Schools are having to cut teacher numbers and teaching hours owing to the impact of rising energy bills, research by a headteachers’ union has found.
A survey, by the NAHT school leaders’ union, of more than 1,000 school leaders found that 15 per cent of respondents were reducing the number of teachers or teaching hours to deal with rising prices.
The poll, which was conducted between 21 March and 5 April, found that 99 per cent of leaders thought their school’s energy bills would increase over the next 12 months.
On average, the union said headteachers were anticipating a 106 per cent increase in energy costs, with 16 per cent expecting an increase of 200 per cent or more.
And the survey found that more than a third (37 per cent) were projecting a deficit budget - where costs are higher than incoming money - by the end of next year, as a direct result of increased energy costs.
The top three actions that headteachers said they would take as a result of the rising costs were reducing energy consumption (64 per cent), reducing investment in equipment for the school (54 per cent), and reducing maintenance and/or capital spending (53 per cent).
Other responses included reducing investment in professional development (46 per cent), reducing the number of teaching assistants (40 per cent) and reducing the number of teachers (15 per cent).
Paul Whiteman, general secretary for the union, said members had been saying that rising bills would “almost certainly have a negative impact” on education, and “could hamper their recovery efforts”.
He said: “For some, the energy price hikes are the equivalent to the cost of a full-time teacher. Every penny spent in schools is a choice. These increased energy costs mean that money which could be being spent on pupils is being paid to energy companies instead.
“The government’s attempt to restore school spending to 2010 levels is being rapidly eroded by these and other cost pressures. The government needs to do more to ease the impact of the energy crisis on schools, for children’s sake.”
Tes reported in January that schools were facing the prospect of cutting teacher numbers owing to rising bills.
Earlier this month, Stephen Morales, chief executive of the Institute of School Business Leadership, told Tes that financial pressures facing schools this spring were going to constrain their ability “to tackle the widening attainment gap”.
In March, the wholesale element of a typical three-year fixed deal for schools had risen to nearly 270 per cent higher for gas and 200 per cent higher for electricity on figures from a year ago.
The Department for Education has previously told Tes that, in 2022-23, core schools’ funding will increase by £4 billion compared with 2021-22 - giving a 5 per cent real-terms per-pupil boost - and this will help schools to meet wider cost pressures.
Some doubt has been cast over the likelihood of this, however, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies projecting that spending per pupil in 2024 will be at about the same level as in 2010, as it fell by 9 per cent in real terms between 2009-10 and 2019-20.
