Energy spend per pupil has been highest for schools in the North East of England in recent years, the region with the highest proportion of disadvantaged pupils, an analysis of school finances has found.
Average annual energy spend in cash terms per secondary student was £104.30 in the North East between 2016 and 2023, the school financial data research by School Dash revealed.
Average energy spend per primary pupil over the same period was £69.20, according to the analysis, around 20 per cent higher than average spend in the South East and West.
The North East has the highest percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals at 30.4 per cent in 2022-23.
At both primary and secondary, London had the second highest average annual energy spend between 2016 and 2023.
Schools’ ‘soaring expenditure’
School Dash calculated average energy spend per pupil across all schools rose in cash terms to £134 in 2023, up from £85 in 2022 and £69 in 2021. For 2023, this came to 2.1 per cent of school budgets on average.
This is nearly a 100 per cent rise - well above inflation.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the “soaring expenditure” on energy bills and school meals shows the financial pressures schools are facing.
He warned the standard measure of inflation used by the government to calculate funding does not provide a realistic picture of these.
Mr Di’Iasio added that schools in more disadvantaged communities need more targeted support in addition to current pupil premium funding to help them cope with financial pressures.
In 2022, some schools saw their energy bills rise by more than 100 per cent, and they continued to see higher prices throughout 2023.
Here are five more findings from the School Dash analysis.
1. Spending on learning resources has increased
School Dash found that average per pupil spend on non-ICT learning resources, such as textbooks, increased to £273 in 2023, compared with £233 in 2022.
This had been declining during the pandemic, reaching a low of £171 in 2021.
Non-ICT learning resources took up 4.4 per cent of the average school budget in 2023, the analysis found - similar to where it was pre-pandemic.
Lagged inflation on prices from school suppliers is still continuing to affect schools this year, the Institute for School Business Leadership (ISBL) previously warned.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has estimated schools will need £700 million more in their budgets for 2024-25 to compensate for expected cost rises.
2. Catering spend increasing
Another non-staff cost that schools have seen increasing is catering supplies, School Dash found. Average per pupil spend on this increased to £185 in 2023, up from £168 in 2022 and £135 in 2021.
Mr Di’Iasio said the figures paint a “bleak picture” of school finances.
“We have long argued that the standard inflation measure does not produce a realistic picture of the financial pressures schools are facing, and this is borne out by these figures showing soaring expenditure on energy bills and school meals,” he added.
The IFS has also previously warned standard measures of inflation were not accurately reflecting the increasing cost pressures on schools.
“The fast increases in staff, energy and catering costs certainly chime with our latest analysis, which shows that school costs have been growing faster than overall inflation in recent years,” said Luke Sibieta, research fellow at the IFS.
3. School in-year balances declining
Median in-year balances per pupil for both primary and secondary schools declined further for 2023, after already decreasing in 2022, School Dash found.
This left the median primary schools with a negative in-year balance per pupil of -£95.
The Kreston UK Academies Benchmark Report 2024, which only considered academy schools, found that 47 per cent of trusts had an in-year deficit for 2022-23 - up from 26 per cent in 2021-22 and 19 per cent the year before that.
“We cannot allow this situation - with so many schools battling on the edge of financial viability - to continue,” said Mr Di’Iasio.
4. Median revenue reserves in more positive position
School Dash further calculated that median revenue reserves per pupil have actually improved in recent years - reaching £801 for 2023 after dropping to a low of £411 in 2020. Founder of School Dash Timo Hannay said this different pattern to in-year balances may be due to variations in capital spend.
DfE minister Baroness Barran told an ISBL conference in November the “vast majority” of schools have seen their reserves increase in recent years.
However, she admitted inflation has “eaten away” at some of the funding increases the Department for Education had hoped to deliver and a “small number” of schools are in financial difficulty.
Analysis by the Education Policy Institute for Tes recently found that there has been a 42 per cent increase from 2022 to 2023 in the number of multi-academy trusts seeing their reserves drop below 5 per cent of their income.
5. Slight decrease in proportion of budget going on staff
The proportion of school expenditure going on staff costs declined from a peak of 80 per cent in 2021 to 77 per cent in 2023, School Dash found.
Kreston accountants also found staff costs as a percentage of total spend had slightly declined for 2022-23 at trust schools.
However, in cash terms, School Dash found spend per pupil on teaching staff across mainstream state schools has continued to increase - hitting an average of £2,997 for 2023.
For primaries, this was £2,724, and for secondary, this was £3,313 - up from £2,070 and £2,839 in 2016 respectively. These correspond to increases of around 32 per cent for primaries and 17 per cent for secondaries.
School revenue funding in England will be £60.7 billion in 2024-25, and how it is distributed via the national funding formula takes into account how a school’s location may affect its running costs, according to the DfE.
It said schools’ energy costs were considered in the technical note on school costs when the DfE calculates the headroom left in school budgets.
For the latest education news and analysis delivered directly to your inbox every weekday morning, sign up to the Tes Daily newsletter
