‘Schools on verge of being unsafe in funding crisis’, headteachers warn

Schools are at breaking point and on the verge of becoming unsafe because they do not have enough money to function properly, London headteachers warned today.

Budgets are so tight that schools are on “starvation rations”, Richard Slade, head of Plumcroft primary school in Greenwich, said, adding: “While we continue to ‘cope’ because we are vocationally driven to do our best for the children in our care, it’s now impossible to deliver what we know our children need.”

It comes after the Evening Standard launched its Step Up initiative, to help the next generation of Londoners deal with the challenges they face, particularly with regard to their education.

School leaders warned they are being hit by a “perfect storm” of costs, including spiralling energy prices, inflation, and an unfunded rise in teacher pay which has to come from their budgets.

Most schools are not permitted to operate a deficit budget so are forced to make cuts to balance the books. Speaking to the Standard, Mr Slade said funding cuts mean “hope, possibility, joy and opportunity” are being wiped out. He said: “I am spending most of my time trying to work out what we have got to cut and what we can stop doing that doesn’t mean I have to shut the school.”

Despite reducing costs and running finances effectively, his school, he added, will have a deficit budget this year of around £154,000.

He said: “We are actually understaffed and everyone is working so hard to keep coping but it’s becoming impossible. We are close to the point where the school will become unsafe, educational standards will fall, pupil and staff well-being is already suffering and will get worse and yet we all try to keep going because that’s what the children and their families need from us. This is simply unacceptable.”

The warning comes after a poll of London headteachers found that half will have to make teachers redundant because of spiralling costs and government underfunding. The poll, carried out by the NAHT, also found that 62 per cent of London heads predicted a deficit this academic year.

Further new data from TeacherTapp found that more than a quarter of London school leaders said they could no longer afford to provide catchup learning, despite 89 per cent of teachers saying their students have gaps in their knowledge as a result of the pandemic.

Zac Rawlinson, head of Year 11 at Featherstone High School in Ealing, said: “We have staff going around the school making sure the lights are switched off when not in use and that there’s no heating on in empty classrooms.”

“It is harder to pay for everything we want to offer, to make sure our staff all get their 5 per cent raise, and to find the additional money to supplement the National Tutoring Programme. We are always looking at the budget to see how we can offer this tutoring support, but if we can’t access other budgets then we will have to look at cutting tutoring. I know that later in the year my colleagues will want exam support for their Year 11 students, and that might have to be the only tutoring support available for them.”

Simon Elliott, CEO of Community Schools Trust, warned that schools in London are facing hard choices. Some are also struggling to find support staff because cost of living concerns are driving them to taking jobs at supermarkets and cafes, which often pay more and had flexible hours.

He said: “Lots of academy trusts and schools will be using up any budget surplus and reserves they have but schools will be getting through that; once it’s gone, you can’t spend it twice.”

He added: “If you look at rising energy costs, most of our schools are locked into forward price contracts but one isn’t. That could be ruinously expensive once the cap on energy bills is lifted. With the teachers’ pay rise, we budgeted for 2.5 per cent but it is a 5 per cent rise and there is no extra money from government to fund that. At the moment we can cope but down the line we’ll have to make some difficult decisions about the curriculum and whether we increase class sizes.”

The Westminster secondary schools improvement collaborative, which represents 12 state schools in Westminster, has written to MPs warning of a funding crisis that will seriously impede schools’ ability to provide for students and their families.

Westminster City School will have to pay an additional £145,000 to fund the teacher pay increase, forcing it to delay essential repairs to the school’s science block.

At The St Marylebone CE School in Westminster, the extra pay for teachers will add £115,000 more than budgeted. Headteacher Kat Pugh said the school will have to strip back curriculum developments, staff development, mental health provision, mentoring and recruitment.