Teachers to meet Treasury over budget pressures

Concerned teachers are to meet with a government treasury representative to discuss financial strain on their budgets.

Staff at a number of Coventry schools are experiencing budgetary pressures, particularly where pupil numbers are falling, senior city councillors have heard.

Coventry City Council's cabinet was told an increase in the national funding formula (NFF) for schools this year had equated to a real-time loss, because of inflation and rising wages.

Cabinet member for education and skills councillor Dr Kindy Sandhu, said the meeting had been offered after she and colleagues wrote to Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson.

Finance manager Sarah Kinsell told the meeting on Tuesday the NFF - or system used to allocate core funding to state-run schools - had risen by an average of 2.1% this year, compared to 0.5% in the previous 12 months.

She said: "Although it is a better settlement than we were planning for, schools have said how difficult they are finding it at the moment."

The biggest cost was staff, Kinsell explained. "They are having to think about money when making staffing decisions and not just what is best for the school and pupils."

She added the council would visit schools in the coming months to examine their budgets and see what needed altering to balance their books.

Sandhu told the meeting the cabinet recognised the constraints schools faced.

"They have kindly offered a meeting with Simon Hanson from the Treasury so that we can put forward some of the issues we face in our city. We are just working out the representation from the different schools."

A report presented to councillors put forward concerns from schools around budgets being under significant pressure.

Schools also raised that, since funding was based on the number of pupils, those with falling rolls were likely to see a reduction for 2026/27.

There were also worries in relation to SEND (special educational needs) and challenges associated with an increasing number of children with an EHCP (education, health and care plan).

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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