The NAHT headteachers’ union is calling on MPs to join parents and teachers in raising the issue of the crisis facing schools before it is too late, amid reports that schools are already struggling to cope.
In one case, playing fields are falling into disrepair because the school cannot afford to get the grass cut. Another school is considering laying off virtually all its teaching assistants, and one headteacher is having to double up as the school caretaker.
The examples are provided in a briefing accompanying a letter being sent to MPs today from Paul Whiteman, NAHT’s general secretary, warning: “School budgets are at breaking point, putting standards at risk.”
It states that “£2.8bn has been cut from school budgets since 2015” and the majority of NAHT members “expect their budgets to be untenable by 2019”.
The letter adds “I’d be very surprised indeed if you hadn’t heard from a headteacher or a parent expressing concerns about school funding over the last few months.”
MPs are urged to speak to their local schools to find out how they are being affected, meet constituents who are concerned about education funding, and to write to the chancellor to demand more money for schools.
The letter says: “The importance of giving all young people a high-quality education is a mission that unites politicians, parents, governors, teachers and school leaders.”
The NAHT’s plea for politicians to act comes amid mounting anger over the shortfall in education funding in real terms, once factors such as inflation have been accounted for.
Earlier this month, the NAHT warned chancellor Philip Hammond that schools will need at least an additional £2billion a year to retain the same level of funding in real terms as they received in 2015-16.
A new briefing accompanying the letter to MPs outlines the key reasons for schools budgets being at breaking point.
Cuts of £600m to the Education Services Grant, which was used to fund things such as HR and facilities management, mean that the cost “has been shifted to individual schools and academies, putting further pressure on school budgets,” according to the briefing.
It also cites the cost of annual pay awards, which have been “unfunded in school budgets”, an increase in the cost of national insurance and pensions contributions. In addition, the apprenticeship levy which came into force this year will result in “nearly all maintained schools and most academies will have to pay an extra 0.5 per cent on their payroll costs”.
The briefing features a number of headteachers speaking out over the financial plight of their schools.
One secondary school leader from East Sussex said: “Our playing fields are now unsuitable for sport. I cannot afford to get the grass cut regularly.” They added: “The school has had to start using primary school furniture in order to fit more pupils into fewer classrooms because some areas of the school are not fit to use and there is no money to pay for repairs.”
A primary school headteacher from Manchester said: “Looking to the future, we would have to make all of our teaching assistants redundant, other than those that are funded for high needs children on Educational Healthcare Plans.”
One school leader in Carlisle revealed: “My own children go to the school where I’m the head. I was faced with a situation where I had to make the teaching assistant in my own son’s class redundant because of the cuts to my budget. At the end of last year, I had to let the caretaker go. Now I do his job as well as my own. I came in over the summer holidays to repaint the classrooms myself.”
A headteacher of a primary school in Stockport said: “We are losing over 30 per cent of our Newly Qualified Teachers within five years of starting. We have had a turnover of 50 per cent of our headteachers in Stockport in the same timescale. We are in crisis now. We need financial support now.”
