2. Affordability

2.1 In this chapter we present the schoolsexperience of the budget settlement 2003-04.Chart 2.1 shows that 56.4 per cent of the primary schools and 63.3 percent of the secondary schools reported that it was worse than the previousyear. Only 9.1 per cent and 10.3 percent respectively reported that it was better.The relatively few winners tended to do better in gross amount, onaverage, than the losers. Primarywinners reported themselves to be better off by, on average, 38,999 and thelosers to be worse off by, on average, 32,032. In the case of secondary schools, the respective figures were:winners 146,588 and losers 129,367.

Chart2.1: Budget Settlements by Pupil Numbers

Pupils on Roll	Budget Settlement
	Better		Same		Worse		Total
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
*Primary*
Higher	27	2.8	57	5.8	88	9.0	172	17.6
Same	36	3.7	199	20.3	284	29.0	519	53.0
Lower	26	2.7	82	8.4	181	18.5	289	29.5
Total	89	9.1	338	34.5	553	56.4	980	100.0
*Secondary*
Higher	29	7.9	45	12.2	111	30.2	185	50.3
Same	6	1.6	47	12.8	87	23.6	140	38.0
Lower	3	0.8	5	1.4	35	9.5	43	11.7
Total	38	10.3	97	26.4	233	63.3	368	100.0

1. Contingencycoefficients: primary = 0.140, P<0.001; secondary = 0.225, P<0.001.

2.2 The funding formula is driven mainly by pupilnumbers. Chart 2.1 cross-tabulatesbudgets with rolls. In line withnational demographics, 29.5 per cent of the primary schools reported fewerpupils as compared with 11.7 per cent of the secondary schools. The analysis reveals that, as to beexpected, there is a correlation between income and pupil numbers, but it isless strong than might have been expected.Combining cells from Chart 2.1, we can see that 38 per cent of theprimary schools and 53.8 per cent of the secondary schools with a higher orsimilar roll reported that their budget settlements were worse than last year.

2.3 The relative weakness of the relationship couldstem from at least three causes:

Unevennessin the allocation of the resources following changes in the Governmentsfunding formula;

Theeffects of the withdrawal or allocation of specific grants;

Schoolsestimates of real terms increases and decreases varying in their reliability.

Variations

2.4 Chart 2.2 shows how the budget settlementsvaried by region. For both primary andsecondary the differences are statistically significant (primary, chi-squared =46.73, df = 20, P<0.001; secondary, chi-squared=43.72, df = 20, P<0.002),but not striking. For both there appearto be more losers in the East of England and London than other parts of thecountry and fewer in Wales. The winnersemerged mainly in the Midlands, with also a relatively high proportion ofprimary winners in the North West and Inner London, and secondary winners inthe North East. Overall, the resultsseem to show something of a shift from the south to the north. In Wales, half the schools reported thebudget settlement had remained the same, though few thought it had improved.

Chart 2.2: Budget Settlements by Region

Region	Primary				Secondary
	Better		Worse		Better		Worse
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
North East	4	8.3	31	64.6	4	18.2	10	45.5
North West	20	14.7	77	56.6	3	6.3	29	60.4
Yorks & Humber	6	6.1	55	56.1	3	9.1	22	66.7
East Midlands	10	11.6	48	55.8	8	25.0	18	56.3
West Midlands	12	12.9	44	47.3	6	14.3	21	50.0
East of England	4	3.7	77	71.3	4	9.1	35	79.5
Inner London	5	13.9	22	61.1	1	8.3	9	75.0
Outer London	2	3.4	37	63.8	1	3.8	24	92.3
South East	12	8.8	78	56.9	5	9.4	34	64.2
South West	6	6.2	56	56.6	3	9.1	21	63.6
Wales	8	9.9	28	34.6	0	0.0	10	43.5
Total	89	9.1	553	56.4	38	10.3	233	63.3

2.5 Since allocation is through the LEAs, rather thanregion, we looked to see if there were any patterns across the metropolitandistricts, the counties and the unitary authorities, but none emerged except toconfirm that there tended to be more losers in London. This may appear surprising, but the detailedfigures provided by the DfES (2003d) show how the new government fundingformula played out in 2003-04 compared with the previous arrangements. What is striking is the seeming idiosyncrasyof the gains and loses.

2.6 The first part of Chart 2.3 shows changes in theminimum amounts LEAs were required by the Government to allocate toschools. Authorities like the City ofLondon and Wokingham were expected to increase their allocations by over 10 percent, while for Portsmouth and Southampton it was below 3 per cent. The second part of the chart shows thedifference in millions between the amount of central grant received to coverall services provided by the local authority and the educational spend requiredof the LEAs. In the cases of Barnet andEssex, the expectation laid on the authorities is that they would passport anincrease to schools more than the total increase in the overall formula grant(the difference to be made up from council tax). The third layer in the chart shows, in fact, what proportion hadbeen passported in selected authorities, ranging from 37.2 per cent more inBexley to 26.2 per cent less in Westminster.

Table 2.3: Funding Allocations 2003-04

LEA	Highest	LEA	Lowest
%Change in Formula Spending Share 2002-03
City of London	12.6	Hammersmith & Fulham	3.3
Wokingham	10.3	Knowsley	3.2
Cambridgeshire	10.0	Plymouth	2.9
West Berkshire	10.0	Portsmouth	2.8
South Gloucestershire	9.9	Southampton	2.6
Difference between FSS and Grant to Cover All Services in Millions
Birmingham	44.92	Dorset	0.44
Liverpool	25.22	Rutland	0.34
Lancashire	18.30	Isles of Scilly	0.16
Tower Hamlets	15.33	Essex	-0.26
Bradford	15.09	Barnet	-1.21
%Education Spending Passported
Bexley	137.2	Croydon	90.2
Southampton	122.1	Trafford	89.9
Medway	120.7	Wokingham	88.3
Camden	120.5	Isles of Scilly	83.4
Solihull	114.6	Westminster	73.8

1. DfES (2003d) LEA budgetspublished, DfES Press Notice 2003/0079.

2.7 From the Revenue Support Grant allocations tolocal authorities we can glimpse why there should be more winners among schoolsin the north than the south, but the variations in the way the money has beenpassported demonstrate, in part, why the relationship between changes inbudget and roll is not clearcut. Winnersand losers are not confined to any region, but are distributed across England,and also Wales which has similar funding arrangements.

Specific Grants

2.8 Another factor creating winners andlosers in the 2003-04 budget settlement has been the decision to switch fromspecific grant funding to general grant funding. Schools that had been particularly successful previously indrawing from the Standards Fund could have been significant losers this yearsince a number of grants paid through the Fund ceased in 2003-04 for example,the School Improvement Grant, School Inclusion, Induction of Newly QualifiedTeachers, Performance Management, Class Size, Qualifications, Pupil SupportAllowances, Pupil Learning Credits, Recruitment and Retention Fund, LearningSupport Units. On the other

Box 2.1: Special Grants - Primary

S.R. bid finding and E.A.Z. help end in April 2004 and this will mean a loss of 2.5 aux staff.

VA, Primary, North East (0125)

Need extra support staff to support SEN pupils. E.g. visually impaired child rejected on Band D, therefore no funding.

Junior, North East (0167)

The budget has been affected by inadequate funding for Threshold, ESAs and Standards Fund. Standards Fund has reduced by 50% for small schools support. We still have the same problems to deal with as we have always had and yet we are supposed to do the same good job on less finance.

Infant, North West (0279)

We are paying our ICT Technician salary from NGfL. We cannot meet the workforce reform demands by September.

VA, Primary, North West (0455)

Our budget balanced but if it were not for the KS1 Class Size Money we would have had to use all our 20,000 contingency.

First, Yorks & Humb (1122)

We have profited this year from an increase in Funding for Inclusion - a new method in the LEA of funding Special Needs provision - we have used some of this to maintain two classes in each year group even where numbers are low.

VC, Primary, Yorks & Humb (1158)

We only have 4% free school meals so we lose out in our delegated budget and Standard Funds too. I cannot afford to employ the extra TA as planned.

Primary, Inner London (2886)

I have only been able to stay out of the classroom because the LEA have given me support as a newly appointed head, in order to raise standards which are very poor.

Primary, Wales (4774)

The situation in Wales is desperate. We receive no additional IT or high performance grants, my capitation is 4,000 and a supply budget which covers 12 days per year.

Primary, Wales (4776)

Our budget means that children are taught in wide age bands; one class has years 1, 2 and 3 children. Our budget was saved by a small schools grant given by the LEA.

Primary, Wales (4851)

The LEA originally hoped to provide schools like ours (area of deprivation) with better budgets but it was shelved due to political pressure.

