Derbyshire councillor expresses concern for cash-strapped Chesterfield school facing redundancies

Vice chairperson Sharon Davis, of the Governors at Brampton Primary School, on School Board Lane, in Chesterfield, posed the question to Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet member for Education, Cllr Alex Dale, during a Full Council meeting on March 27.

The Conservative-led council has recently agreed to plans to balance its own forecast budget deficit of over £39m for the 2024-25 financial year and it has stated that rising costs faced by children’s services, education as well as adult social care are among its biggest financial concerns but it is lobbying the Government on these issues.

Cllr Dale told Ms Davis: “I am absolutely very clear that the school is in a rock and a hard place situation. Those support staff who are affected by the restructure proposals absolutely have my sympathy and I appreciate it is a very difficult and uncertain time for them, but as governors yourself and as the school leadership team, I also have sympathy for you in having to make these decisions.”

He acknowledged Brampton is a popular school to be celebrated for being so welcoming and inclusive particularly for those with ‘additional needs’ and he is concerned and disappointed that the school is in such a difficult financial situation not through its own making.

The Government allocates money annually for all state-funded mainstream schools, including academies and council-run schools, using a National Funding Formula that it claims ensures funding is fair and reflects pupils’ needs.

However, Ms Davis has expressed concerns about how Brampton Primary can continue to support pupils and safeguard them with reduced staffing levels after she claims it will need to lose 160 teaching hours per week to balance its budget deficit and she complained of a big disparity between funding and real costs.

She outlined two challenges to Cllr Dale during his school visit the day before the council meeting relating to the strain on the limited Special Educational Needs budget together with insufficient funding from the High Needs system for children also on Educational Health and Care Plans which aims to support the disadvantaged.

Ms Davis explained Brampton Primary is facing a budget deficit while nearly a third of its pupils have special educational needs and a significant number of its pupils are eligible to receive pupil premium grant funding for the disadvantaged.

Cllr Dale recognised that schools like Brampton – with special needs children – have to draw on the ‘national SEN budget’ where every school has to contribute the first £6,000 to support the needs of any special needs child and when those numbers are so much higher than the national average that has a much bigger impact on the school budget.

He added: “I absolutely understand that and to that extent I have said it before and I will say it again, I think the school is almost a victim of its own success in being so inclusive, that that really is having a detrimental impact on the school’s finances.”

Cllr Dale also acknowledged that there is insufficient funding from the ‘High Needs Block’ system for those children who are on the EHCPs but he said the council is trying to address issues related to this difficulty so funding can better reflect the needs of a child.

The council receives significantly less money with mainstream school funding compared to other areas like London, according to Cllr Dale, which receives almost double the amount per pupil than the council is awarded.

Cllr Dale added: “It clearly puts additional pressure on school budgets, it puts them under additional strain and actually reduces our ability as a local authority to be able to try and generate contingency pots to be able to support schools who are in exceptional circumstances like Brampton.”

The Government is also strict in asking the council to follow the National Funding Formula in how it distributes funding, according to Cllr Dale, and many of the decisions are not totally the council’s because it has to cooperate with the statutory Schools Forum.

Cllr Dale also said that demand is ‘clearly massively outstripping’ High Needs funding and like many other authorities the council is also facing a budget deficit.

He told Ms Davis: “It is this backdrop that makes decisions around spend in High Needs really challenging and pressurised, but just to try and reassure you to the extent that the council absolutely isn’t taking this lying down, we are playing a very active role in the national lobbying efforts around school funding and SENDs (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) to try and fix these issues.”

The council is campaigning for a review of ‘notional SEN budgets’ in mainstream schools and for an additional £4.6bn of SEND revenue funding for both mainstream school and ‘High Needs’, and for improved SEND training and resources for schools with a greater focus on inclusion so that all schools are supporting children with special needs.

Derbyshire County Council has also been involved in regular MP briefings and has met with Ministers and Shadow Ministers to discuss these issues and it has had two MPs’ letters written to the Chancellor.

After Ms Davis asked Cllr Dale how he would suggest the school continues to support and safeguard pupils with reduced staffing, he said: “I fully understand the situation. It is extremely difficult and you are in an absolutely rock and a hard place situation and regrettably, Brampton, I think, is quite an extreme example, but we are seeing more and more schools in this budget deficit situation and having to make these really difficult redundancies.”

Cllr Dale offered to meet Ms Davis with other governors, the headteacher, senior SEN officers and finance officers to see if there is anything else that might be done to support Brampton Primary School and to see if any solutions could be found.

The council has stated that many local authorities have been left struggling due to reduced Government funding, the financial impact from the Covid-19 pandemic, high inflation rates, rising costs, the cost of living crisis, and a growing demands on services.

Other councils have also blamed the impact of Brexit on trade arrangements and worldwide conflicts in both Ukraine and the Middle East as influential factors upon both Government and Local Government finances.