Unions respond to National Audit Office report on financial sustainability of schools

The National Education Union and the Association of School and College Leaders have responded to a report by the National Audit Office on financial sustainability of schools

Commenting on Financial sustainability of schools in England, a report from the National Audit Office (NAO), Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Schools have been coping in very difficult circumstances, but the NAO report shows all too clearly that this is not a sustainable way forward. Even before meeting the costs of COVID safety with little support from government, schools were struggling to make ends meet with successive real-terms cuts to funding over many years. For sixth form colleges, where funding shortfalls are even more severe, the situation has been truly dire with many closing or merging. 

“The report makes clear the perilous position of school finance at the local authority level. The deficit rose from £11m in 2014-15 to £675m in 2019-20. This forced local authorities to remove services provided to schools, which in turn resulted in further financial pressure on schools. The Department for Education’s initiatives to advise schools on how to make cuts were worse than useless and ignored its very obvious role in creating such a difficult situation. 

“School budgets were often only balanced by cutting staffing, damaging provision to children. The NAO report finds that almost half of primary schools and four-fifths of secondary schools had been forced to cut the number of teachers to balance their books in 2017/18 and 2018/19. These are staggering figures and should act as a wake-up call for a government which throughout this period denied there was any issue with school funding.” 

Commenting on a National Audit Office (NAO) report on the financial sustainability of schools in England, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Schools have worked very hard to manage their finances under extreme pressure because of the government’s woeful underfunding of the education system. This has necessitated making cuts to their provision, and in an increasing number of cases deficits have been unavoidable.

“Since 2020, the government has improved funding to schools, which we very much welcome. However, we are not convinced this will be enough to reverse the damage that has been done, and the financial situation remains extremely challenging.

“The COVID pandemic has heaped more pressure on the sector because of the government’s abject failure to fully support schools and colleges with additional costs incurred such as supply cover for staff absence and the implementation of a host of safety measures.

“It is of paramount importance that the government treats education as an investment rather than a cost and that it improves the level of funding for schools, colleges and young people.”