Since the close of the Conservative Party Conference, there has been little in the way of funding announcements that could alleviate the pressure on schools. The tri-partite crisis of energy, staffing and inflation costs is a considerable worry for leadership and news of further pressures on budgets will be unwelcome. Though the 45% top rate of tax U-turn has drawn lots of media attention, it’s an earlier climbdown that will have a material effect on school funding.
News that £300 million would have to be clawed back to account for the now axed increase to National Insurance (NI) Contribution is an unwelcome augur of budget cuts. In a letter penned to Ministers Barran and Gullis, Stephen Morales laid out the urgency for the profession stating:
“Many schools we are talking to now have high-performing school business professionals/CFOs, strong governance arrangements, a track record of financial health, and robust financial planning arrangements. It cannot be the case that there is insufficient funding for these schools to remain financially sustainable over the next two to three years without major disruption to curriculum provision.”
Although the axed NI contribution rise may not have an immediate impact on schools, the big BUT, as the IFS’ Luke Sibieta recently put in a tweet, was that .. because extra funding was folded into the National Funding Formula for 2023, DfE will probably need to cut school funding rates for 2023 or somehow find £300m.
To investigate the impact of this latest blow to budgets, we interviewed our colleague Mark O’Brien. Mark is the Chief Operating Officer at Marjory Kinnon School, one of the largest SEND schools in the country serving over 300 pupils. Here’s what Mark had to say.
“The impact of the mid-year reversal of the HSCL NI will not have a material impact on our budget this year. Next year maybe, but budgets for next year are looking so difficult that this is unlikely to make a difference in that year either. As it’s not a straight-line calculation (i.e. the raise was 1.25% but the actual overall hit to the pay bill was slightly under 1% for us) and as the change is mid-year, I’m expecting maybe 0.25-0.50% clawback for this financial year. I know every little helps but with a minimum teacher pay rise of 5% I’m not expecting this to make very much headway towards balancing the budget next year either.”
Despite the axed NI contribution having little immediate effect, it paints a less than optimistic picture of the department’s ability to intervene and offer extra funding to tackle budgetary pressures. We know first-hand that schools and trusts will be pushing their budgets to the limit during the difficult months ahead. We’d welcome a conversation with and amongst colleagues to explore how the profession can best support each other and how we can amplify this through the institute.
In just over 4 weeks, sector leaders and school business professionals will gather for the Institute’s National Conference. This is an important opportunity for the sector to coalesce and take stock in the company of colleagues.
On the 10th and 11th of November, the institute will deliver a peer-curated programme of workshops, seminars, keynotes and discussions aimed at both providing practical solutions to today’s challenges and preparing colleagues for those just over the horizon. Find out more about the fantastic line-up of speakers, including peers like Mark, on our dedicated speaker's page.
We'll cover energy saving and sustainability, recruitment and retention, school improvement and infrastructure development, academisation, catering, budgets, funding, and resource management.
We know that the past couple of years has been an incredibly difficult time for the profession and the wider sector. The National Conference has always celebrated the profession's dedication and this year will be no different.