Schools face huge redundancies

Schools face thousands of redundancies this year, among both teachers and support staff, according to a survey of their budgets.

Most of the money, head teachers say, has been eaten up by increases in pay, particularly in London schools, which have a high percentage of young teachers.

They have benefited most from pay increases, intended to deal with the long-term crisis in teacher recruitment and retention.

The survey, carried out by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) ahead of its annual conference starting today in Torquay, suggests half of the capital's schools will see job losses this autumn.

NAHT general secretary David Hart said the findings increased pressure on Education Secretary Estelle Morris, who is bidding for a substantial boost in education funding in this summer's spending review.

Hopes have centred on the summer review after education lost out to health in the Budget.

The survey is based on the budgets of nearly 1,400 schools throughout England in this financial year, including 140 in London.

Only 30 per cent said their budgets covered rising costs, with the biggest extra burden generated by this year's teachers' pay increase. The basic 3.5 per cent rise cost some schools as much as eight per cent more, the NAHT said, because of reforms that push teachers more quickly up the pay scale. That dwarfs the 5.7 per cent extra the Government made available to education authorities to pay for all school spending.

Seven per cent of schools in the survey said their budgets would allow for "real-term growth" this year, while 45 per cent said they expected to make cuts in staffing.

More than 600 schools said they expected to have to make job cuts, totalling more than 600 staff, split roughly equally between teachers and support staff.

More than 60 out of the 140 London schools predicted job losses, suggesting staff could go from around half the capital's schools.

Mr Hart said London schools could lose out more next year because of plans to reform local government funding, which could see spending rise in the regions at the capital's expense.

The Chancellor's money - an extra £70,000 for a typical secondary school - was almost all being swallowed up by pay, Mr Hart said.