Find out ‘Who’s Governing’ in the latest issue of Governing Matters
Emma Knights, Chief Executive of the National Governance Association said: “The National Governance Association is deeply concerned about the difficulties governing boards are having balancing school budgets. 72% of governors and trustees told us that funding pressures were having an impact on the quality of education being offered by their school or trust. We do not think that the additional money moved into revenue funding by the Secretary of State for Education will be enough to solve this problem. More than half of secondary school respondents have had to amend their curriculum offer with many reducing the subjects or qualifications taught. Some schools – including primaries – have cut extracurricular activities. Premises expenditure and, very sadly, money for staff professional development are often near the top of the list for cuts. We will be writing again to the Chancellor with these results. Mr Hammond really does need to increase expenditure on schools if governing boards across England are to be able to safeguard our children’s education.”
What governors and trustees say:
On the government action with the greatest impact -
.jpg?width=512&height=500 "2017-tes-survey-(5).jpg")
“Financial cuts. It is profoundly depressing to see brilliant, life-transforming strategies being whittled away; it evokes disgust when this crime is compounded by government steadfastly maintaining that they are putting more money into schools.”
“The reduction in funding to LAs which has seen the collapse of the school improvement section of the LA and the withdrawal of support services.”
On the impact of financial restraints -
“Everything that costs money has been affected, we are relying on staff goodwill which will be stretched in the future and particularly after the low pay increase.”
“Driven stronger financial control and whole school responsibility regarding spending. Been very positive but cannot save any more than we are now.”
On removing national curriculum levels -
“We are now talking about children's learning rather than numerical data”
“This was a diversion from other more useful activities and productive for teaching staff, senior leaders and governors and trustees. It has brought about a period of uncertainty, particularly when coupled with the changes at GCSE and A Level.”