West Sussex schools are running out of money – it ’ s time to fund our schools properly and fairly

You might not know it, but some of our schools are running out of money. Take West Sussex for example. When it comes to education, West Sussex is the lowest funded county in the country, and it’s currently facing a financial cliff edge. Schools in West Sussex say they need an additional £20 million from April next year, or they’ll face dramatic cutbacks. That will mean staff won’t be replaced when they leave (and will be under further pressure if they stay), disruptive restructures (which too often lead to cuts in staff or downgrading) will be inevitable, learning support for kids who need it most will be lost, class sizes could balloon to as many as 36 children per class and – perhaps most remarkably – some schools might even be reduced to opening only four days per week. That’s a shocking inditement of the way in which many of our schools are being funded. If the worst happens and schools are forced to open fewer days each week, working parents and families will struggle to manage childcare and parents with children with special needs will find it extremely difficult to find services to look after their children while they’re at work. The government say that these issues will be dealt with under the new national funding formula, but that doesn’t come into place until 2018, and even then it would take 3 years for West Sussex schools to recover from chronic underfunding. And whilst it could end up giving more money to areas like West Sussex that need it, that...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tags: General secretary's blog News school school funding Source Type: news