More secondary schools in the red
EDUCATION: More than one in four council-run secondary schools in England are in the red with Yorkshire one of the worst hit areas, research suggests.
The proportion of secondaries with no money in the bank has almost doubled since 2010/2011, research published by Reform concludes and the average deficit is growing.
MORE THAN one in four councilrun secondary schools in England are in the red with Yorkshire one of the worst-hit areas, new research suggests.
The proportion of secondaries with no money in the bank has almost doubled since 2010/11, research published by Reform concludes. It suggests that the average deficit among these schools is growing, and stands at more than half a million pounds.
But the think tank also concludes that around a third of secondaries have an “excessive surplus”.
Ministers have announced plans to increase state school spending in England by £7.1bn by 2022/23.
Reform analysed official government figures on spending in local authority-run schools in England for 2018/19. It concludes 28.3 per cent of secondary schools were in revenue deficit, which the think-tank says means they have no money in the bank. This proportion has risen by 13.7 percentage points since 2010/11 and it’s estimated that the average revenue deficit in these secondary schools is around £570,000.
Around one in four secondary schools are run by their local council. The rest are other types of state secondary, such as academies which are not included in the research.
The research also says that almost one in 12 of council-run primary schools in England are in the red, with an average revenue deficit of around £56,000.
The proportion of primaries in deficit has risen by 2.1 percentage points since 2010/11, it adds.
Reform’s paper says that the figures show “a growing fragility in schools’ bank accounts”.
“For secondary maintained schools in particular, as per-pupil spending has decreased over the past decade, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of schools in revenue deficit,” it says.
Yorkshire and the Humber, and the South-West of England have the largest proportion of secondary schools operating with a revenue deficit (38 per cent in both), while the East Midlands is the lowest at 21 per cent.
The analysis also concludes that in 2018/19, 70 per cent of secondaries and 90 per cent of primaries reported a surplus. Of these, 36 per cent of secondaries
A significant increase in the proportion of schools in revenue deficit
One of the conclusions of s study by the think-tank Reform
and 42 per cent of primaries had “excessive surpluses”.
An “excessive surplus” is defined as a revenue balance five percent above income for secondary schools and eight per cent above income for other types of schools, Reform said.
The think tank puts forward three suggestions for addressing school funding.
They include: targeting additional funding at schools in financial difficulty; urging the Department for Education (DfE) to explore the characteristics that make it more likely a school will be in the red; and for the Department to assess schools in excessive surplus to see if the financial decisions these schools have made can be replicated across the country.
Report author Dr Luke Heselwood said: “Extra cash for schools is welcome, but it must be well spent.”
The Government has said that next year (2020/21) secondary schools will receive a minimum of £5,000 per pupil and in 2021/22 primaries will get a minimum of £4,000 per pupil. The move to boost funding, announced by the Prime Minister in August, came after years of lobbying by heads and teachers for more cash.
A DfE spokeswoman said: “This Government has announced the biggest funding boost for schools in a decade, giving every school more money for every child.”