Primary, Wales (4586)

Box2.2: Special Grants - Secondary

Without Schools in Challenging Circumstances grant for the last two years and LiG funding this year we would have had serious financial problems.

Comp 11-16, North West (329)

Competition for recruitment from neighbouring schools who enjoy specialist status, SRB, LiG, Excellence Cluster, Excellence in Cities funding. We have none of these.

Comp 11-16, North West (330)

The Leadership Incentive Grant has been used to support the budget through creative accounting. The Standards Fund has been reduced dramatically. Many innovations have had to be put on hold.

Comp 11-16, Yorks and Humb (387)

We are very fortunate to be EiC, specialist and LiG eligible otherwise wed be finished. As it is, we are losing 0.5FTE to try to address the workload agreement with no extra funding.

Tech 11-19, West Midlands (729)

We are lucky being a grammar school in an inner city EiC/LiG group. Even so, it will be difficult to meet the new work time agreement.

VA, Sports, Grammar 11-18, West Midlands (738)

Gaining LiG will keep us going financially.

Comp 11-19, East (987)

To support the staffing budget we have put a moratorium on new developments and the whole of our LiG grant has gone into staffing, as has much of our TC funding.

Tech 11-19, Outer London (1325)

With roll rising by 50 we needed two extra staff, but could only afford one. But achieving specialist status enabled us to appoint another 0.6 science teacher with specialist school money.

Science 11-18, South East (1437)

Not as bad as feared, but without LiG we would have been in deficit.

Comp 11-16, South East (1430)

We have received LiG funding which has made a real impact through the employment of two additional teachers.

VC, Comp 11-16, South West (1625)

It is only because we are anticipating getting specialist school status that we have been able to appoint an ICT teacher well be in a mess if we are unsuccessful!

VC, Comp 13-18, South West (1774)

In Wales, we have developed a grant culture eg KS3, key skills developments etc. Schools now rely on these extras to underpin the budget.

Comp 11-16, Wales (1988)

hand, theintroduction of the Leadership Incentive Grant (of 125,000 for three years tosecondary schools in Excellence in City areas or with fewer than 30 per cent ofYear 11 attaining at least five A*-C grades at GCSE or where more than 35 percent of pupils are eligible for free schools meals) will have protected anumber against budget reductions. But while1,400 will have benefited, 1,700 will have been left out. We can see the part played by these specificgrants in the headteachers comments of Boxes 2.1 and 2.2.

2.9 Our analyses found no statistically significantdifferences between the different types of school, other than the 11.0 per centof specialist schools reporting themselves better off indicated that, onaverage, they received 188,571 more compared with the 117,000 received by the9.6 per cent of non-specialist schools.This is in line with the headteachers comments in Box 2.2.

Resum

2.10 Thebudget settlement for 2003-04 has meant that schools have had to cope withconsiderable changes in formula funding and specific grants. In addition, they have been faced withincreases in teachers pensions contributions and national insurancecontributions, and a foreshortened salary scale with more rapidprogression. At the national level,there was an extra 6.3 per cent going into schools, plus another 5.3 per centfrom specific grants, but the majority of schools found themselves relativelyworse off, made all the more galling by the expectation of a generousincrease. The information was alsoreceived late by schools and they found themselves having to make rapidadjustments. It is to these we now turn.

3. Impact on Staffing

3.1 Schools with lower than expected income in2003-04 have attempted to balance their books by a combination of measuresincluding cutting back on staff (whose costs make up a very large proportion ofthe budget), use of reserves, and making other savings or earnings. Even so, 19 per cent of the primary schoolsand 29 per cent of the secondary schools said they would be having to setdeficit budgets. In this chapter wefocus on staff savings and, in Chapter 4, on the other adjustments. Schools found themselves downsizing withrespect to both teachers and support staff.

Teachers

3.2 Chart 3.1 shows that 56.4 per cent of primaryschools reported their income to be less, but only 25.3 per cent were reducingstaff. Similarly, for secondary schools62.8 per cent per cent reported a lower real-terms income, but only about athird were sacrificing posts. This isconsistent with schools seeking to retain good staff at all costs, includingallowing the proportion of the budget taken up by staff costs to rise tounsustainable levels. A middle schoolin the East Midlands told us, for example, that the proportion was beingallowed to rise from 83 per cent in 2002-03 to 87 per cent in 2003-04 (Box 4.8,page 25).

Chart3.1: Teaching Staff by Budget Settlement

Teaching Staff	Budget Settlement
	Better		Same		Worse		Total
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
*Primary*
Larger	22	2.2	37	3.8	29	3.0	88	9.0
Same	53	5.4	252	25.7	339	34.6	644	65.7
Smaller	14	1.4	49	5.0	185	18.9	248	25.3
Total	89	9.1	338	34.5	553	56.4	980	100.0
*Secondary*
Larger	22	6.0	44	12.0	60	16.3	126	34.2
Same	10	2.7	39	10.6	74	21.1	123	33.4
Smaller	7	1.9	15	4.1	97	26.4	119	32.3
Total	39	10.6	98	26.6	231	62.8	368	100.0

1. Contingencycoefficients: primary = 0.265, P<0.001, secondary = 0.289, P<0.001.

3.3 The 248 primary schools reducing staff reportedcutting a total of 285.1 full-time equivalent posts, and the 119 secondaryschools, 311.5 full-time equivalent posts. Since they are respectively 5 and 10per cent samples of maintained schools in England and Wales they suggest thatprimary schools cut 5,702 primary FTEs and secondary schools 3,115 FTEs, or8,817FTEs in all. This is loss from affected schools not from thesystem, because some schools receiving favourable settlements were able to takeon extra staff. In paragraph 7.5, page41, we estimate that 1,165 FTE new primary and 3.135 FTE new secondary postswere created, leaving a net loss for primary of 4.537, but A net gainfor the secondary phase of about 20.

3.4 The cutback in staffing was partly in responseto falling rolls, but mainly due to budgetary constraints. Chart 3.2 shows that about 85 per cent ofthe schools losing posts gave reduced real-terms income as the reason, againstthe 48 per cent of primary schools and the quarter of secondary schools citingfalling rolls.

Chart 3.2: Reasons for Downsizing

Reason	Primary (N = 248)		Secondary (N = 119)
Reason	N	%	N	%
Falling Rolls	119	48.0	30	25.2
Budgetary Constraints	215	86.7	99	83.2
Restructuring	21	8.5	17	14.3
Other	2	0.8	3	2.5

3.5 The nature of the posts shed BY schoolsdownsizing are shown in Table 3.3. On aheadcount basis, the 5 per cent sample of primary schools lost 375 posts andthe l0 per cent sample of secondary schools 392 posts. Of these, 139 and 177 respectively were full-timepermanent posts wholly lost. The otherswere a mixture of full-time and part-time, permanent or temporary posts, whollyor partly lost.

Chart 3.3: Posts Lost by Type of Contract

Contract	Posts Lost
	Wholly		Partly		Total
	N	%	N	%	N	%
*Primary*
Full-Time Permanent	139	37.1	27	7.2	166	44.3
Full-Time Fixed-Term	82	21.9	15	4.0	97	25.9
Part-Time Permanent	35	9.3	15	4.0	50	13.3
Part-Time Fixed-Term	49	13.1	13	3.5	62	16.5
Total Primary	305	81.3	70	18.7	375	100.0
*Secondary*
Full-Time Permanent	177	45.2	74	18.9	251	64.0
Full-Time Fixed-Term	52	13.3	5	1.3	57	14.5
Part-Time Permanent	35	8.9	6	1.5	41	10.5
Part-Time Fixed-Term	33	8.4	10	2.6	43	11.0
Total Secondary	297	75.8	95	24.2	392	100.0

3.6 The posts not being replaced, either wholly orpartly, became vacant in a variety of ways.Table 3.4 shows that this was mainly through teachers moving to anotherschool or leaving the profession, but 18 per cent had been freed up byredundancy. In addition, a third of theprimary posts and a fifth of the secondary posts had not been re-established onthe completion of a fixed-term contract.

3.7 Scaled up, the samples indicate that 2,000 postshad been declared redundant across the system.Of these redundancies, 1,240 were primary posts, 640 compulsory and 600voluntary, and 760 were secondary, 150 compulsory and 610 voluntary. In addition, 3,320 fixed-term contracts werenot renewed, 2,520 in primary schools and 800 in secondary schools. The hidden element in staff reductions is,of course, the posts that would have been created in expanding schools if theycould have been afforded.

