6
Accepted
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the school system but data are...
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the school system but data are not yet available to indicate how schools’ financial health has been affected.11 The Department is providing extra funding to help schools cover costs relating to COVID-19, mostly for catch-up learning, but does not know the extent to which this covers cost pressures.12 We noted in October 2021 that the funding being provided to help children and young people catch up on learning lost due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic falls well short of the £15 billion that the Government’s own Education Recovery Commissioner recommended.13 The Department acknowledged that schools would also now be facing rising energy costs, but said that it expected these would comfortably be covered by the planned increases in funding.14 Financial health of maintained schools
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's observation and commits to commissioning research by March 2023. This research, based on interviews in October-November 2022, will explore how a sample of schools experienced financial pressures and the anticipated impact of additional funding.
Government Response
Accepted
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Target implementation date: March 2023 3.2 The department (rather than the ESFA) will commission research on how a sample of schools has experienced and responded to previous financial pressures and on the anticipated impact of the additional funding announced for schools. The sample will be broadly representative of school types (local authority-maintained; Single Academy Trusts; schools in Multi-Academy Trusts); phase (primary/secondary); proportions of disadvantaged pupils and those with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND); and area deprivation. The research is likely to be based on semi-structured interviews with school leaders and school business professionals, which will involve asking objective questions about the anticipated impact of the additional funding announced for schools and whether financial pressures have been experienced, when and in what circumstances, what the effects have been (including whether their curriculum breadth and staffing levels were affected) and how the school sought to manage the pressures. 3.3 The research will take place in schools early in the 2022-23 academic year (ie October-November 2022) with analysis and reporting completed by end-January 2023 and publication expected by end-March 2023. Starting the research earlier would carry a risk that financial pressures associated with current increases in the costs of living would be missed.
Source
Committee
Public Accounts Committee
Report
Forty-Second Report - Financial sustainability of schools in England
04 Mar 2022
HC 650
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age
4.4 yrs
Report published
04 Mar 2022