Ahead of the government’s Autumn Statement on November 17, managers are telling local MPs and councilors of their struggles to adjust their budgets to cover unexpected costs of hundreds of thousands of pounds in higher wages and bills. The Westminster Secondary School Improvement Partnership – which represents 12 state schools in the London Borough of Westminster – wrote to MPs warning of “a financial crisis which will seriously hamper our ability to provide for our pupils and families their”. School leaders say the highest staff pay rise ever announced by the Department for Education (DfE) alone is costing one Westminster City school an extra £145,000 from its budget for this year, forcing it to delay essential repairs to science department of the school. The schools group said areas such as mental health support for pupils as well as extracurricular activities such as clubs and trips, careers advice and extra help for struggling pupils “will be reduced or cut completely as a result of reduced funding”. Kat Pugh, the headteacher at St Marylebone Church of England school who signed the letter, said her school had budgeted for extra mental health counseling and guidance for pupils. “But now we can’t do that. We can’t afford it,” he said. “It would be great to have more advice, it would be great for students to have more careers advice. But we have to keep it to a minimum.” Meanwhile, MPs in Worcestershire have been warned by a consortium of 32 schools in the county that they are facing staff cuts, reduced spending on maintenance and budget shortfalls. The letter from the Worcestershire Association of Secondary Headteachers is asking MPs for “an immediate increase in school funding to cover unfunded extra staff costs”, as well as a commitment that future pay rises will be fully funded and a plan to compensate schools for higher energy bills of the year. Schools are operating on budgets set before the sudden rise in energy costs and the DfE’s late decision to increase teacher pay by around 5% instead of the previously announced 3%. Bryn Thomas, headteacher of Wolverley C of E High School near Kidderminster, said his school had an annual budget of around £6m, of which just over £5m was allocated to staff. “Of the £900,000 left to run the school, I need to find £150,000 to £200,000 [for higher pay]And on top of that the energy bills go up and we have to pay for inflation on everything else,” Thomas said. “We’re not just going to not buy any new books. There just isn’t enough money.” Thomas said despite funding pressure, pay needed to improve to stop teachers leaving the profession. He said some teachers took second jobs as pizza deliverymen to make ends meet. The DfE said schools in England are being supported with an extra £4bn this year, taking core funding to £53.8bn. He said all schools would benefit from the government’s energy relief scheme, reducing the amount they need to spend on energy and giving them more certainty. However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has predicted that the government will fall short of its promise to increase spending on schools to 2010 levels – with spending now expected to be lower in real terms by 2024.
