School leaders have warned that their budgets for next year are on a “knife edge” amid rising costs and uncertainty over teacher pay.
The “lack of clarity” over the likely pay award for teachers for next year means heads are struggling to produce “accurate budgeting for next year” - and are worried about balancing the books.
The concerns have been raised amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, which, combined with the financial impact of the Covid pandemic on schools, means heads are facing what the Association of School and College Leaders recently described as a “perfect storm of financial pressures”.
In March, Nadhim Zahawi, who was education secretary at the time, told the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which makes recommendations on teacher pay, that he wanted the starting salary for teachers to reach £30,000 by 2023 in order to recruit and retain more teachers.
Mr Zahawi had asked the STRB to provide its report by May “at the latest”, but it was delayed and is now expected later this month.
School budgets: fears of an unfunded teacher pay rise
Now heads are concerned that Mr Zahawi’s departure from the Department for Education last week has added to the uncertainty over teacher pay.
Simon Kidwell, principal at Hartford Manor Primary School and Nursery, in Cheshire, said his school had only budgeted for a 2 per cent rise in staffing costs “for the current financial year”. The financial year runs from April to April.
Mr Kidwell added that “with rising costs for energy, and other goods and services, our budget is on a knife edge”.
He said that the “current delay” to the STRB announcement was causing “unnecessary uncertainty”.
Soaring energy prices, as well as rising catering and building costs - due to high levels of inflation - and expensive supply teacher bills, caused by high staff absence over the course of this academic year, are some of the other factors that have combined to stretch schools’ budgets. The potential for a high unfunded teacher pay award is adding to that pressure.
Last week the new education secretary, James Cleverly, said that a decision on a pay rise for teachers could still be made under the “caretaker” team at the DfE. Mr Cleverly and his ministers were appointed under Boris Johnson and could lose their jobs in a ministerial reshuffle under the next prime minister.
Mr Cleverly said that if a decision was not made, it could “bind the hands” of the next education secretary, as school leaders would not be able to plan their budgets for next year.
Speaking to Tes about the delay, James Bowen, director of policy at the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: ”Most importantly, it means a lack of clarity around pay for leaders and teachers themselves, but it also creates problems when it comes to accurate budgeting for next year.”
He added that in recent years such delays had “become the norm, rather than the exception”.
“It would be a major problem if the turmoil in Westminster leads to this being delayed beyond the end of term. We are urging the government to make the announcement immediately,” said Mr Bowen.
Rob McDonough, chair of the Confederation of School Trusts and chief executive officer of the East Midlands Education Trust, said he was planning to follow the DfE’s recommended pay rises to the STRB.
He said that if a higher pay rise was awarded and it was fully funded, his trust would welcome this, but if schools were told to find the money from existing budgets, he would be thinking: “Oh, my God.”
He added that in schools the effects of a lack of funding can “at least initially...be hidden” but can be seen in the long term.
“We might have to get rid of a teacher, class sizes start to rise, but heads will try and get on with it. And because of the way we just have to get on with it, I think that cutting school budgets can be an easy thing to do,” Mr McDonough said.
“A significant pay rise for teachers and support staff is excellent - they deserve it. But it needs to be fully funded.”
Last month teaching unions said they would be prepared to ballot for strike action if a significant pay increase was not offered.