Chart 3.4: Reasons Post Available forAxing

Exit Mode	Primary		Secondary
Exit Mode	N	%	N	%
Compulsory Redundancy	32	8.5	15	3.8
Voluntary Redundancy	30	8.0	61	15.6
End of Fixed Term Contract	126	33.6	80	20.4
Resignation to Move to another School	81	21.6	120	30.6
Resignation/Retirement from Profession	106	28.3	116	29.6
Total	375	100.0	392	100.0

3.8 The loss of posts was not confined to particularparts of the country. Chart 3.5 showsthat the axed posts were mainly in proportion to distribution of schools, butthere were variations reflecting the 2003-04 budget settlements. The East of England and London were sheddingproportionately more posts at both primary and secondary levels. Generally the Midlands seems to have beencushioned to some extent. Therelatively poor settlements for primary and good for secondary in the NorthEast show up in the posts lost. Walesseems to have suffered less than England.

Chart3.5: Posts Lost by Region

Region	Primary			Secondary
Region	N	%	%National	N	%	%National
North East	25	6.7	5.0	21	5.4	6.0
North West	64	17.1	13.8	50	12.8	13.0
Yorks & Humber	31	8.3	9.9	30	7.7	8.9
East Midlands	22	5.9	8.8	29	7.4	8.8
West Midlands	31	8.3	9.8	37	9.4	11.4
East of England	53	14.1	10.7	50	12.8	11.6
Inner London	17	4.5	3.7	21	5.4	3.7
Outer London	31	8.3	5.9	38	9.7	7.5
South East	38	10.1	13.9	55	14.0	14.0
South West	33	8.8	10.1	42	10.7	9.0
Wales	30	8.0	8.3	19	4.8	6.2
Total	375	100.0	100.0	392	100.0	100.0

3.9 Loss of secondary posts by subject is shown inChart 3.6. What is striking is thatmost of the savings appear to have been made outside the mainstream. SEN seems to have been particularly badlyhit. Only modern languages of the majorsubjects, where a number of schools seemed to be reducing their provision, waslosing a disproportionately large number of posts.

Table3.6: Resignees from Secondary Schools by Subject

Subject	Posts Lost		Staffing¹
Subject	N	%	%
Maths	46	11.7	11.7
ICT	13	3.3	2.0
Science²	53	13.5	14.9
Modern Languages	47	12.0	9.3
English³	40	10.2	13.9
History	10	2.6	4.7
Geography	16	4.1	5.1
RE	7	1.8	3.2
Design & Tech⁴	43	10.9	11.7
Art	11	2.8	4.1
Music	7	1.8	2.5
PE	11	2.8	7.1
Other⁵	88	22.4	9.7
Total	392	100.0	100.0

1. Percentage tuition insubject as percentage of tuition taken from Table 29, page 30, Secondary Schools Curriculum and StaffingSurvey 1996/1997.

2. Includes physics,chemistry, biology, science and other science.

3. Includes drama.

4. Includes business studiesand home economics.

5. Includes SEN, Welsh, andother subjects. 37 SEN posts (9.4 percent) and 20 posts in other subjects (5.1 per cent) were among those lost.

3.10 Thedecisions that lie behind these figures are illustrated in Boxes 3.1 and 3.2compiled from the comments made by the headteachers. They bring out graphically the kind of juggling that has beengoing on. In some cases, posts werelost by making teachers redundant, but more often those leaving were notreplaced. On occasions, this would be adeputy or assistant head with the head opting to carry a greater load. Alternatively, senior staff could bereplaced by teachers on lower salaries.Staffing was also cut by not making appointments in line with risingrolls. Other headteachers have beenrelying on happenstance. One head of aprimary school in the South East commented, three pregnancies have been veryuseful financially. The tensions thatcan arise are illustrated by a comment from Wales where the head remarks thatthe governors think the money has gone on lining the pockets of teachers andnot on resources where it is needed.But, in general, schools preferred to make other savings to maintainstaff, with the proportion of the budget devoted to staff rising in some casesto over 90 per cent.

Box3.1: Impact on Primary Staffing

Reduction in budget due to falling numbers is having the biggest impact. Next year we will probably be facing redundancies unless any more teachers leave in the meantime.

VA, Primary, North West (0845)

Three teachers are retiring in August 2003. They are being replaced by using a less qualified NQT and by a reduction in the number of classes from 10 to 9. This will result in increased class sizes in Key Stage 2.

Primary, North West (0563)

Budget balanced only because of serious cuts to spending, in addition to not replacing a teacher.

VC, Primary, Yorks & Humb (1290)

I am making 3 support staff redundant in order to keep a teacher in each class. I am using all additional funds for this e.g. personal development and curriculum resources etc. - everything is being cut back.

Infant, East Midlands (1833)

Over the past two years voluntary redundancies have had to be sought. This year KS2 classes will be larger, one above 30. Parents concerned about quality of education able to be provided. Pressure on staff likely to increase. This makes it more difficult to attract more pupils to try and increase pupil rolls.

VC, Primary, West Midlands (2092)

For the same staff as last year it looks as though we will need a further 150,000 to avoid a deficit. We are desperate to avoid redundancies. We simply do not know what to do.

Primary, East (2977)

The difficulty this year has particularly been NI/Pensions contributions. This took the salaries bill much higher than ever beforevirtually on the same staffing and similar budget.

Primary, Outer London (3213)

I am reluctant to lose classroom support staff so I have reduced everyones hours a little in order to sustain them in employment.

Primary, South East (3538)

I am not replacing my Deputy who has just got a headship.

Primary, South East (3855)

The proportion of our budget spent on staff has risen to over 90% which is really unsustainable; it is only our growing numbers and use of reserves that enable us to maintain staffing levels, but we need more staff for 2 or 3 extra classes.

Primary, South West (4103)

The Governors blame Threshold payments for the shortage of cash and believe the additional money has been used to line the pockets of teachers and not on resources where it is needed. This attitude is very divisive.

Primary, Wales (4661)

Box3.2: Impact on Secondary Staffing

We are in debit and have to pay back loans from previous years. The budget is therefore very tight and hence the redundancy and not renewing fixed-term contracts.

Tech 11-16, North East (77)

One voluntary redundancy, but this is merely the start. I have one full-time teacher leaving at Christmas and one full-time teacher retiring. Another senior HoD will retire at Easter. It is possible that none will be replaced.

Lang 11-16, North West (289)

Staff reductions due to loss of grants and increased payroll costs.

Comp, 11-18, Yorks & Humb (474)

Losing three full-time posts. The position is difficult and made worse by the promise of plenty after several years of blight. We have no reserves. We no longer believe next year will be better.

Found, Lang 11-18, East Midlands (681)

We have a shortfall of around 110,000. We have cut three staff. Senior management will bear the brunt. We hope to balance the budget with two years.

Lang 11-16, West Midlands (791)

The budget settlement for 2003/04 has had a profound impact on the staffing of our school. Five valued members of support staff have lost their jobs and there have been two compulsory redundancies for long serving teachers. It will take a long time for us to recover from this.

Comp 11-16, East (1099)

Gained 400,000 on schools budget, but lost 500,000 from Standards Fund. Hence having to reduce staffing by 2.8 FTE as well as making other savings.

Comp 11-16, Inner London (1182)

Staff costs have escalated sharply accounting for more than any increase in budget. We have lost two posts and are looking at all ways to reduce staff costs without seriously damaging the quality of education.

VA, Tech 11-18, Outer London (1219)

Significantly the worst year in my six years as head. Despite losing two staff I am unlikely to be able to balance the budget.

Comp 11-16, South East (1397)

The main issue is not appointing teaching and support staff in line with the rising roll. We are three teachers short, and there are two technicians, two teaching assistants and one caretaker who we are not appointing but should.

Found, Arts 11-18, South West (1671)

Losing 5.9 FTE due to falling rolls and previous generous funding not continuing. Some savings made on surplus lessons, but teaching also covered from within school staffing and buying lessons from another school.

Comp 11-16, Wales (1865)

SupportStaff

3.11 Box3.2 also brings out that it is not only teaching posts that are being cut orreduced, but also support posts - at a time when they might have been expectedto have increased to take a number of tasks off the shoulders of teachers fromSeptember 2003 (see Chapter 6). In somecases, their posts were being to maintain the teaching complement. In others, hours for all assistants werebeing reduced to save losing any completely.

