The annual funding study conducted by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) shows that 18 per cent of schools are currently in deficit. This compares to eight per cent a year ago.
Furthermore, 71 per cent of schools say they are only able to balance their budgets by making cuts or biting into their reserves.
The most common cost-saving measure was cutting back on investment in equipment (85 per cent).
The study, which is based on schools’ budgets for 2016/17, involved more than 1,100 schools and the NAHT said the findings showed that many were “close to breaking point”.
A majority of the responding school leaders said that their budgets would be unsustainable by 2019, with increases in payroll cited as the biggest pressure. The NAHT says that payroll costs have resulted in increases to schools’ expenditure of 5.5 per cent but that there has been no additional government funding to compensate.
Other costs pressures cited by the NAHT study include cuts to local authority services, not least the axing of the £600 million Education Services Grant, which paid for school improvement services. Respondents said the cost of many of these services are now being passed onto schools.
Another concern is the cost of supporting pupils’ additional needs, including the increase in mental health issues being faced by young people. Eighty-three per cent of the schools are worried about the extra pressure this is placing on their budgets.
Among those responding to the study was Bernadette Hunter, headteacher at William Shrewsbury Primary in Burton-upon-Trent. She said: “The removal of the Educational Services Grant, wage inflation, increases in pension and National Insurance contributions, the Apprenticeship Levy and cost of living increases, are all leading to a real-terms cut for schools.
"Costs are rising at a time of stagnant budgets, and the new funding formula, that we hoped would help, will see our school lose £38,000 – a teacher’s salary. This is devastating. The funding formula will fail if there is not enough money put into it and children's learning will suffer.”
Russell Hobby, NAHT general secretary, said: “School budgets are being pushed even closer to breaking point than before. The number of schools currently in deficit has more than doubled since our 2015 survey, with nearly three quarters of school leaders only able balance their budgets by making cuts or dipping in to reserves.
“Schools are acutely feeling the impact of an estimated £3 billion shortfall in the government’s education budget by 2020 – the first real-terms cuts to education spending since the 1990s.
“Ninety-eight per cent of schools are losing funding, at a time when costs are rising and pupil numbers are growing. The government must take urgent action and commit to funding schools sufficiently in the next Budget. It is time to stop viewing education spending as a cost and to start seeing it as an investment in England’s future, and in our children’s.”