The annual funding study conducted by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) shows that 18 per cent of schools are currently in deficit. This compares to eight per cent a year ago.
Furthermore, 71 per cent of schools say they are only able to balance their budgets by making cuts or biting into their reserves.
The most common cost-saving measure was cutting back on investment in equipment (85 per cent).
The study, which is based on schools’ budgets for 2016/17, involved more than 1,100 schools and the NAHT said the findings showed that many were “close to breaking point”.
A majority of the responding school leaders said that their budgets would be unsustainable by 2019, with increases in payroll cited as the biggest pressure. The NAHT says that payroll costs have resulted in increases to schools’ expenditure of 5.5 per cent but that there has been no additional government funding to compensate.
The findings came as a group of headteachers in Cheshire this week warned that they could be forced to move to a four-day week in a bid to balance their budgets. Speaking to the BBC, the principals of five secondary schools said that some subjects could also be scrapped.
Headteacher of Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School, Denis Oliver, told the BBC that he was investigating the possibility of children working from home one day a week, with teachers offering online support.
Other costs pressures cited by the NAHT study include cuts to local authority services, not least the axing of the £600 million Education Services Grant, which paid for school improvement services. Respondents said the cost of many of these services are now being passed onto schools.
Another concern is the cost of supporting pupils’ additional needs, including the increase in mental health issues being faced by young people. Eighty-three per cent of the schools are worried about the extra pressure this is placing on their budgets.
Among those responding to the study was Liam Collins, headteacher at Uplands Community College in East Sussex. He said: “The protected per-student funding is not protected. This year we received £4,664 per student, and this flat cash settlement is what we will receive for the foreseeable future. This is well below the national average, even under the new funding formula.
“With inflation and unfunded cost increases we only have £4,431 to spend on each pupil. To our overall budget this is a cut of £208,711, which in three years rises to our school being under-funded by £350,000.
“In simple terms this is a cut of 10 teachers, fewer clubs, no pastoral support, a narrowed curriculum, no counselling for students struggling with mental health issues, crumbling buildings, no IT upgrades, no new text books and no school planners. Eventually this will impact on student outcomes. This is not about fair funding, but enough funding for all schools to operate.”
Russell Hobby, NAHT general secretary, said: “School budgets are being pushed even closer to breaking point than before. The number of schools currently in deficit has more than doubled since our 2015 survey, with nearly three quarters of school leaders only able balance their budgets by making cuts or dipping in to reserves.
“Schools are acutely feeling the impact of an estimated £3 billion shortfall in the government’s education budget by 2020 – the first real-terms cuts to education spending since the 1990s.
“Ninety-eight per cent of schools are losing funding, at a time when costs are rising and pupil numbers are growing. The government must take urgent action and commit to funding schools sufficiently in the next Budget. It is time to stop viewing education spending as a cost and to start seeing it as an investment in England’s future, and in our children’s.”