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‘Redundancies are the only way to balance the books’

Only 2% of school leaders say they have enough funding to meet the needs of their pupils next academic year – with many anticipating having to make redundancies in the coming 12 months.
Desperate: Many school leaders are already making redundancies to balance the books, while almost half anticipate having to lay off teachers next year - Adobe Stock

Survey findings involving 1,091 school leaders have been published by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) ahead of the government’s Spending Review on Wednesday, June 11.

They show that of the responding leaders, 46% anticipate having to make teachers redundant next year while 80% believe they will have to lay-off teaching assistants to help balance their books.

One headteacher told the researchers that they have already planned to let 12 members of staff go this summer: “This is the most difficult it has been in 20 years. I have never struggled to set the budget as much as I have this year. It has been years since we were properly funded and any reserves that we had have gone. Hard decisions have had to be made.

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