HR and Staff Wellbeing

Schools Face Financial Insolvency In Two Years

There’s no doubt about it, the financial situation facing Britain’s academies is a very real concern.

There’s no doubt about it, the financial situation facing Britain’s academies is a very real concern.

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      string(338) "... an even worse state than those of council-run schools with eight out of 10 in deficit, according to this report by Kreston UK, an accountancy network which looked at 450 schools. It claims that two more years like this and the entire sector could face insolvency.
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      string(347) "... than those of council-run schools with eightout of 10 in deficit, according to this report by Kreston UK, an accountancy network whichlooked at 450 schools. It claims that two more years like this and the entire sector could faceinsolvency.The 450 schools analysed in the report are all audited ..."
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      string(357) "Academy budgets are in an even worse state than those of council-run schools with eight out of 10 in deficit, according to this report by Kreston UK, an accountancy network which looked at 450 schools. It claims that two more years like this and the entire sector could face insolvency.
Leadership Briefing (139)"
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      string(5571) "Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.ACADEMIES BENCHMARK REPORT 2018KeywordsAcademiesBenchmarkReport, budgets,schools, assets,buildings,equipment,furniture, multi-academy trusts,staffSummaryAcademy budgets are in an even worse state than those of council-run schools with eightout of 10 in deficit, according to this report by Kreston UK, an accountancy network whichlooked at 450 schools. It claims that two more years like this and the entire sector could faceinsolvency.The 450 schools analysed in the report are all audited by accountancy firms in the network and are arepresentative sample of academies in England.The figures, for the year ending 31 August 2017, show that of these academies: ■ 55% were in deficit before the effect of depreciation of assets like buildings, equipment andfurniture was taken into account. ■ this rose to 80% when the accounts were adjusted to include depreciation.Cash-strapped and failing single academies are sacrificing their independence to join multi-academytrusts (MATs) as an act of survival, and to benefit from economies of scale. Academies are having todo more with less.The survey reveals staff costs rising to as much as 80 per cent of the total costs of an academy, eventhough in many cases all but the most essential staff and teachers have been avulsed from a school,or exchanged for those on lower salaries. Rises in pension costs, national insurance contributions,the national living wage, the apprenticeship levy, and depreciation of the school estate are all cited askey factors contributing to the challenging environment.The report warns that cutting staff numbers and finding enough money for redundancy paymentscould accelerate some schools towards insolvency. The report calls for more money to be put intoschools to avoid staff cuts.With government projections showing overall pupil numbers rising by another 650,000 by 2026, thereport paints a picture of crumbling schools, out-of-date technology and an insufficient number ofteachers. Those schools which are still reporting a surplus, have seen their figures fall.Nearly half of all the academies in the report have shelved maintenance and infrastructure spending,leading the National Audit Office to predict that it will cost a massive £6.7bn to bring all existing schoolsites up to “satisfactory” condition.The survey of more than 750 academy schools responsible for over 420,000 children, highlightsfalling cash and reserve balances, delayed buildings maintenance, and experienced teachers leavingWeek Commencing 26th March 2018https://www.duntop.co.uk/pdf/Academies-Benchmarking-Report-2018.pdfLeadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.the profession.The report warns that in the absence of significant extra public funding, academies will need to makeeven deeper cuts in teacher numbers, impacting on the quality of education and breadth of curriculaon offer. The report claims that teacher recruitment could become a “full blown crisis” if extra fundingis not made available; fewer teachers in the profession will drive up salaries for those who remain,forcing schools to compete for staff in an ever decreasing market, abandoning national pay scales fora bidding war.The report also highlights the dangers facing trustees of insolvent schools where, in such instances,they could find themselves personally liable for school debts.Key Points: ■ The data shows that single academies have seen their funding per pupil fall whilst for MATs ithas increased albeit not from non-education sources. Centralised multi academy trusts (MATs)perform significantly better, typically generating surpluses. They are better able to negotiate MATwide supplier contracts, have greater ability to generate additional income, and appear betterat negotiating settlements from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and from localauthorities ■ 55% of academies recorded a deficit in the last fiscal year ■ Trusts continue to struggle to generate additional income, in part because of a lack of investmentin trusts’ estate facilities ■ As negotiations with ESFA and local authorities take on increased importance, trusts are seekingbetter qualified chief financial officers and with increased salary costs to match. The role of theCFO/Business Manager continues to evolve from pre-academy days ■ Trusts are having to offer teaching posts at more senior levels with greater Teaching and LearningResponsibilities to attract staff. This may leave trusts with a pool of staff that may well be over-qualified for the role and again with salaries to match. ■ Cash balances have increased from the year ended 31 August 2016 levels, whilst free reserveshave fallen. This demonstrates the danger of Trusts using cash as their measure of financialstability. ■ Staff costs have remained steady at 72% of total costs, but there is increasing pressure due to theshortage of teachers and increasing pensions and benefits.WEB LINKAcademies Benchmark Report 2018https://www.duntop.co.uk/pdf/Academies-Benchmarking-Report-2018.pdf"
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Leadership

