The prime minister has been warned by school business professionals that at current funding levels it would take more than 400 years to rebuild all schools in the country.
In a letter to Rishi Sunak and education secretary Gillian Keegan, Stephen Morales, who is chief executive of the Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL), and Stephen Lester, its chair of trustees, say that in a world-class education system classrooms would be refurbished “at least every 25 years and buildings scheduled for complete renewal within 75 years”.
They add that current “capital investment levels mean that some schools will need to wait for rebuilding until after the year 2500, some 400 years away”.
The Department for Education responded by saying that capital investment is “just one way” of transforming schools and suggested that a 400-year wait is “misleading”.
The IBSL letter also warns that almost two-thirds of schools are on “borrowed time” financially and urgently need a plan to address funding gaps.
The ISBL letter calls on the government to urgently invest in education beyond “declarations of ad hoc and reactive funding” to address spiralling problems such as escalating costs, the recruitment and retention crisis, special educational needs and disabilities support and the poor state of school buildings.
“The reactive and piecemeal approach to funding announcements means it is increasingly difficult for the sector to keep pace with the changes and the implications for their settings. It’s also hard to establish the baseline to which new allocations will be added,” it adds.
“Even the most experienced trust chief financial officers find themselves running numerous new budget scenarios both in advance of and in the aftermath of announcements, and having to engage in complex reconciliation activity with peers, trustees, governors, government officials and their sector bodies.
“Even then, there remains nervousness about the interpretation of announcements. It should not be this difficult. This can impact the ongoing credibility of executive leaders with their trustees and governors.”
School funding: ‘huge variations and problems’
In the letter, Mr Morales and Mr Lester add that there are “huge variations and problems” in funding allocations that leave schools that have a higher proportion of teacher costs unreasonably disadvantaged.
Schools affected by this are likely to be high-performing and in rural areas, it adds
Unions have told chancellor Jeremy Hunt that schools need £1.7 billion extra school funding a year to recruit and retain enough teachers. And Tes previously reported that some sector experts believe £15 billion is needed to fix school buildings.
And the Institute for Fiscal Studies said last month that the increased costs that schools are facing are causing their budgets to stagnate, despite increased funding.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) said in new guidance earlier this week that academy trusts can set their own appropriate levels of reserves, but the ESFA will be in contact if those reserves drop to less than 5 per cent of their income.
The ISBL letter adds: “The idea that the regulator (ESFA) is now proposing an ‘appropriate’ level of reserves for trusts and schools across the country is naive and financially and operationally unrealistic. There is such uncertainty and a range of challenging cost pressures, not to mention the continued funding disparities outlined above, that to impose such expectations would be both unreasonable and unachievable.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Capital investment in school rebuilding is just one way we are investing in transforming schools, so to suggest that it means some schools will need to wait 400 years for rebuilding is misleading.
“We have also allocated over £15 billion to responsible bodies since 2015 for keeping schools safe and operational, as is their duty. Where there is any indication of safety issues, we will take immediate and swift action to ensure the safety of pupils and school staff - in every case.
“School funding as a whole is rising by £3.9 billion this year compared to 2022-23, reaching the highest level in history - in real terms, per pupil - by 2024-25.”
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