Triumph in Adversity? How Financial Constraints are Driving Schools to do Things Differently

Times are tough and schools are being forced to make very difficult decisions to balance the books, while simultaneously being under ongoing pressure to improve pupil outcomes. Some are already considering redundancies; most are having to review their curriculum offer, look at ways to generate income and cut any non-essential spending. There can be no magic solutions to these challenges. However, there is some practical advice and guidance that can help schools to navigate their way through.

In preparing for this publication a survey was undertaken with 168 responses from senior leaders and business managers. Only 16.2% didn’t anticipate running a deficit budget within the next three years; 61.6% were already running a deficit budget or are forecasting one this year.

We wanted to capture some of the creative solutions that schools have found – finding ways to approach familiar challenges differently. Whether it is finding ways to maximise the potential for your premises to generate income or finding ways to reduce your costs – it may be that small changes can make a significant difference.

Challenging times often encourage people to think differently about familiar issues. It seems unlikely that schools’ funding situations will improve markedly in the foreseeable future many things may well get worse before they get better as schools try to find ways to manage additional costs within a static budget. Clearly, the priority of everyone in this situation is to deal with this while minimising the negative impact on students and staff. As such, we hope that you have found some of the ideas in this publication of use.