Today (Tue 13 July) school leaders’ union NAHT releases a new
poll of nearly 1500 school leaders which shows that the Covid
funding provided by government falls far short of the costs
schools have incurred since the start of the pandemic.
The poll shows schools’ average costs during the pandemic were
estimated at £25,000.
These additional costs came from implementing the Covid-secure
measures required by government such as additional cleaning
supplies and services, PPE and handwashing stations.
In addition, many schools faced significant losses as some income
streams, such as letting out the school premises, disappeared
almost overnight. Average losses amounted to £22,000.
The cost of supply cover for sick and isolating school staff
placed additional pressures on budgets, with our survey revealing
average additional staff costs of £12,000.
Whilst the government has provided some support for schools
through its ‘exceptional cost scheme’ the limited eligibility
criteria meant that the amount provided works out at less than
£6,500 per school and around one in four schools received no
support at all.
In the same survey, 87% of respondents also said that the
Covid-19 recovery funding received to date was not sufficient to
meet the needs of their pupils.
Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of school leaders’ union
NAHT, said: “There is no doubt that schools helped to shield
large numbers of children from the worst effects of the pandemic.
Schools responded quickly and implemented all the additional
safety measures the government recommended, but had to raid their
existing budgets to do so. Ultimately, every pound a school
spends on enhanced safety is one less it can spend on supporting
pupils.
“The combination of a lack of support for Covid costs combined
with insufficient recovery funding for pupils risks seriously
undermining the important work schools need to do support their
pupils.”
The figures highlighted today are initial findings from a larger
review of school budgets during the pandemic. The final results
will be published later in the year.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Costs
The Department for Education told the National Audit Office that
it had paid out £139m for exceptional cost claims. If this was
divided equally amongst England’s 21,642 schools this would
equate to a payment of £6,422 per school. In reality, many
schools received nothing at all as they didn’t meet the
eligibility criteria. DfE data shows that only 72 per cent of
schools received a payment of any kind to help defray the costs
of Covid.
