9:40am Monday 6th July 2009
By Bill Tanner
HEREFORDSHIRE’S smallest schools face a fresh fight for survival little more than a year after plans to shut them down put hundreds of protesters on the street.
Herefordshire Council still says falling rolls and funding leave little alternative to scrapping protective funding for small schools so they don’t run at the expense of larger ones, but this time has the evidence of an independent consultant’s report.
Much now depends on what Herefordshire Schools Forum makes of the case when it meets next Tuesday.
A tick from the headteachers, governors, and other representatives from the school sector on the committee will go some way towards pushing a future closure programme through.
Last year a swathe of school closures and amalgamations countywide was put off in the face of public protest.
The Schools Forum then agreed to freeze the budget for small schools protection until 2011, but the issue has not gone away. The council says falling rolls and funding have forced a re-evaluation.
The independent report, commissioned after last year’s review, says the process “could be assisted”
by cutting the current protection allowances for small schools – £958,609 in 2008/2009 – and channelling the money into support for the remaining schools.
The report says similar strategies have worked for other authorities but recognises the likelihood of staff redundancies and increased school transport costs as a result.
Despite strong performance grades, county schools are among the worst funded in the UK with the Direct Schools Grant (DSG) allocation from Government – the sum the council can spend on schools – regularly falling well below the national average.
Whitehall determines the DSG on the basis of pupil numbers, and in Herefordshire those are falling too. Figures for 2008-2009 illustrate the the council’s thinking. Based on Government’s figures the county lost 342 pupils between January 2008 and January 2009. One fewer pupil means £3,687 less in the DSG – based on 2008/09 funding rates.
For each pupil lost, a school budget will be reduced by an average of £2,500 for pupil related funding. Another £1,187 has to be found from central services funded by the DSG such as pupil referral units, special needs support and nurseries. An annual reduction of 342 pupils will mean a cut in funding of £406,000 (342 x £1,187) to come from those central services.
If the reductions in pupil numbers disproportionately affect primary schools, the amount required from central services will be even greater. Fixed costs in primaries form a greater proportion of the budget, and pupil-related funding is only £2,000 per pupil leaving a shortfall of £1,687 each.
As some services are statutory, the potential for budget cuts is limited so more cuts in pupil funding will be needed with numbers projected to fall at the same rate until 2018.
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