School leaders will be rightly angry that basic accounting errors may force them to rethink already tight budgets<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Schools Week<\/em> understands the error was identified in September. It was not announced until around 5pm on Friday – two days after the Conservative party conference finished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Left unaddressed, the error would mean the cost of the core schools budget would be 0.62 per cent greater than allocated in 2024-25. The budget is due to be \u00a359.6 billion next year, so an error of that size would equal around \u00a3370 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schools have not received funding allocations for 2024-25 yet, so addressing the error will not result in any clawback. Their allocations would also be based on pupil numbers in the October school census, conducted yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, allocations data published in July is used by schools and councils to give themselves an indicative idea of their future budgets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New allocations data has been published this evening – leaving leaders scrambling to redo budgets with less cash than promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The DfE told schools in July that funding through the mainstream schools national funding formula “is increasing by 2.7 per cent per pupil in 2024-25”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today’s updated guidance states the rise will be just 1.9 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government\u2019s prediction for the minimum per-pupil funding for secondary schools has been revised down by \u00a355. At primary level it\u2019s down \u00a345.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on these figures, the average secondary school would be \u00a357,970 worse-off than predicted in July, and the average primary would be \u00a312,420 worse-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders\u2019 union, said the admission \u201cspeaks volumes about the chaos at the heart of government\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSchool leaders will be rightly angry that basic accounting errors may force them to rethink already tight budgets as a result of the erroneous figures they were provided. Many may now have to revisit crucial decisions around staffing or support for pupils as budgets are reduced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Geoff Barton, of the ASCL leaders\u2019 union, said it was an \u201cextremely unfortunate and frustrating error\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven though schools have not received their 2024-25 funding, it is likely that trusts and local authorities will have used the incorrect figures in their budget planning and will now need to revise those budgets with the corrected figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the last thing they need on top of all the other demands on their time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nFunding rise revised down <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Paul-Whiteman-4-feat.jpg\")
‘Chaos at the heart of government’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n