Academies Benchmark Report 2018

22 Mar 2018

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      string(5672) "rise from 2009 to 2012. However, only ten percent of the schools inspected between January and March 2013 were judged to be ‘outstanding’. The challengeto sustain or attain ‘outstanding’ is a significant one, now enhanced by the new framework under which a schoolcannot be judged as ‘outstanding’ for overall effectiveness unless the quality of teaching is also ‘outstanding’.The increase in pupil premium funding is matched by increased accountability for impact. Ofsted inspectionteams, when making judgements about ‘Achievement’ and ‘Quality of leadership and management’, willrigorously examine how well ‘pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium have achieved since joining theschool’, looking at how schools have used the pupil premium and other resources to overcome barriers tolearning and achievement.The opportunity to recognise the development of leadership that secures impact, and to note school-to-schoolsupport is specifically written into the evaluation schedule – one criterion for the evaluation of leadership andmanagement being: ‘the extent to which leadership is able to contribute towards school improvement in thelocal or wider area, such as through system leadership, by working in partnership or by sharing of advanced skillspractitioners, mentoring or shadowing opportunities for new middle leaders, sharing best practice or offeringother support and challenge on self-evaluation.’So the new framework is designed to:Promote an ambition to excel whereby leaders, staff and pupils continually seek to improve.Secure high expectations for all pupils – progress, achievement, attitudes and engagement.Rigorously pursue unequivocally high standards for teaching and learning, reinforcing the inextricable linkbetween teaching and achievement.Give increased emphasis and value to the quality, development and impact of leaders, in their own school and inwider contexts.Establish continual improvements over time, so that schools achieve or sustain high standards in all aspects oftheir work.OutcomesTherefore:Inspectors will look for the ways in which leaders at all levels demonstrate and secure a drive to be even better,that is evident in all aspects of the work of the school.Pupils need to demonstrate positive attitudes towards and responsibility for learning, reflected in an■■■■■■■■■■‘…only a good school is good enough.’Ofsted Framework for School InspectionSeptember 201314Vol 5.3School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comSpecial BriefingOfstedGuide understanding of what they have achieved, what they need to improve and how they will achieve this.Teachers should pursue the achievement of high expectations, skilfully assessing pupil needs to accurately adjusttheir teaching to secure good progress for all, in lessons and over time.Leaders at all levels should embody a passion for excellence and drive to secure improvement, demonstratingincisive self-evaluation, and developing or refining the skills by which to achieve school improvements.Governors need an evidence-based understanding of school strengths, improvements, and the impact of bothspecific funding and their own actions.KEY THEME FOR LEADERS: High expectations and evidence of improvementHow are we even better?JudgementsThe four principal judgements remain the same:the achievement of pupils at the schoolthe quality of teaching in the schoolthe behaviour and safety of pupils at the schoolthe quality of leadership in and management of the school.‘Limiting’ judgements to note:A school cannot be judged to have ‘outstanding’ overall effectiveness unless the quality of teaching is also‘outstanding’ .If there are overall weaknesses in the provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMSC)this leads to a judgement of ‘requiring improvement’.If SMSC is judged to be ‘inadequate’, this leads to a judgement of ‘inadequate overall effectiveness’ .If pupils’ progress in literacy is judged to be ‘inadequate’, this leads to a judgement of ‘Inadequate overalleffectiveness’.Finance linked aspectsGovernors retain accountability for ensuring solvency and probity and that the financial resources made available tothe school are managed effectively. Specific attention is to be given to:Performance management – the robustness of performance management arrangements, and consideration ofwhether there is an appropriate correlation between the quality of teaching in a school and the salary progressionof the school’s teachers.Pupil Premium – the use of the pupil premium and other resources to overcome barriers to learning, includingreading, writing and mathematics.Sport funding – how well the school uses the new primary school sport funding to improve the quality andbreadth of PE and sport provision.Key Judgement Grades Outcome ConsequenceA grade 2 (‘good’) in the ‘Quality ofTeaching’This is a limiting judgement,affecting overall effectiveness.A school cannot be judged‘outstanding’ in overalleffectiveness.A grade 3 (‘requires improvement’) inany key judgement(and /or there are overall weaknessesin SMSC provision)‘Requiring improvement’Re-inspection within two years, plusHMI monitoring visits.A grade 3, with 3 for ‘Quality ofLeadership and Management’‘Requiring improvement’– Leadership has the capacityto improve but requiresguidance.As above, plus:support from HMI within sixto eight weeks of getting thereportwhere governance is weak, therequirement for a review ofgovernancewhere the school is not meetingthe needs of"
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Leadership

