Today (Tue 13 July) school leaders’ union NAHT releases a new poll of nearly 1500 school leaders which shows that the Covid funding provided by government falls far short of the costs schools have incurred since the start of the pandemic.

The poll shows schools’ average costs during the pandemic were estimated at £25,000.

These additional costs came from implementing the Covid-secure measures required by government such as additional cleaning supplies and services, PPE and handwashing stations.

In addition, many schools faced significant losses as some income streams, such as letting out the school premises, disappeared almost overnight. Average losses amounted to £22,000.

The cost of supply cover for sick and isolating school staff placed additional pressures on budgets, with our survey revealing average additional staff costs of £12,000.

Whilst the government has provided some support for schools through its ‘exceptional cost scheme’ the limited eligibility criteria meant that the amount provided works out at less than £6,500 per school and around one in four schools received no support at all.

In the same survey, 87% of respondents also said that the Covid-19 recovery funding received to date was not sufficient to meet the needs of their pupils.

Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “There is no doubt that schools helped to shield large numbers of children from the worst effects of the pandemic. Schools responded quickly and implemented all the additional safety measures the government recommended, but had to raid their existing budgets to do so.  Ultimately, every pound a school spends on enhanced safety is one less it can spend on supporting pupils.

“The combination of a lack of support for Covid costs combined with insufficient recovery funding for pupils risks seriously undermining the important work schools need to do support their pupils.”

The figures highlighted today are initial findings from a larger review of school budgets during the pandemic. The final results will be published later in the year.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Costs

The Department for Education told the National Audit Office that it had paid out £139m for exceptional cost claims. If this was divided equally amongst England’s 21,642 schools this would equate to a payment of £6,422 per school. In reality, many schools received nothing at all as they didn’t meet the eligibility criteria. DfE data shows that only 72 per cent of schools received a payment of any kind to help defray the costs of Covid.

The government allocated £6m for additional staffing costs, equating to only £277 per school on average, significantly less than the costs we have identified.