Chart 3.7: Reductions in Support Staff

Category	Primary			Secondary
Category	SSchools	Sample FTE	National F FTE	Schools	Sample FTE	National FTE
Teaching Assistants	280	482.7	9654	47	98.4	984
Clerical Assistants	49	37.6	752	28	31.8	318
Technicians	11	10.3	206	16	12.0	120
Others¹	17	3.8	76	13	19.8	198
Total	310	534.4	10,688	289	100.0	1620

1. Includes librarians,welfare assistants, learning mentors, school meals assistants and playgroundsupervisors.

3.12 Thenumbers of support posts being lost are shown in Chart 3.7. In the samples 310 primary schools (31.6 percent) and 289 secondary schools (78.5 per cent) were reducing supportstaff. Scaled up to the population thissuggests that some 12,300 support staff were going. Most were teaching assistants (86.4 per cent), but clericalassistants, technicians, librarians and school meals staff were also beingshed. About ten times as many weregoing from primary schools reflecting their greater role in those schools. Not only were there cutbacks in supportstaff: only 29.3 per cent of the 172 primary schools with rising rolls and 41.9of the 185 expanding secondary schools said they could afford to appoint extrasupport staff.

Resum

3.13 Thebudget settlement for 2003-04 has left large number of schools indifficulty. Scaling up from our samplessuggests that 4,920 primary schools were having to lose a total of 5,702full-time equivalent teachers. In thesecondary phase, 1,190 schools were cutting back 3,115 FTEs posts, giving atotal of some 8,817. This wasaccomplished mainly through natural wastage, but there were 2,000 redundancies,and 3,320 fixed-term contracts were not renewed.

3.14 Supportstaff posts were being cut back as well as those of teachers. Our sample estimates suggest that 6,200primary schools were shedding 10,688 FTEs and 2,890 secondary schools, 1,620FTEs, or 12,308 in all.

3.15 Takingteachers and support staff together, it appears that affected schools werelosing some 21,125 FTEs. These will notall have been lost to the system because, as we have seen, other schoolsreceived favourable settlements and have been able to increase their complements. However, less than half those withincreasing pupil numbers could afford to appoint extra staff.

4. Balancing the Budget?

4.1 In the report so far we have concentrated on thelosers and that is fair because there were more of them, but we should notforget there were also winners. About10 per cent of schools reported better budget settlements in 2003-04 (see Chart2.1, page 4) than the previous year.

Winners

4.2 Boxes 4.1 and 4.2 show how the schools came tobe in this fortunate position. A commontheme was that they had been funded for increasing pupil numbers. An arts college in London put it succinctly,We are in the very fortunate position of having been funded for a rising rollso we have been able to appoint more teachers and support staff. A higher intake could be a double bonus inenabling schools to run more efficiently.An 11-16 comprehensive in the South East explained, the increase takesme to full classes. In some cases, theschools had worked to raise their entry through particular initiatives or byexpanding the sixth-form. Others feltthey managed themselves well. A boysgrammar school in the South East pointed to its sophisticated system offinancial control and accountability.

Box4.1: Winners - Primary

Our out-turn has been used to buy in a 0.5 teacher to support a large year group. As we will this year be using all of our budget this will be a one-off opportunity.

Junior, North East (0104)

We have a surplus from previous years which is helping us to improve the number of staff on a temporary basis.

VA, Primary, North West (0541)

We are in a stable position this year by keeping our roll the same (means attracting new pupils due to Infant Class Size initiative) and carrying balance forward. I cannot tell her how long this will pertain.

Junior, North West (0557)

We have a 'young staff, therefore cheaper - therefore demands on budget are less. Also planned a carry forward from last year to cater for an additional teacher.

VA, Primary, Yorks & Humb (1335)

We have been able to increase teaching and support staff only because we are replacing very long serving staff with NQTs.

VA, Primary, West Midlands (2133)

This year we have managed to appoint an additional 0.4 teacher to release the Deputy Head and SENCO each week, but how long we can sustain this is unclear.

Primary, East (2436)

Box4.2: Winners - Secondary

As we have very experienced staff with commitment we can cover all curriculum areas with specialists and not enlisted parties.

VA, Girls Tech 11-18, North East (39)

We havent had to modify the curriculum yet. We have managed by the skin of our teeth. There has been a little bit of internal adjustment.

Comp 11-18, Yorks & Humb

We are only in this position because we have been recently reorganised from 13-18 to 11-18 and we are in the process of replacing agency staff with NQTs. Otherwise I would have found balancing the budget difficult without reducing staff.

Perf Art 11-18, East Midlands (642)

We have used all our accumulated reserves. The additional member of staff was afforded only because the LEA paid upfront for the additional pupils we were asked to take.

Maths & Comp 11-16, West Midlands (771)

We have expanded and will do so for two more years.

Comp 11-19, East (1067)

We are in the very fortunate position of having been funded for a rising roll so we have been able to appoint more teachers and support staff.

Arts 11-16, Inner London (1182)

We are fully staffed in all specialist areas for Sept 2003. Although there were budget reductions we have been able to use LiG and EiC (cluster) money to compensate and fund some internal promotion.

VA, Modern 11-18, Outer London (1240)

My LEA have been fair. The school has a sophisticated system of financial control and accountability. We manage well. We had a surplus of 97,000 in 2002/03; projected surplus for 2003/04 is 143,000.

Found, Grammar Boys 11-18, South East (1454)

I have few complaints. The roll is rising and the increase takes me to full classes, so we are running at our most efficient, ie multiples of 30 entry.

Comp 11-16, South East (1394)

Were lucky. Our budget has benefited significantly from a) our rising numbers, b) our expanding sixth form and c) the LSC funding for our post-16 is much higher than the LEA used to be.

Found, Tech 11-18, South West (1736)

School growth allows us to maintain staffing levels. Small (2%) reserve.

Comp 11-16, Wales (1951)

4.3 Some schools attributed their fortunatecircumstances to windfalls. A school inthe South West found that Learning Skills funding for the sixth form was muchhigher than it had received from the LEA in the past. A voluntary aided modern school in London found that theLeadership Incentive Grant and Excellence in Cities money more than compensatedfor the loss on formula funding. Aschool in the West Midlands was grateful that the LEA had paid upfront foranticipated pupil increases. A primaryschool in Yorkshire and Humberside was happy to have a young (and thereforecheaper) staff.

4.4 Some of the schools we have classed aswinners, however, were not much of winners.A primary school in the North West, for example, was using anaccumulated surplus to appoint extra staff on a temporary basis. Another in the West Midlands was able to doso because long serving staff were being replaced by newly-qualifiedteachers. In the East Midlands areorganised arts college was replacing agency staff with NQTs. Some of the extra appointments wereone-off and there was concern about how long they would be sustainable.

4.5 In their juggling to bring in extra staff theseschools were similar to those who had striven to maintain their staffing orkeep reductions to a minimum. Facedwith reduced formula funding schools wanting to avoid staff cuts, in the main,adopted a combination of three courses of action: using reserves, planning adeficit budget or drawing on other saving or earnings.

Use of Reserves

4.6 The cynical might suggest that a Governmentwhich had expressed concern at the amounts of contingency reserves schools wereholding had devised the 2003-04 budget settlement as a means of flushing themout. Certainly Boxes 4.3 and 4.4 showthat many schools were only able to keep up their staff complements by drainingtheir reserves, slashed to zero as an arts college in the West Midlands putit.

4.7 Both primary and secondary schoolsconstantly referred to how their reserves had kept them afloat. In some cases, the money had beenaccumulated from previously generous treatment. I inherited an underspend following several years of additionalfunding for the schools challenging circumstances (Inner London 11-18Comprehensive). But the money could also have been held for a particularpurpose. It will be impossible to meetthe reduction in teachers workload requirements without using all reserveswhich were earmarked for a building project (Infant, North West).

4.8 While the use of reserves has enabled theseschools to maintain their staffing this year, the comments in Boxes 4.3 and 4.4emphasize that it can only be a temporary solution. Once the reserves have gone they have gone. Unless there is a marked improvement in thenext settlement, the full force of the underfunding this year will be felt in2004-05.

Box4.3: Use of Reserves - Primary

Added to the trauma of a disastrous budget (if I hadn't saved more than 50,000 unallocated we would have a deficit budget - inclusion of disabled pupils has resulted in a watering down of LSA target groups so that my present LSAs work with those pupils because the amount of support service help is reduced.

Primary, North East (0169)

We were fortunate to have a reasonable balance last year. This has been halved! We hope that funding is forthcoming next year otherwise we will have to make cuts.

VA, Primary, North West (0334)

This year we have managed using reserves and because we have a young staff. It will be impossible to meet the reduction in teacher workload requirements without using all reserves which were earmarked for a building project. The huge increase in staffing costs and loss of Standards Funds has had an enormous impact.

Infant, North West (0573)

We have had to use last years underspend to balance the budget. This money was saved for improvements.

