efficiency savings is frankly at times quite insulting”.
Committee chairman Meg Hillier ended the session by saying MPs were concerned about the impact the savings being asked of schools would have on pupils in the classroom.
The hearing came on the day the headteachers’ union the NAHT released the results of a survey showing that nearly three-quarters of school leaders believe their budgets will be “unsustainable” by 2019.
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