LONDON As the teachers’ pay round looms, a TES survey reveals that nearly half of local authorities in England and Wales expect schools to use their own money to avoid making staff redundant. Clare Dean opens a three-page report.
Teachers’ jobs could be on the line in London as cash-strapped authorities engage in a frantic number-crunching exercise.
Several boroughs, such as Wandsworth and Southwark, have pledged to fund the teachers’ pay rise in full, but the TES survey, which drew responses from 21 of the 33 London education authorities, shows that most are being cautious and fear that job cuts may prove necessary.
Conservative-run Bromley, where 12 out of 17 secondary schools are grant-maintained, expects to lose up to 70 teachers if pay rises by 2.5 per cent. The authority is only budgeting for a 1 per cent increase.
Education director Andrew Baxter said: “Anything much higher than that and we would be in trouble. A 2.5 per cent rise would cost us Pounds 1.5 million and 60-70 jobs.”
Rolls are rising rapidly in Bromley; schools are expecting an extra 320 secondary pupils and 470 primary children in the autumn. Extra cash will be allotted to help schools cope with the influx.
Labour-controlled Havering has warned its headteachers that an inflation-linked salary rise will have to come out of their budgets, making job losses a real possibility.
The outer London borough is expecting rolls to rise by 3 per cent and has appealed to ministers over its standard spending assessment (SSA) which has dropped by Pounds 2 million - a cut of 1.8 per cent - this year.
Education and community services director Colin Hardy said: “We reckon we’ve got the worst deal in outer London. We have lost cash this year because of the ending of recoupment charges for out-of-district pupils (which takes effect from April 1995) even though we are a net importer of pupils.
“We can’t build provision for the pay rise into our budget yet, but we have already warned heads that they will have to absorb the cost of inflation. We are trying to shield them from the worst cuts but overall the council has to save Pounds 17 million.”
Croydon, which only half-funded the pay rise last year, is aiming at a ceiling of 1.5 per cent. Its SSA has increased by 3 per cent, but the lion’s share of the Pounds 3.7 million this has added to its education budget is earmarked to cover rising rolls of about 2 per cent, reduction in Section ll grant and increased nursery places.
Schools in the Labour-run authority are being expected to shoulder the burden of job losses or dip into their reserves.
Education director Paul Benians said: “Schools are carrying forward significant reserves but it would be up to them whether to axe teachers or not.”
Liberal Democrat-controlled Sutton is budgeting for a 2 per cent pay rise and education director Chris Blurton has warned schools that it is “unlikely the education authority will be able to fund the award in total”.
Most London authorities appear to be allowing for a rise of around 2 per cent, but a handful are preparing for more. These include Harrow, Islington, Lewisham and City of London, which claim they can fund an increase of up to 3 per cent. All have rising rolls which will make additional demands on the budgets.
A spokesman for Labour-run Lewisham, which did not fund the 1994-95 pay award at all, said: “We have pledged to ensure that the teachers’ pay rise is funded in full because we can’t afford to let staff levels fall any lower. Teacher-pupil ratios are a sensitive issue.”
The borough expects rolls to rise by between 1.5 and 3 per cent.
The pay award will be announced in February. Last year teachers were awarded a rise of 2.9 per cent.
