deficit | Schools Week

How smarter buying can help UK schools make ends meet

UK schools are under financial duress – but digital procurement has the potential to save money, eliminate inefficiencies and give time back to teachers

Hardship funding barely dents school deficits

Analysis of hardship funding shows that the allocation for one county was less than the deficit of just one of its schools

School staff in Devon get £10 each as Covid thank you gesture

A council with a £50 million deficit has given its schools around £65,000 to spend on staff as a “token of appreciation” for their hard work and resilience during the pandemic. Devon County Council (DCC) has awarded its schools £10 per employee to spend “in whatever way they think best to thank teaching and support […]

DfE to target £20m SEND capital funding at councils with ‘safety valve’ bailout deals

Up to £20 million from a £300 million capital fund to provide more school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will be targeted at councils that have agreed to cost-cutting measures in exchange for deficit bailouts. The Department for Education has today re-announced a capital funding injection announced at last year’s […]

DfE shells out £27m to prop up struggling academies

The government handed out nearly £4.5 million to prop up cash-strapped academies run by the failed Schools Company Trust during the year it announced closure. A Schools Week investigation has also uncovered that the new trusts brought in to take over the Schools Company academies will now be saddled with repaying most of the debt. […]

‘Systematic failure’ lifts academy trust’s deficit to £2.4m

An academy trust in charge of schools for excluded and vulnerable pupils unknowingly racked up a £2.4 million deficit because of a “systematic” failure in its financial systems. Annual accounts for 2017-18, published last week, have revealed the full extent of financial mismanagement at the TBAP Multi-Academy Trust. Leaders at the trust, which runs 11 […]

Councils urged to claw back cash as ‘excess’ school surpluses top £500m

Councils are being urged to claw back cash from schools holding “excess” surpluses – as new figures show the total amount stored away by cash-rich schools was nearly £600 million. Department for Education figures published on Thursday show a worsening financial position for council-maintained schools – with more than three in ten secondary schools now […]

Academy trust deficits rise but reserves grow for many

The proportion of academy trusts reporting a financial deficit rose to 6.1 per cent in 2016-17 from 5.5 per cent in 2015-16, new statistics from the Department for Education have revealed. The 185 trusts that were in deficit were responsible for 300 academies (4.3 per cent of the total), and smaller trusts were more likely to find […]

Nine in 10 heads are headed for an ‘unmanageable’ budget deficit

More than 90 per cent of headteachers expect their schools to rack up an unmanageable budget deficit in the near future, a poll has revealed. Twenty-one per cent of the 589 heads who responded to a survey by the school leaders’ union NAHT said their school was already in deficit this year, an increase of […]