Hardship funding to help struggling schools deal with rising pay costs represents as little as a tenth of total school deficits in some areas, new analysis shows.
In one instance, the allocation for a whole county is less than the deficit of just one of its special schools.
The Department for Education confirmed last week that half of a £40 million fund to help the worst-hit schools afford this year’s teacher pay rise would go to 35 councils with the biggest school deficits.
But maintained schools had a combined deficit of £237 million in 2020-21, the latest year for which data is available. The government hardship funding of £20 million for LA schools represents just 8.4 per cent of that total.