Ofsted Leadership Guide 2013

25 Oct 2013

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      string(5765) "46Vol 5.2School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPolicyFundingreformFair funding –In sight at last?The government has recently emphasised its commitment to anequitable national funding formula applicable to all schools, butis the ‘Promised Land’ of fair funding really as close as they’dhave us believe? Peter Downes isn’t so sure.47Vol 5.2School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPolicyFundingreformThe government’s recent announcements on the reform of school funding haveconfirmed their intention to move towards a fairer national funding formula,possibly from 2015-16. This is welcome news, especially for those in the lowestfunded Local Authorities and for headteachers who have been campaigningfruitlessly for many years to address the issue of unfairness in the distribution ofresources.But why are we in this present position? And what are the key issues as we move,tentatively, towards the Promised Land of Fair Funding?The days of LEA controlIt is scarcely believable that not all that long ago, governors and heads had no ideahow much money was available for their school. The Local Education Authority (LEA)decided how much would be spent, allocated a certain number of staff – teachers(including how many special responsibility points couldbe allocated) and ‘non-teachers’, (as they were then ratherdismissively termed) – carried out all the maintenance, andhandled all the accounting (except for the ‘school fund’, builtup from school fêtes and sundry parental contributions). Thetotal amount of money allocated to education was decided bythe local council (75 per cent) and therefore subject to localpolitical priorities, supplemented with a Revenue SupportGrant allocation from central government, the rationale forwhich was opaque.Those were the days of real LEA ‘control’. The powers oflocal authorities today are relatively limited. It seems strangethat academies have been created so that schools can ‘be freefrom the bureaucratic control of the local authority’ when LAsreally have very little control nowadays anyway.With no responsibility for funding and the decisionsarising from that, what did heads and governors actuallydo? The governors met far less often and had fewer, if any,sub-committees. They were involved in staff appointments,usually at senior level only, and turned up loyally at schoolevents. They were there to support the head and the schoolin a very general sense. Without the burden of financialresponsibility, heads continued to be teachers, at least part-time, and, together with their heads of department, theydecided what the school curriculum would be and how thepupils would be grouped and taught.Significant changes began in the early 1980s. Variousschemes for giving schools greater financial freedomemerged. The most ambitious was Cambridgeshire’s LocalFinancial Management (LFM) scheme. Jointly promoted byConservative and Liberal councillors, LFM gave a school, as alump sum, what the LEA calculated would have been spenton them by the LEA. The rationale was that this would leadto better use of resources and free up schools to show moreinitiative and flexibility. A pilot scheme in seven schoolslasted four years (yes, that is not a misprint, four years!) andreceived such a positive evaluation from external scrutinythat it attracted the attention of government ministers andwas eventually adopted as part of the Education Reform Actin 1988.48Vol 5.2School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPolicyFundingreform Growing disparityLocal Management of Schools (LMS), as it came to be called, became the nationalpattern for school funding. It was broadly welcomed, but unintended consequencessoon emerged:a. The government realised that it had lost the financial clout to influence whathappened in schools, so it set up a system of grants called the Standards Fund. Thisbecame increasingly complex (at one point there were 72 different grants for whichschools could apply, usually having to find matched funding).b. Schools and professional associations became much more aware of the disparityof funding between schools in similar socio-economic settings. In 1993, a smallsecondary school in South Cambridgeshire so close to the Hertfordshire boundarythat it had a Hertfordshire postal address, would have received £300,000 more if ithad been funded by Hertfordshire rather than by Cambridgeshire.This disparity of funding had not mattered in the past, but the other changes takingplace after the 1988 Act (national curriculum, national inspections, national testing andlater, the publication of national league tables) meant that schools were being judgedagainst national criteria but funded on earlier local decisions. The Secondary HeadsAssociation, among others, started campaigning for fairer funding, but their effortswere dismissed by the Conservative government of the day. We were congratulated onthe clarity and logic of our argument but then reminded that ‘a little obfuscation assiststhe political process’.The Labour government from 1997 was lobbied to address the issue and did so in2000 by setting up an Education Funding Strategy Group (EFSG). The EFSG had widerepresentation from the professional associations, governors, local authorities andacademics and met for nearly two years, commissioning an in-depth analysis of allthe issues. The main thrust of its findings was that schools should be funded througha national formula based on the activities that schools were required to carry outand on the needs of the pupils in the schools, based on a range of socio-economicand"
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Leadership