Primary, Yorkshire & Humberside (1014)

This years budget has been supported by a 20,000 carry forward from last year and having made a redundancy I am running a deficit of 11,500 this year.

Infant, East Midlands (1648)

Without use of development capital and the fact that we are replacing an experienced teacher with an NQT we would not be able to have a balanced budget 03/04.

VA, Primary, West Midlands (1959)

We have cut capitation and used reserves to offset our deficit budget. The bottom line budget given was equal to last year, but more money was needed to cover basic costs.

VA, Primary, West Midlands (2017)

This year we have used all our carry forward. It had been earmarked to improve accommodation. We feel very strongly that teachers and learning support assistants are required to improve the teaching and learning in school but next year, unless the budget is much better, both teachers and support assistants will have to be made redundant.

VC, Primary, East (2489)

Little more than a standstill budget this year. Budget is balanced by using roll over to absorb staffing costs.

Primary, South East (3755)

This year there are no redundancies because we have used our contingency which is down from 30,000 to 5,000. Next year who knows?

Primary, South West (4479)

Box4.4: Use of Reserves - Secondary

Standstill budget through use of surplus.

Middle, North East (25)

More pupils, one staff reduction, using up nearly all reserve. Far too many staff paid out of temporary funding.

Comp 11-16, North West (153)

Used all reserves / reduced capitation / vired formula capital monies to balance the books.

Bus & Ent 11-19, Yorks & Humb (440)

We have had to use the main part of my reserves to balance the budget, because the upper pay spine was not funded in full and the rising roll has not been covered. Cannot implement the teacher workload agreement.

Found, Middle, East Midlands (716)

We are only managing to maintain staffing by slashing our contingency to zero. We can only carry on like this for one year. If the Government doesnt put in more money next year it will be very painful.

Performing Arts 11-16, West Midlands (868)

We have only been able to retain our current level of staffing in a falling roll situation by biting deeply into our surplus.

Comp 12-16, East (1103)

As a new head, I have inherited an underspend following several years of additional funding for the schools challenging circumstances. This cushions the 2003/04 budget where my LEAs settlement is very bad.

Comp 11-18, Inner London (1150)

We have used our reserves and started a programme of underspend at Christmas. We now have no reserves/contingency and despite a rapidly rising roll we have not been able to appoint additional support staff since the priority has been to recruit sufficient teachers and pay more to existing ones for retention.

Lang Girls Modern 11-19, Outer London (1312)

By using 236,000 of carry-over monies (reserves) we are able to balance this years budget. We will, of course, not be able to do this a second year.

Arts 11-18, South East (1569)

We are only able to maintain staffing using a rollover of 190,000 which will not be available next year.

Girls Modern 11-18, South East (1485)

Only prudent forward planning to carry forward a sum to cover a known falling roll has also helped in this tight financial situation.

Middle, South West (1770)

Budget worse than last year so have had to use the reserves as well as losing a post.

Comp 11-18, Wales (Welsh Medium) (1921)

Deficit Budget

4.9 Even with the use of reserves and other measuresnearly a fifth of primary schools and 30 per cent of secondary schoolsindicated that they would be setting a deficit budget in 2003-04. Boxes 4.5 and 4.6 show that the mainmotivation appeared to be an unwillingness to risk standards. We had to appoint an extra teacher for theextra class. We cannot afford it, butwe cannot afford not to. (Voluntary Aided Comprehensive in the NorthWest). Although advised by theDirector of Education to consider staff changes to repay the deficit I am not willingto compromise the childrens education (Primary, Inner London). A comprehensive in Inner London shows thedecision was not taken lightly, We have taken out a licensed deficit thefirst in the history of the school. Allbecause of the funding this year we have anxiety, stress and low morale amongthe staff and governors.

4.10 Someschools were setting deficit budgets in the hope, as one school put it, thatthe Government will come to its senses.Others were planning to repay on the basis of a rising roll over severalyears. More schools may be in deficitthan have explicitly planned. An 11-16comprehensive in the South East explained disarmingly, We have not set a deficitbudget, but I do not expect our proposed budget to work by the end of thefinancial year.

Box4.5: Deficit Budget - Primary

We have gone from a 68,000 surplus in 2002-3 (earmarked for a major building project) to 80,000 deficit in 2003/4 due to cut in Standards Fund (78,000) and increase of 10% on all staff costs.

Primary, North West (0499)

The school is increasing in size from September 2003 but we need to set a deficit budget to enable the school to operate. The deficit will be repaid over two years due to the rise in roll.

Primary, Yorks & Humb (4923)

We are an area of very high social deprivation. It is essential we keep our classes small so we are going to have a deficit of about 40,000.

Primary, East Midlands (1586)

In a small school we have no flexibility with staffing. Expensive staff make an overspend budget.

VA, Primary, West Midlands (2205)

Although advised by the Director of Education to consider staff changes to repay the deficit I am not willing to compromise the childrens education and am postponing this until year 3 of the repayment. Who knows, the Government may come to their senses by then!

Primary, Inner London (2944)

Box4.6: Deficit Budget - Secondary

We had already cut our staffing to the bone. Therefore as our numbers are increasing in September, we had to appoint one extra teacher for the extra class. We cannot afford to, but we cannot afford not to.

VA, Comp 11-16, North West (210)

Carried over 185,000 deficit in March 2003 and it will increase by 15,000 to March 2004. Situation equates to at least four redundancies. Quality of provision will be reduced. Overall achievement will fall drastically. Not fault of LEA; fault lies at the door of central Government.

VA, Grammar 11-18, Yorks & Humb (528)

We have an ongoing deficit incurred through building. As a result we are not growing the staff complement in proportion to the growth in student numbers.

VC, Tech 14-19, East Midlands (597)

Budget situation is very difficult in rural area, but some things we cannot afford to do. Although our funding per pupil increased unavoidable staff costs tipped the balance the other way.

Comp 11-18, West Midlands (902)

Have only coped by getting LEA to agree to run a deficit budget over five years. We have a rising roll so figures do balance eventually.

Comp (Sports from Sept 03) 11-16, East (1091)

We have taken out a licensed deficit the first in the history of the school. All because of the funding this year we have anxiety, stress and low morale among the staff and governors.

Comp 11-16, Inner London (1208)

This years budget is a disaster. We are going to have to run a deficit and to get anywhere near balance we have had to use all our LiG, Beacon and Standards Fund to prop up the salaries budget. We have no funds for curriculum development or building improvement.

VA, Comp Girls 11-18, Outer London (1310)

We are not running a deficit budget, but I do not expect our proposed budget to work by the end of the financial year.

Comp 11-16, South East (1408)

This year there is not enough money to meet existing staffing even before other costs are contemplated hence a shortfall of circa 400,000.

Found, Tech 11-18, South East (1389)

The governors will not compromise the education of the pupils and so seek a licensed deficit budget.

Sports 11-18, South West (1717)

Deficit budgets have been set for two years. Reserves have been drawn down to well below the minimum required by the Audit Commission.

Found, Comp 11-18, Wales (2006)

Box4.7: Other Savings/Earnings - Primary

We can only maintain staff by cutting down on training and resources. We think the teacher is the biggest asset to the children.

Primary, North East, (0182)

We have managed to keep the same staff by using reserves, deciding on no training unless totally paid for (fees and supply) and no new resources.

VA, Primary, North West (0735)

From having a healthy 'surplus and looking to expand its staff, the schools current budget has led to cutbacks in two part-time teachers hours and other areas (resources, INSET) in order to preserve all full-time teaching posts at current levels.

Junior, Yorks & Humb (1226)

In order not to lose any staff I have had to make budget cuts in all other areas e.g. resources, books, staff development etc.

Infant, East Midlands (1465)

We are just about maintaining our staffing ratio, but at the expense of less money set aside for resources and supply teaching budget.

Junior, East Midlands (1702)

Due to budget costs staff at this school are donating a day's pay to fund library books.

VC, Primary, East Midlands (1541)

Staffing is only able to be sustained as a 'one off' for 2003/2004 by using all of carry forward saved to target curriculum developments, plus removal of all non-contact time, removal of all professional development training, and severe limitations to capitation expenditure eg:- no spending on curriculum area.

VA, Primary, West Midlands (2299)

The extra income I generate in my work outside the school OFSTED, EA etc is essential in affording the high quality staff we are determined to keep employing.

Primary, East (2445)

We can do no decoration, improvements or purchase of resources this year.

Primary, East (2626)

We managed to balance our budget only by careful manipulation of the figures and by taking a far greater contribution from the School Associationwithout this we would have been in serious difficulties.

Primary, South East (3944)

The Governors have had to raise the money to avoid redundancies.

