Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
17
We asked the Department whether it was aware of the measures schools were taking in...
Conclusion
We asked the Department whether it was aware of the measures schools were taking in response to financial pressures and if they were a cause for concern. The Department told us it had been encouraged that, during the period when school budgets were falling per pupil in real terms, expenditure per pupil on staffing had stayed relatively flat, whereas expenditure per pupil on non-staff areas, such as energy costs, had gone down more significantly. It said that this was what it wanted to see, and that much of the work it had done through the school resource management programme had been about trying to help schools to save money on things like energy bills, procurement and other supplies, in order to release funds to spend in other areas. It told us that it had tried to use benchmarking 32 HC Committee of Public Accounts, Ofsted’s inspection of schools, Sixtieth Report of Session 2017–19, September 2018 33 C&AG’s Report, paras 1.31–1.32, 1.34 34 Qq 93, 120 35 FSE0003 National Education Union submission, page 7 36 FSE0006 National Association of Head Teachers submission, pages 4 37 FSE0002 Mr Robin M Bevan, Headteacher, Southend High School for Boys submission, page 2 12 Financial sustainability of schools in England tools to encourage schools to think about how they could, overall, move expenditure from non-staff to staff because it knew that good-quality teachers were the thing that made the biggest difference to children’s outcomes.38 The ESFA highlighted that it deployed school resource management advisers to help individual schools find efficiencies.39
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
3: PAC conclusion: We are concerned that financial pressures faced by schools could damage children’s education. 3: PAC recommendation: In carrying out its research, the ESFA should collect sufficient reliable evidence on the impact of financial pressures on schools at local level, including on whether they are leading to schools narrowing their curriculum and reducing staffing. The department should set out, in its Treasury Minute response, when it plans to publish the results of ESFA’s research. 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Target implementation date: March 2023 3.2 The department (rather than the ESFA) will commission research on how a sample of schools has experienced and responded to previous financial pressures and on the anticipated impact of the additional funding announced for schools. The sample will be broadly representative of school types (local authority-maintained; Single Academy Trusts; schools in Multi-Academy Trusts); phase (primary/secondary); proportions of disadvantaged pupils and those with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND); and area deprivation. The research is likely to be based on semi-structured interviews with school leaders and school business professionals, which will involve asking objective questions about the anticipated impact of the additional funding announced for schools and whether financial pressures have been experienced, when and in what circumstances, what the effects have been (including whether their curriculum breadth and staffing levels were affected) and how the school sought to manage the pressures. 3.3 The research will take place in schools early in the 2022-23 academic year (ie October-November 2022) with analysis and reporting completed by end-January 2023 and publication expected by end-March 2023. Starting the research earlier would carry a risk that financial pressures associated with current increases in the costs of living would be missed.