School redundancy fears raised

Twm Owen Local Democracy Reporter

The possibility of schools making redundancies as they grapple with a near £6 million overspend has been raised by a senior councillor. 

The overall level of reserves, held by all schools in Monmouthshire, is set to be depleted by £4.9m this year which will leave their collective deficit £5.8m in the red by the end of the financial year. 

The figure was reported to Monmouthshire County Council’s cabinet as part of an update on its own in-year financial position, with the council on course to end the financial year with a £3.4m overspend. Next year the council is facing an £11.4m shortfall in funding

Reassurances

Councillor Ben Callard, the Labour cabinet member responsible for finance, repeated reassurances he made to a scrutiny committee earlier in October that action is being taken to address the council’s spending.  

He also told the cabinet schools are a “particular” concern and meetings will be held leading to the October half term with schools that have set deficit budgets, which plan on spending more than they receive in funding, to discuss recovery plans. 

Conservative opposition leader Cllr Richard John asked if the council expects schools to be making staff redundant. 

“Their combined deficits are close to £6m. How many teachers and school staff do you expect to be made redundant as a result of these recovery plans?” 

Cllr Callard however said it was too soon to say what the impacts will be for schools. 

He said: “It’s a concern we all share. School budgets are delegated meaning individual schools are responsible for their budgets including for staffing levels. We will be working closely with schools and I hope to have more specific information that I can share with cabinet at the next financial update once those meetings have taken place.” 

Cllr John asked on the council’s plans for addressing its own overspend and potential use of reserves, which the budget put forward by the cabinet and agreed by the council in March said it wouldn’t rely on.

Plan

Cllr Callard said the council had a larger predicted overspend for the 2023/24 budget this time last year but eventually finished with a surplus and said: “I recognise the challenge is a big one and hope to do the same this year. There’s no plan to use reserves but they are there in the case of an emergency.” 

The cabinet also approved a medium term financial plan intended to address its budget shortfall with the £11.4m figure representing 5.5 per cent of its net budget.  The plan has recognised the council will have to make cuts and savings and increase income.

Cllr John said the plan is modelled on a council tax increase of between 3.5 to five per cent but Cllr Callard said it too soon to say how much the council will need to raise from local taxpayers next year as the Welsh Government isn’t due to publish its own budget until December.