Primary, South West (4482)

Only able to keep heads above water by using monies earned by the Head, not covering with supply, no extra resources. This created a carry forward which will not be there next year.

Infant & Nursery, South West (4525)

Box4.8: Other Savings/Earnings - Secondary

We are reducing all non personnel budgets to make ends meet, including, capitation, maintenance, INSET etc.

Comp 11-16, North West (223)

Reduction in budget has reduced development in extra management posts of responsibility.

VA, Comp 11-16, Yorks & Humb (482)

Proportion of budget taken up by staffing up from 83 per cent last year to 87 per cent now.

Comp 11-14, East Midlands (596)

We have cut other budgets massively to safeguard teachers posts this year. Next year this will be an impossibility. The leadership group will have to do mass covers.

Arts 11-16, West Midlands (790)

There has been an extra injection of cash from central and local Government which has kept us afloat. INSET has been slashed to maintain contact ratio.

Found, Tech 11-18, East (1089)

Budget this year has meant no trips or visits, cancellation of clubs, study support, enrichment, minimum capitation just to teach, and then not all posts could be replaced/filled.

Comp 11-16, Inner London (1208)

We are reducing by two staff and cutting choice in Y10. There will be less CPD, fewer school visits, reduced departmental expenditure, reduced ICT spending etc.

Comp 12-16, Outer London (1286)

Assistant Head (MPS+threshold+3M.Pts) and two teachers (MPS+threshold) leaving and replaced by three teachers (one Australian and two Canadians) paid on unqualified scale.

Middle, South East (1533)

In order to maintain staffing levels we have taken a risk with our budget and will, in an emergency, use capital funds to cover the shortfall. This school has very old buildings so using capital money is disastrous in the medium to long term.

Middle, South East (1471)

Our budget is based on robbing capitation, staff development, buildings and reserves.

Comp 11-16, South West (1725)

Directly running catering with profits fully funding one teacher post which is hardly ideal.

Comp 11-16, Wales (1951)

Other Savings and Earnings

4.11 Schoolshave looked at all possible means of balancing the books this year. In order to protect staffing a number, asBoxes 4.7 and 4.8 show, have massively cut budgets, for among other things,training, capitation, maintenance, supply, books, study support and clubs. In order not to lose any staff I have hadto make budget cuts in all other areas, eg. resources, books, staff developmentetc. (Infant, East Midlands). Ourbudget is based on robbing capitation, staff development, buildings andreserves (11-16 Comprehensive, South West).As a result the proportion of the budget going on staff, already veryhigh, is in a number of schools reaching 90 per cent.

4.12 Inaddition, schools are making other savings on staff. Assistant Head (MPS+threshold+3MPts) and two teachers(MPS+threshold) leaving and replaced by three teachers (one Australian and twoCanadians) paid on unqualified scale (Middle, South East). The schools current budget has led tocutbacks in two part-time teachers hours and other areas in order to preserveall full-time teaching posts. (Junior, Yorkshire and Humberside). Plus removal of all non-contact time.(Voluntary Aided Infant and Junior, West Midlands). The leadership group willhave to do massive covers (Arts 11-16, West Midlands). We will be examining the consequences forstaff workload in more detail in Chapter 6.

4.13 Schoolshave also been looking at ways to boost their earnings. An 11-16 comprehensive in Wales is funding ateaching post out of the profits of running the catering. Several primary schools were reliant on theearnings of the headteacher outside the school on, for example, Ofstedinspections. Donations were alsoplaying a part. The staff at avoluntary controlled infant and junior school in the East Midlands were givinga days pay towards the purchase of library books. The School Association was making a bigger contribution at aprimary school in the South East. Thegovernors were raising money to avoid redundancies at a primary school in theSouth West.

Resum

4.14 Theover-riding impression from the headteachers comments in this chapter is thatthe budgets of many schools in 2003-04 will be operating on a knife edge, apartthat is from the few receiving favourable funding. Some of the losers have bitten the bulletand reduced staff, but many are holding on in the hope the Government willrectify the situation. They have usedtheir reserves, set deficit budgets or tacitly expect to go into the red, andhave severely pruned all other areas of expenditure. In some cases, earnings and donations will make the difference.

5. Impact on the Curriculum

5.1 The staff reductions and the other savings wehave discussed in Chapters 3 and 4 will have impacted on the teaching inschools in various ways. Chart 5.1shows that the most common consequence is larger classes, reported by nearlyhalf the secondary schools and a fifth of the primary schools. Primary schools were, in addition, oftenplanning to reduce the teachers already very limited planning, preparation,marking and assessment time, to make more use of teaching assistants and torecruit less expensive staff. Secondaryschools were mainly intending to make savings by adjusting the timetable,holding fewer lessons in some subjects, reducing the number of sets and askingstaff to teach more outside their subjects, while also looking to lessexpensive staff and cutting non-contact time.Secondary schools, however, were not proposing to rely more on teachingassistants.

Chart 5.1: Impact on Teaching

Proposed Changes	Primary		Secondary
Proposed Changes	N	%	N	%
Larger Classes	212	21.7	180	49.2
Less Non-Contact Time	307	31.4	81	22.1
More Teaching Outside Subject	41	4.2	155	42.3
Less Expensive Staff	160	16.4	83	22.7
Reduce Number of Sets	0	0.0	107	29.2
Fewer Lessons	39	4.0	84	23.0
More Temporary Staff	75	7.7	50	13.7
More Use of Teaching Assistants	185	18.9	1	0.3
Total¹	977	100.0	366	100.0

1. 3 primary schools and2 secondary schools did not respond to this question.

5.2 Space was provided for schools to write otherchanges they were having to make and remarkably 97 of the primary schools (10.0per cent) used it to stress that the headteacher and senior staff would have todo more teaching. (Only three of thesecondary schools did so). The strengthof feeling comes through clearly in the comments in Box 5.1. Teaching timetables of half the week or morewere not uncommon, with in one case 90 per cent being cited, and the prospectof even more envisaged. Leadership,management and administration have to be provided in the time not occupied byteaching or covering other duties such as in one case, cleaning the schoolduring half term, as I cannot afford temporary cover when a cleaner issick.(Junior School, South East).

5.3 The pressure on the headteachers can beintense. The head of a primary schoolin Inner London suggested that the job is becoming unmanageable, especially inrelation to building matters and raising funds through grantapplications. The head of a primaryschool in the South East protested that the work/life balance is notapplicable to the role of a head. Thehead of an infant school in the South West,

Box5.1: Impact on Primary Heads and Teachers

We have no training budget for staff this year. Workforce reform on hold - progress we had made in giving staff non-contact time has now been lost. Management team severely depleted.

Primary, North East (0013)

Head teacher teaching time about 50% of the school week. No non-contact time for staff. Key Stage 2 classes 36, 36, 37.

First, North East (0235)

As the head of a small school I have a teaching commitment of 0.9 because I can only afford to pay for 0.1 support. This is not sufficient to cover the workload.

VC, Primary, North West (0879)

My hours as a teaching head have increased from 2 days to 3 due to budget. LSAs if ill have no cover leaving staff without support.

Primary, East Midlands (1785)

We have no professional development budget this year, no planned supply days and reduced sickness insurance. Next year, as head, I will be back to teaching almost full-time unless budget increases.

VC, Primary, West Midlands (2198)

We have only managed to maintain staffing by fudging the budget and me doing 0.4 permanent teaching. We are certain to be hugely overspent by the end of the year.

VA, Lower, East (2371)

All the teaching staff teach full-time so all additional tasks required by the DfES/LEA become the Heads responsibility. The heads job is becoming unmanageable, especially in relation to building matters and raising funds through grant applications.

Primary, Inner London (2940)

I have no money for supply cover. I have covered the deputys as well as my duties during this term. I have even cleaned the school during half-term as I cannot afford temporary cover when a cleaner is sick.

Junior, South East (3529)

We cannot afford to give 2 NQTs 10% PPA time in 2003/4. Pensions, NI and incremental drift in all departments (teaching and non-teaching) have taken ALL the notional extra funding we received in April 2003.

Primary, South East (3731)

After 9 years as a successful head I am resigning due to the added pressures of recent, successive initiatives. There is no deputy or SMT as funds dont allow. My successor is a class teacher with no management experience.

Infant, South West (4227)

Small schools seem worse off than ever. Despite extra money, heads teaching duties are often 70% per week.

Primary, South West (4438)

unableto afford a deputy, was quitting after nine years due to the added pressuresof recent successive initiatives. Weshall be seeing in Chapter 7 that it is extremely difficult to recruit tosenior positions in primary schools. InChapter 8, we shall be raising the question of whether the full delegation ofresponsibilities is the best way of managing and administering small schools.

