Number of schools in Wales in the red has tripled this year

Richard Youle, local democracy reporter

The number of schools which have fallen into debt in Wales has tripled this year, according to a senior council officer.

Gareth Morgans, director of education and children’s services at Carmarthenshire Council, made the comment in a committee meeting which examined how many of the county’s schools were in deficit and how many had a surplus.

Mr Morgans said education directors in Wales had written to Lynne Neagle, Wales’s cabinet secretary for education, outlining their concerns. He said officials were taking them on board but that every council and Welsh Government department had cost pressures of their own.

“They are listening but I’m not sure how much impact it has had so far,” said Mr Morgans.

Reserves

Just over half of Carmarthenshire’s primary and secondary schools are forecast to be in the red at the end of March next year, to the tune of £10.8 million. Reserves could be deployed to cushion this overspend but it would still leave a £5.6 million deficit which the council would have to find somewhere.

Cllr Alun Lenny, addressing the education, young people and Welsh language scrutiny committee, said the £5.6 million couldn’t come from social care, or the highways budget, and would equate to a council tax rise of nearly 6%.

“I appeal directly to heads and governing bodies to do their utmost to rein in this level of overspend,” he said. “It’s totally unsustainable, not just for schools but for the council. It could blow a £6 million hole in our corporate budget.”

Cllr Lenny, Plaid’s cabinet member for resources, said he understood it was a difficult time for schools and that in his view more funding had to come from central government. Welsh Government funding for councils has risen – by 7.9% in 2023-24 and 3.3% in 2024-25.

Staff costs

Carmarthenshire’s schools are getting £143.8 million this financial year. The vast majority goes on staff costs, and wages have been rising. The costs of supporting pupils with additional learning needs have also increased.

One primary school is forecast to be nearly £650,000 in deficit at the end of March, while another was forecast to end the financial year with a surplus of nearly £324,000. A secondary school is facing a deficit of more than £1.9 million as things stand, while another could have a £2.1 million surplus. There are still several months for over-spending schools to trim expenditure.

The council has written to governing bodies highlighting the situation, and Mr Morgans said a consultant headteacher will be helping some schools. He said there was a process by which governing bodies would receive an informal letter if the council felt they weren’t responding, followed potentially by a formal warning notice. He said councils had the power to take over a school’s budget but that “hopefully we will never get to that point”.

Grants

Mr Morgans said schools could compare their expenditure on, for example, agency staff costs with that of similar-size schools. He also pointed out that some schools were very effective at securing grants.

Cllr Kim Broom said the costs of supporting children with additional learning needs had been flagged up years ago, and also wanted to know if there had been any progress in setting up an in-house pool of support staff to save on agency costs. Mr Morgans said a pilot project was operating for a pool of care workers and that a similar model for school staff – teaching assistants particularly – had value in his view.

Cllr Hefin Jones asked if schools with surpluses were challenged as well as those in deficit. Mr Morgans said this was the case for primaries and secondaries which were more than £50,000 and £100,000 in the black respectively, but that he was happy at the moment with those with a healthy balance.

Committee chairman, Cllr Emlyn Schiavone, said the general pattern of more schools getting into debt was a concern although he was sure every one of them “had their own story”. He added: “There is this tension of meeting a high standard of eduction on the one hand and then balancing your books on the other hand. There seems to be an imbalance.”