Labour backs down on raiding school budgets
The Government has thankfully backed down over plans to raid school budget reserves. As David Laws says “This daft idea should never have seen the light of day.”
It was always hypocritical for Labour ministers on the one hand to talk about empowering schools and on the other try to take back delegated budgets when they don’t approve of how schools use it. I should declare an interest as a former chair of finance at EGA (Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, a girls’ secondary school near Kings Cross). Schools aren’t businesses. A very high proportion of school budgets is tied up in staffing costs which cannot be changed in-year. Or is the Government really suggesting that sacking teachers is better than running reserves?
Schools have virtually no revenue generating ability; therefore budget flexibility is minimal without reserves. In my time at EGA we had to contend with heating failures, unexpected IT overspends and a window falling out of one block - all of which needed extra money to be found. If schools do not have reserves, then the LEA (local education authority) has to bail them out. And that’s without the additional revenue contribution schools will have to make to pay for new PFI buildings in the future.
There is a case for LEAs seeking to get agreement between schools on relative budget allocations, taking reserves into account. Oh, hang on, that’s what schools forums are for. Perhaps no-one had told Jim Knight about them. He’s only been the Education Minister since May 2006 and I’m sure there’s a lot to learn.
If the Government is worried about schools in better-off LEAs hoarding reserves, then why not direct more money to poorer communities in the first place. Pupil premium, anyone?