5.4 Box 5.1 also brings out the pressures on otherstaff, with reduced opportunities for training, and even induction trainingbeing eroded. Supply cover has alsobeen cut. The various attempts to saveon spending have culminated in larger classes in over a fifth of primaryschools (see Chart 5.1). Box 5.2illustrates some of the particular decisions the schools have had to take andtheir consequences.

Box5.2: Impact on Primary Class Sizes

A sudden fall in budget this year has put great pressure on staffing costs. Re-modelling workforce will be very difficult and class sizes much larger.

Primary, North East (0171)

There is no cushion for supply cover - staff will be limited to essential core subject courses. Classes will be combined (against my principles). Many areas have been cut to the bone in order to maintain staffing.

VC, Primary, North West (0485)

Class sizes have increased to bring in funding. Bigger classes definitely have an effect on standards.

VA, Primary, North West (0530)

Resources budget cut to minimum. If staff are absent little money for supply so classes will be divided up amongst other.

Primary, Yorkshire & Humberside (1157)

Combining into 3 classes, with one R/Y1/Y2 class of 29 has caused an uproar amongst the parents. We are losing at least five to other schools, with another three possible leavers.

VC, Primary, East Midlands (1449)

The more able and gifted and talented groups brought to an end. Part-time staff now cover instead of following their job descriptions. Morale lowered.

Infant, Outer London (3182)

We have always managed to run with small classes (average 25) this is no longer possible.

Middle, South East (4044)

Legislation for class sizes does not work in small infants schools it is a nightmare to manage and parents blame schools for mishandling numbers.

Infant, South East (3933)

Box5.3: Impact on Teaching in Secondary Schools

We have had to postpone increasing the number of sets for teaching in Y7 and Y8 because of an extremely tight budgetary position.

Lang 11-18, North West (320)

A French/Spanish teacher is leaving. We are not replacing her because we are disapplying modern languages in KS4.

Comp 11-16, North West (200)

The combination of falling rolls and tighter budgets mean larger classes, less choice, and greater stress generally and on senior staff in particular.

Comp 13-18, Yorks & Humb (540)

We are employing more cover supervisors to reduce our supply costs. All class sizes will be significantly larger. We are embarking on a strategic review to look further at planned staffing reductions in order to prevent deficit spiralling out of control.

Comp 14-19, East Midlands (605)

Every teacher is up to their maximum load so we are having to reduce the number of sets, have larger classes and use more teachers outside their subjects. SEN support will suffer because staff do not have the periods and we are not able to increase our support staff.

Comp 11-18, West Midlands (764)

We are losing 1.2 FTE so other teachers will teach more and there will be less non-contact time. We are also losing 1.4 support staff from SEN, therefore this department has suffered cuts in service more than any other.

Middle, East (1145)

We are opening a VI form for which we can only afford part-time teachers.

VA, Tech Girls, Inner London (1170)

We have lost three posts in spite of a rising roll, because of budget cuts. This means larger classes, fewer sets, fewer lessons in some subjects, and less non-contact time for teachers.

VA, Comp (becoming Bus & Ent) 11-18, Outer London (1227)

Innovation has a cost and puts strain on scarce resources. Our new pathway curriculum KS4 has cost 10,000 to establish, will reduce exclusion and behaviour incidents, but no funding support.

Comp 11-16, South East (1429)

Hiring is difficult, firing is more so. In this county staff generally age in post and are reluctant to move on. They are also very reluctant to teach outside their area. Hence when the curriculum changes it is difficult to adjust staffing.

Sport 11-18, South West (1704)

Difficulty in providing the range of vocational courses we feel we need to offer in KS4/5 because of budget constraints.

Comp 11-19, Wales (4722)

5.5 About half the secondary schools reported therewould have to be larger classes. Inaddition, as Chart 5.1 shows, there will also be fewer lessons in somesubjects, the number of sets is being reduced and less expensive staff arebeing employed. Specifically, what thismeans is illustrated in Box 5.3. Modernlanguages teaching being reduced because a teacher is conveniently leaving,hoped-for vocational courses are not being offered and, as was evident in Chart3.6 (page 13), SEN is being particularly badly hit. Cuts in the supply cover budget are leadingto an increased workload for teachers and also the use of coversupervisors. Innovation and developmentis under threat. A school in London isopening a sixth form with just part-time staff; a new pathway curriculum at KS4 is at risk.

5.6 Over 40 per cent of secondary schools alsoindicated that they would have to ask teachers to do more teaching outsidetheir subjects. That is on top of themismatch that already exists. In asurvey conducted in the autumn term and discussed in detail in the interimreport (Smithers, Robinson and Tracey, 2002), we found that about a fifth ofsecondary teachers were teaching well outside their subjects. We reproduce the key table as Chart 5.2.

Chart 5.2: Teaching and Qualifications

Subject(s) Taught	Number of Teachers	Qualification in Subject (s)
		QTS¹		Degree only²		Total
		N	%	N	%	%
Maths	183	140	76.5	11	6.0	82.5
IT	112	15	13.4	9	8.0	21.4
Chemistry	22	17	77.3	3	13.6	90.9
Physics	25	16	64.0	3	12.0	76.0
Biology	26	21	80.8	5	19.2	100.0
Science	164	85	51.8	60	36.6	88.4
MFL	137	126	92.0	5	3.6	95.6
English	164	149	90.8	0	0.0	90.8
History	84	62	73.8	7	8.3	82.1
Geography	98	76	77.6	7	7.1	84.7
RE	86	39	45.3	6	7.0	52.3
D&T	84	63	75.0	9	10.7	85.7
Art	45	40	88.9	2	4.4	93.3
Music	30	26	86.7	3	10.0	96.7
PE	133	105	80.0	1	0.8	80.8
Total³	1393	980	70.4	131	9.4	79.8

1.Where first or second subjectof main teaching qualification PGCE, BEd, certificate etc.

2.Degree in subject althoughnot main teaching qualification.

3.Subject total, teachers could be counted more thanonce.

5.7 A generous definition of being appropriatelyqualified (first or second subject of teaching qualification irrespective ofdegree subject, or just a degree in the subject or a closely-related one)suggests mismatch of the order of 20 per cent.But on a narrower definition of just teaching qualification it comes outas 30 per cent. Even this is to take afavourable view, since the staff surveyed were those appointed to specificposts and listed in prospectuses. Ittakes no account of the temporary and supply staff, and cover teaching, used toplug gaps.

5.8 The lack of fit revealed in Chart 5.2 can arisein several ways. Since it is difficultto fill the training places in subjects such as maths and physics, mismatchwill stem from there not being enough well-qualified teachers. This is also likely to be the case for ITwhich as a new subject will take time to build up training routes and areservoir of appropriately qualified staff.But, generally, there is little difficulty in appointing to history orPE posts and the use of, on the face of it, inappropriately qualified teachershere must reflect conscious choices on the part of those drawing up thetimetable. Those choices will have beenfurther constrained in many schools by the budget settlement of 2003-04.

5.9 An over-riding concern for schools was that thestaff cuts and other savings would impinge on the quality of education theywere able to provide. Boxes 5.4 and 5.5highlight some of the specific concerns.

Box 5.4: Quality - Primary

The reduced budget for 2003/4 was a surprise to all involved in school, with little or no notice. It has made provision of similar standards very difficult.

VA, Primary, North West (0897)

Very concerned about the impact our loss will have on the support we offer to class teachers and children. We are inner city, multicultural and very inclusive. Behaviour is good because of a cohesive and consistent policy of support. We will not be able to continue to provide as much. Our deficit is so large we will not be able to clear it in one year.

Primary, East Midlands (1707)

I have been a head for 30 years. Now I have no choice but to undo much of what I have created.

Primary, East (2879)

We have numerous commitments and expectations to fulfil in our post-OFSTED action plan to raise standards, but on reduced resources.

Primary, Outer London (3434)

Having been encouraged to employ more staff to support the many Government initiatives to raise standards, this years standstill budget was a kick in the teeth.

Primary, South East (3768)

We have been well funded but this years reduction/shortfall will set us back no new equipment, redundancies, SD Action plan on hold and OFSTED Action plan delayed.

Primary, South West (4370)

Box5.5: Quality - Secondary

We are a school in serious weakness in an area of high deprivation. We are losing 3.4 teachers, and the larger groups are bound to affect standards.

Comp 11-16, North East (66)

The effects of budgets and the workforce remodelling could undermine standards.

