Many school business professionals currently find themselves in an impossible position, trying to balance budgets but knowing the only way to achieve this is by making unpalatable cuts to provision.
The lack of certainty, combined with increasing cost pressures from every direction and an almost daily increase in the scope of responsibility, is making life near impossible for many.
The undeniable truth about the state of funding in the English education system is that the level of resource provided for our schools is no longer sufficient to sustain the expectations of society.
Unpalatable decisions on school funding
Despite the Department for Education’s claims of “more money than ever”, there are more pupils than ever, the escalation in complex needs continues and school provision increasingly encompasses social and psychological care, while school buildings are accumulating a backlog of maintenance, repairs, refurbishment and safety works.
Parents in both maintained schools and academy trusts might reasonably expect for their children, through tax revenues: school buildings that are safe and comfortable to occupy; class sizes that provide for individual attention; staff who are experienced, qualified and motivated; school leaders with the capacity and resource to ensure quality of care, opportunity and learning; and governors who are not beset with impending financial collapse.
It is true that some schools and trusts are better placed to manage this period of economic turbulence, but even the most resilient are now having to make unpalatable decisions about their operating model.
Fundamental inadequacies
For the schools and trusts most exposed to these financial pressures, often not of their making, life is very perilous and perhaps even existential. Auditor reports for the past year signal an increased likelihood of insolvency for highly successful schools. A high proportion of schools are forecasting that they will “be bankrupt” in the next two years, a minority even sooner.
The government repeatedly refers to the extra £2 billion added to schools’ budgets for 2023-24. But much of this money has been spent already on escalating energy bills, unfunded pay increases and other inflationary costs.
The unresolved teacher pay dispute cannot be settled without significant additional cash for schools, but schools will not be able to avoid deficits unless the increases in resource far outstrip this one essential element.
The Institute of School Business Leadership continues to champion DfE benchmarking tools, an embedded approach to integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP), an effective procurement and energy strategy and support in the form of a school resource management adviser (SRMA) visit - but the problem is now much bigger than any of these support mechanisms.
While there is an important conversation to be had about optimal structures and their effectiveness and resilience, no system change - however commendable - can fully address the fundamental funding inadequacies of our system.
Stephen Morales is the CEO of the Institute of School Business Leadership
