School leaders in Wales are calling for the fair funding of schools as they claim education “continues to suffer from a funding crisis” - which is being exacerbated by the impact of Covid-19 on staff absence.
Today, delegates from the NAHT school leaders’ union are gathering at the association’s national annual conference in Telford.
Over the course of the coming days, they will hear that the system for funding Welsh schools is flawed and that “a fit-for-purpose formula” needs to be introduced “to ensure transparency and equity for all”.
NAHT Cymru also says the situation has been made worse by the pandemic and that, in particular, school leaders are fearful “existing budgets are going to be swallowed up by supply fees”, as the cost of covering for absent staff spirals “into the tens of thousands of pounds”.
Over the coming days the school leaders will also be asked to back motions calling for:
- Teacher pay awards to be fully funded instead of the financial burden sometimes being passed on to schools
- Greater “clarity and clear expectations” on the introduction of the new Curriculum for Wales, which is due to be introduced from September
- More support delivering the ongoing additional learning needs reform, including “significant investment in training”
- Sustainable funding for small and rural schools.
NAHT Cymru is using the results of a members’ survey published today to support its claims that the government needs to take more action on school funding.
In the 20 school days between 28 February and 25 March, the body surveyed its members and found that primary schools had 13 staff a day off with a Covid-related absence: four teachers, six teaching assistants and three other staff.
The average daily cost to cover a teacher is £169 and teaching-assistant cover costs £78, while other staff cover can be in the region of £50 per day.
According to NAHT Cymru director Laura Doel, “schools simply cannot sustain this financial burden from existing budgets”.
She said: “At best, schools have insurance that could possibly cover long-term staff absence, but many schools’ policies don’t kick in until after five or 10 days or only cover teachers and not other staff, even those schools will still have to pick up the significant short-term costs.
Ms Doel added: “School leaders are having to step back into the classroom to cover classes in a bid to save money. Even if the schools had the money, they are struggling to find supply cover.”
“What we want to see is more than recognition from the Welsh government, local authorities, consortia and [inspection body] Estyn that Covid continues to have a real impact on schools.
“We want to see more action being taken to ease the pressure. There is no way schools can be expected to operate as ‘normal’ and keep up with the ambitious education reform agenda when many are still operating in crisis mode.”
A Welsh government spokesperson said: “We know that some schools have been operating under staffing pressures, and we have worked with local authorities and supply agencies to help alleviate some of these staffing pressures.
“We have also extended our scheme to place newly-qualified teachers into paid posts in schools for another term. This scheme was introduced in the autumn and has not only helped to create extra capacity in schools but also enabled those at the very start of their teaching careers to gain valuable experience.”
The spokesperson added: “We have provided a total of £128 million to the Recruit, Recover, Raise Standards programme in 2020-21 and 2021-22 to fund additional teachers and other school staff.”
NAHT’s annual conference in Telford can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/NAHTnews/
