School budget cuts force heads to lose 15,000 staff members Swingeing cuts to school budgets have forced headteachers to lose an average of five staff members per secondary across England […]

Swingeing cuts to school budgets have forced headteachers to lose an average of five staff members per secondary across England since 2015, according to an analysis of Government figures.

Staff numbers in secondary schools have plummeted by 15,000 in the two years between 2014/15 to 2016/17, the study shows. This is despite 4,500 more pupils entering the secondary system over the same period.

Heads’ and teachers’ leaders have warned that the £2.8bn squeezed from school coffers since 2015 was leaving them with no choice but to cut frontline teacher numbers.

The i newsletter cut through the noise Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

Breaking point

The research reveals there are on average 2.4 fewer classroom teachers in each secondary school, and 1.6 fewer teaching assistants and 1.5 fewer support staff.

The figures led Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, to warn that school budgets were at “breaking point”.

“School leaders have made every other possible efficiency and now it is impossible for many schools to avoid making redundancies, to continue to keep class sizes at an acceptable level, and to offer a full and rounded curriculum to all pupils,” Mr Whiteman said.

“The school funding crisis is real,” he added.

Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said the analysis of government figures confirmed that the cuts to education were “damaging for children’s education”.

Profound change

“Schools are cutting back on teacher numbers and the pupil-to-teacher ratio is worsening. Children only have one chance to go to school. We should be investing in this generation of young people who will see such profound changes during their lifetimes,” Dr Bousted said.

Cuts to school finances was one of the key battlegrounds during last year’s general election, and prompted the Government to scrape together £1.3bn from existing budgets to prop the creaking system up.

School spending has been maintained in cash terms, but due to range of rising costs, such as increasing pension and national insurance contributions and general inflation has led to a real terms cut of nearly £3bn.

The issue of dwindling school spending was even raised by Theresa May’s former chief of staff Nick Timothy last week, who admitted it was a key factor in the Conservatives’ disastrous general election result.

Feeling the strain

“It feels increasingly clear that the country is tired of austerity and that public services are starting to feel the strain a little bit,” Mr Timothy said.

“I think any candidate who fought in the election campaign would say that school spending was one of the big issues.”

The research suggested that the situation may get worse, as it predicted that 17,942 (nine out of ten) primary and secondary schools in England and Wales will be hit by a real-terms cut in funding per pupil between 2015-19.

The Department for Education was contacted for comment.