Croydon’s Liberal Democrat councillor has accused the Department for Education of depriving schools in her ward of more than £500,000 from their budgets this year – all because of an “error” by Whitehall civil servants.
Hard hit: Harris City Academy in Crystal Palace is among the worst-hit Croydon schools by the DfE blunder
Claire Bonham, the Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood ward LibDem councillor, reckons that a £370million “budgeting error” by the DfE in the autumn, coupled with rising costs, is hitting schools across the country hard.
Just in Bonham’s own ward, five schools are having to cope with errors in funding totalling £554,000 – money that they can ill-afford. The worst-hit school among them, Harris City Academy, is trying to cope with a “budgeting error” shortfall of £261,000.
Bonham has called for Croydon Mayor Jason Perry to intervene and provide some support to the borough’s hard-hit schools.
In October, a senior civil servant was forced to write to MPs to explain the budgeting mistake, which arose through an error in the number of forecasted pupils.
In her letter, the Permanent Secretary at the DfE, Susan Acland-Hood, said: “We recognise that the correction of this error will be difficult for local authorities and frustrating for some school leaders, which is why the Department has worked as quickly as possible to rectify the error.
“We will work closely with school stakeholders, including unions, to communicate this change and support schools and local authorities.”
£370m apology: the DfE letter that admitted to the mega-millions omnishambles, which children are paying for with their reduced education
The official apology, though, has done little to help heads and school managers, who the National Education Union’s Stop School Cuts campaign says is forcing 92% of schools to make cuts to education provision which really ought never have been necessary.
Tough lessons: Cllr Claire Bonham
“It is very concerning that through a combination of budgeting errors and rising costs, Croydon schools could see themselves out of pocket and re-writing already overstretched budgets,” Councillor Bonham told Inside Croydon.
Bonham has used the Stop School Cuts calculator to identify schools in her Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood ward where budgets may not be able to meet rising costs:
- St Josephs Junior £46,000
- Rockmount Primary £80,000
- All Saints Primary £76,000
- Cypress Primary School £91,000
- Harris City Academy, Crystal Palace £261,000
Bonham said, “I am calling for the Mayor of Croydon to write to these schools and offer his support at this time.
“With errors from the DfE and spiralling costs, schools need clarity and clear information to allow them to set their budgets and get on with the vital job of educating our children.”
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