Fair funding - in sight at last?

11 Jul 2013

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      string(4911) "Three quarters of respondents gave a negative verdict on the government’s performance in education over the past year, with 38% of respondents saying they find it difficult to get good candidates for headteacher positions and 48% saying their school finds it difficult to recruit to teaching posts. Two-thirds of secondaries are struggling to recruit maths teachers, according to worrying new evidence on the extent of the recruitment crisis. Only funding eclipses teacher recruitment as the most important issue facing schools,. It also found that more than half (51 per cent) of secondary school governors have difficulties recruiting physics teachers and 40 per cent say the same for chemistry. Almost half of governors and trustees said that their school provides additional services for families in need, including washing school uniforms, meals outside of term time, food banks and emergency loans. 38% are providing financial support with purchasing school uniforms. The report also reveals important trends about who is governing in state-funded schools and the sustainability of the role. Key Findings: Three quarters of governors and trustees have a negative view of the government’s performance in education over the past year, with those governing calling for more funding and more stability in education policy. Funding is the biggest issue for governing boards, especially being felt in secondary schools, sixth forms and in early years. Just one in five are confident that they can manage budget constraints without compromising the quality of education. Indeed, only half of respondents said that they were balancing income and expenditure with almost a third drawing on reserves. 75% of those drawing on reserves said these would be exhausted within two years. High needs funding is a big concern, with 74% of respondents saying they disagree that current funding is sufficient; secondary schools especially are reporting being particularly badly hit. Diversity on governing boards is a major concern, including when it comes to who is elected chair, and not enough boards are actively considering the issue. Almost half of schools covered by the survey are providing additional services for families in need, including washing school uniforms, meals outside of term time, food banks and emergency loans. 38% of schools are providing financial support with purchasing school uniforms. This follows NGA’s Spotlight on Disadvantage research report, released in June 2018, finding that 46% still allocated funds above and beyond the pupil premium for disadvantaged pupils in their school. Volunteering to govern a school or group of schools is a form of professional development, yet the majority of governors and trustees are not getting paid time off work for governance. The time commitment involved in governing roles is a potential barrier to some volunteers taking on or continuing governance roles, particularly when it comes to stepping up to chair. Despite a trend towards smaller governing boards, recruiting volunteers to govern schools remains challenging with the number reporting two or more vacancies rising to 38% in 2018. It is concerning that despite the prominence of the need for effective clerking rising in recent years, 9% of respondents still either did not have – or did not know if they had – a clerk who could provide the board with advice on governance, constitutional and procedural matters. Staff recruitment is particularly challenging in regions surrounding London and in schools with lower Ofsted grades; many secondary schools are struggling to recruit teachers to core subjects. Only a little over a third of standalone schools are currently considering or in the process of forming or joining a multi-academy trust or federation, meaning that, in the absence of any clear direction from central government, maintained schools are likely to make up a substantial proportion of the schools sector for the foreseeable future. The majority of multi-academy trusts delegate significant responsibilities to their academy committees; this finding appears to contradict other reports in the sector that local governance is increasingly being overlooked by MATs. Most multi-academy trusts have overlap between people involved in different layers of governance, which poses a risk to effective governance as individuals are effectively responsible for holding themselves to account. WEB LINK School Governance In 2018Keywords School governance, trustees, funding, staff recruitment, performance, teachers, state-funded schools, professional development "
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        string(10) "Leadership"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Governance

School Governance In 2018

26 Sep 2018