Schools across Brighton and Hove are being told to submit monthly accounts during term-time because more than half ended the past financial year in the red.
A report to Brighton and Hove City Council’s Schools Forum meeting yesterday (Monday 23 June) showed a deficit of £2.9 million at the end of the 2024-25 financial year.
Thirty of 55 schools had a deficit, the meeting was told, and monthly reports would better enable the council to meet its financial duties.
The council’s principal accountant for children’s services, Steve Williams, said that some schools were not submitting regular forecasts but the council needed to monitor each school’s financial position to prevent further deficits.
Schools Forum chair Rachel Kershaw said that some had been submitting their financial data late – sometimes by four or five months – making it harder for officials to spot problems when they arose.
Some of the latest schools had the biggest deficits and she said: “We felt the whole process needed tightening up.”
The council’s director of education and learning Georgina Clarke-Green said that the council was in a “critical situation” and monthly reports were a supportive measure – for schools and the local authority.
She said: “We want to be completely on top of what’s going on in terms of schools’ budgets.
“It’s really difficult to monitor and get an accurate picture if we’re having some schools that aren’t returning when they need to and it’s making the whole thing difficult to manage.
“What we found in our monitoring of the budget is there were big swings taking place. That’s a real problem for us because we are making judgment calls on inaccurate information.”
Fairlight Primary School head Damien Jordan said: “This wouldn’t be an issue if there was more money in the pot to start with – or if schools were funded more correctly.
“Some schools are managing their budget but there are schools with deficits who are managing their budget to the best of their ability to meet the needs they have.
“The fact is that there’s not enough money in the first place to meet the need they’ve got.
“There may be a postcode issue in terms of schools that are struggling because deprivation is a huge factor in some cases.”
Mr Jordan, who represents primary school heads at the forum, asked whether it could raise its concerns with the government. He was told that it could.
Submit monthly accounts to the council which
(1) takes more time away from the core task of teaching children and
(2) proves how schools can’t make ends meet on the pittance provided by the council
Yup, that’s going to solve the problem
It certainly makes a more compelling case for why schools can’t make ends meet on the amount given to them, so yeah, it does make some way into solving the problem.
Business Managers have nothing to do with teaching children
Unless schools are operating Scrooge-style ledgers in the Hard Times era of Gradgrind, it surely ought to be possible to use accounting software to produce a real-time snapshot of the accounts at any time and to be able to adjust forecasts promptly and properly.
This relies of course on the timely inputting of information, so just basic diligence, efficiency and conscientiousness with the management of public funds.
I realise that schools, like the rest of us, are being asked to do more with less and too often they can end up relying on a few individuals who go above and beyond. Heads, business managers and chairs of governors are not always as capable at delegating as the ought to be. That, though, is a separate issue from dealing with a rudimentary and fairly sensible accounting requirement.
I quite agree; some nice pieces of software can automatically pull bank accounts and generate reports and trends that are available. Also, they are user-friendly. The design is very human.
To stick with the literary theme, Mr Micawber said, ‘Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.’
It may be easier said than done but it’s also one of the most important tasks for all school leaders.
It’s a pretty important aspect of any organisation that has costs, I agree!
Most of the schools that find themselves in deficit manage their budgets as frugally as possible , you won’t find schools where money has been wasted on such frivolities as books or other learning equipment because there is barely enough to pay enough staff, pay increased energy costs , pay for grounds and building maintenance etc etc .
They are in deficit because their funding is insufficient.
Indeed, and that’s one element of it. The other is the surplus to requirements capacity in Brighton that is only going to become more pronounced over the next decade. Let’s remember that our birth rate in the city is 0.98, well below the replacement level of 2.1.