CAN OUR SCHOOLS MAKE SUMS ADD UP?

Thursday, February 21, 2019 Kentish Gazette (KG) www.kentonline.co.uk

Newsdesk: 01227 475985 ing finance to a head, who as an educator, neither has the time nor expertise to be an accountant.

Thus, it is likely that small single academy trusts will be hit the hardest since they will have the least financial wriggle room.

Schools should be more businesslike but they should never become businesses.

Whilst it is prudent for schools to retain some money for repairs, future projects etc, it may be impossible in some circumstances.

However, excessive surpluses really mean that taxpayers’ money that should be being spent on children, isn’t.

If that school has equipment or teacher shortages, it seems irresponsible and if it is making staff redundant whilst rewarding its head with large pay rises then that is, at least, morally uncomfortable.

However, most schools will be facing difficult choices to make their books balance. It is illegal for schools to set a deficit budget (however, creative budgeting is probably custom and practice) and any budget seeks, at its simplest level, to achieve a balance between money coming in and money going out.

Thus, with less money coming in and/or with costs rising, schools have two obvious routes: increase income and reduce expenditure.

In reality the scope for increasing income is limited but most schools are trying to do this, generally by tapping up their parents. The postcode factor kicks in here as schools in affluent areas will find this lucrative whereas schools in disadvantaged areas won’t.

So, the need to reduce expend- iture is the inevitable reality for most schools.

Cutting back on books, equipment and other resources will make some difference and impacts directly on learning.

Cutting back on maintenance will save something and impacts indirectly upon learning.

But, these things, of themselves, will probably not save enough and the only way schools can save significant money is by cutting staff, since staff costs are about 80% of school spending.

Many schools in Kent have already declared redundancy situations while others have managed staffing levels down.

Ancillary staffing has been reduced with an impact upon service; support staff have been removed or reduced with an impact often upon the most vulnerable children; and teaching staff levels have been reduced with an impact upon learning.

It could be argued that as schools appear to be operating successfully then these reductions have simply ‘cut the fat’ and removed unnecessary posts.

However, I would be reluctant to board a plane that hadn’t had a maintenance check, had only one working jet engine, had an outdated navigation system, hadn’t been cleaned, had only one open toilet, had significantly reduced cabin crew, had no co-pilot and was captained by a trainee just because it had previously successfully made it across the Atlantic.

The curriculum has been reduced, with the axe falling largely upon the creative, imaginative, aesthetic and practical subjects; in secondary school option choices have been restricted (minority subjects, for example, languages have gone) and children are being forced into a one-size-fits-all curriculum; class sizes have increased; staff are more tired and susceptible to illness and absence; support for vulnerable learners has decreased; out-ofhours activities have been dramatically reduced; buildings are in various states of disrepair and purchasing of new equipment and resources has been delayed or abandoned.

So schools continue in spite of, not because of, the changes to funding.

Schools in particular, within the public sector in general, have always had a genuine ethos of community service and operated, certainly on the front line, through a large degree of selfless dedication to others and good will. It is that good will that has kept many schools going.

However, there will come a point when the elasticity of good will may well snap.

So, it is not that schools are not working, it is more that they are not doing all that they want to, or could, do.

In the context of general austerity, with further cuts to support services and a youth service all but decimated, the picture becomes bleaker.

And, one cannot end by saying that the current direction of travel shows little evidence of improvement; indeed, a consequence of Brexit will almost certainly be, in the short term at least, less money across the public sector. As always, most schools will carry on and most children will cope.

The government can be relied upon to spin the big picture favourably using its customary statistical juggling. But nothing will disguise the uncomfortable detail that at the end of this particular food chain are individual children and their families.

The results of cuts across the public sector and reforms in education can be seen not just in the reductions to staffing and service but also in the numbers of children not getting what they need in school and the rising number of children who are out of school.

Whilst the issue of school funding is but one part of a more complex picture, the evidence that some schools are struggling to cope is persuasive; more children are self harming, mental health issues are rising, special needs are not being met, more children are being removed from school and more children and their families are without the support they need.

If I were a parent with a child in, or entering the system, I would be concerned; if I were a parent of a child with special needs I would be very concerned; and although it may not yet be obvious I fear society, and therefore all of us, will pay a heavy price for this in the future.

Thursday, February 21, 2019 Kentish Gazette (KG) www.kentonline.co.uk