Comp 11-16, North West (327)

Financial management is taking up a disproportionate amount of time thus distracting from other aspects of headship such as promoting achievement.

Comp 11-16, Yorks & Humb (386)

The more SMT do to paper over the cracks ie teaching/phone duty/cover/isolation unit the less time there is for strategic planning.

Comp 11-16, East Midlands (636)

This year we have not replaced management points from teachers who are moving elsewhere which will certainly impact on standards.

Arts 11-16, West Midlands (790)

Whatever national comments are made about recruitment, schools finance etc, the situation on the ground is the most serious ever at present. Standards are threatened.

Comp 13-19, East (940)

After years of making progress on all fronts from being in special measures to excellent Ofsted, it is at risk because of the severe cuts imposed by this years funding.

Comp 11-16, Inner London (1208)

Budget cuts have dramatically affected the ability of the school to address its major priorities for improvement. We have not replaced 7.3 teachers and 5.5 support staff so all aspects of the curriculum will suffer.

VA, Comp 11-18, Outer London (1229)

The knock-on effect of increasing class sizes will have a devastating effect on the health and welfare of the staff.

Lang 12-16, South East (1608)

Next year will be problematic due to further drop in population 30 pupils so around 60,000 which has worrying implications for maintaining standards.

Comp 11-16, Wales (1865)

5.10 Bothprimary and secondary schools were concerned about the consequences of thelarger classes and reduction in individual support. An infant and junior school in the East Midlands said, We are aninner city, multicultural and very inclusive.Behaviour is good because of a cohesive and consistent policy ofsupport. We will not be able tocontinue to provide as much. An 11-16comprehensive in the North East lamented, We are a school in seriousweakness in an area of high deprivation.We are losing 3.4 teachers, and the larger groups are bound to affectstandards.

5.11 Lackof time for planning and insufficient funding to implement plans were also seenas a threat to standards. Theheadteacher of an 11-16 comprehensive in Yorkshire and Humberside complainedthat financial management is taking up a disproportionate amount of time thusdistracting from other aspects of headship such as promoting achievement. A school in Yorkshire and Humberside pointedout that the more time senior staff spent papering over the cracks, the lessthere was for strategic planning.Primary schools were having to put their post-Ofsted action plans onhold.

Resum

5.12 Staffreductions and other savings were reported as leading to larger classes innearly half the secondary schools and a fifth of primary schools. Primary schools were also planning to reducenon-contact time and make more use of teaching assistants. Headteachers, themselves, are having to takeon more teaching and cover other duties.

5.13 Secondaryschools were having to ask teachers to take more classes outside theirsubjects, adding to the already considerable mismatch. They were also trimming the curriculum invarious ways. There was widespreadconcern about the potential impact on standards.

7. Recruitment

7.1 The third of the balls along withaffordability and retention - that schools have to keep in the air isrecruitment. According to theheadteacher of a comprehensive school in the South West:

Teacherrecruitment is the most serious issue we have to face. The conspiracy of silence (heads cannotspeak openly about this matter in order to protect their staff) means that thedramatic decline in the quantity and quality of candidates for teaching postsis obscured.

7.2 The Government has generally been able topresent a positive picture of recruitment to training. It reported to the School Teachers ReviewBody (2003) that, from the nadir of 1998, maths intake was up by nearly a half,science up by 19 per cent, English up by 17 per cent and modern foreignlanguages by 6 per cent. As impressive as this might seem, the places filledwere still some way below allocations, with shortfalls of 29 per cent inlanguages, 15 per cent in maths and 9 per cent in science. In contrast, there never has been any greatdifficulty in attracting primary trainees.

Vacancies

7.3 We are able to see how the current state ofteacher training recruitment nationally affects headteachers on the ground fromthe surveys of representative samples of schools carried out in the summer term2003. Of the 980 (5 per cent sample)primary schools, 491 (50.1 per cent) were looking to make appointments and ofthe 368 (10 per cent sample) secondary schools, 348 (94.6 per cent) were. Chart 7.1 tracks the process of appointment.

Chart 7.1: Teaching Posts Available forSeptember 2003

Details	Primary		Secondary
Details	N	%¹	N	%¹
Schools Seeking to Make Appointments	491	50.1	348	94.6
Teaching Posts Available	812		1960
Advertised Posts	623	79.6	1788	93.6
Advertised Full-Time Permanent Posts	397	64.1	1487	83.7
Advertised FTP for Classroom Teachers	341	54.7	1192	66.6
FTP Classroom Appointment Made	317	96.6	1096	93.8

1. Percentages referrespectively to the percentages of schools seeking to make appointments; thepercentages of posts available that were advertised (29 primary posts and 51secondary posts discounted because of insufficient information); thepercentages of the advertised posts that were full-time permanent; thepercentages of advertised posts that were for FTP classroom teachers; and thepercentages of the classroom FTP posts that were filled (discounting 13 primaryposts and 24 secondary post where the closing date had not been reached).

7.4 The 491 primary schools recruiting were seekingto make 812 appointments, of which 623 were advertised. Of the advertised posts, 397 were full-timepermanent including 341 for classroom teachers. Appointments had been made to 317 (96.6 per cent) of these postsat the time of the survey in late June/early July. The 348 secondary schools making appointments were wanting torecruit to 1960 posts, of which 1,788 (93.6 per cent) had been advertised. Of the advertised posts, 1487 were full-timepermanent, including 1,192 for classroom teachers. Of these, 1,096 (93.8 per cent) had been filled.

New Posts

7.5 Estimates from these samples to the populationsof schools in England and Wales suggest that in summer 2003 primary schoolswere looking to make some 16,240 appointments and secondary schools some19,600. Of these, Chart 7.2 indicatesthat, on headcount, 1,640 primary and 3,230 secondary posts were new. Converted to FTEs using the DfES standardfraction of 0.325 gives estimates of 1165.2 and 3135.4 respectively. Setting these new posts against thereductions in teaching staff arrived at in paragraph 3.3 (page 10) suggeststhat there was a net loss of full-time equivalent primary teachers acrossEngland and Wales of 4,537 but in the secondary phase losses and gains more orless balanced resulting in a net increase of just 20.4 posts. This difference between the phases, in part,reflects the trends in pupil intakes with primary rolls falling while secondaryare still rising.

Chart 7.2: New Posts by Type of Contract

Type of Contract	Primary				Secondary
	Total		New		Total		New
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
Full-Time Permanent	480	60.0	24	5.0	1,571	82.6	255	16.2
Full-Time Fixed-Term	207	25.9	22	10.6	229	12.0	40	17.5
Part-Time Permanent	43	5.4	7	16.3	48	2.5	15	31.3
Part-Time Fixed-Term	70	8.8	29	41.4	53	2.8	13	24.5
Total¹	812	100.0	82	10.1	1960	100.0	323	16.5

1. Totals include 12primary posts and 59 secondary posts for which there was no information on thetype of contract.

AdvertisedPosts

7.6 Falling rolls probably also account, in part,for the high proportion of new primary posts which are part-timefixed-term. The difference between theprimary and secondary phases in the proportion of advertised posts detailed inChart 7.1 is also related to the type of appointments the schools are seekingto make. Chart 7.3 shows that full-timepermanent posts are nearly always advertised in secondary schools and predominantlyso in primary schools, but this is less often the case with the other types ofappointment.

Chart 7.3: Advertised Posts by Type ofContract

Type of Contract	Primary			Secondary
Type of Contract	N	% Posts	%Advert	N	% Posts	%Advert
Full-Time Permanent	397	64.1	84.7	1487	83.7	95.3
Full-Time Fixed-Term	146	23.6	73.2	213	11.9	89.4
Part-Time Permanent	32	5.2	74.4	40	2.3	85.1
Part-Time Fixed-Term	44	7.1	65.7	37	2.1	69.8
Total¹	623	100.0	79.6	1788	100.0	93.6

1. Information on type ofcontract not provided for 4 primary posts and 11 secondary posts.

7.7 Another reason for the difference is thatprimary schools in some LEAs draw on pools of newly-qualified teachers (NQTs)recruited by the authority. Appointingfrom the LEA pool was also the most common reason for primary posts not beingadvertised (52.2 per cent), followed by appointing someone known to the school(37.3 per cent), recruiting to the Graduate Teacher Programme (9.0 per cent),and supplied by an agency (1.5 per cent).Overwhelmingly, the reason for not advertising a secondary post was thatit was being filled by someone known to the school (96.2 per cent). A few were filled from agencies (1.9 percent) or as GTPs (1.9 per cent), but most of the GTPs recruited by thesecondary schools in our sample were appointed to posts that had been advertised.

Applications

7.8 The average number of applications received inresponse to an advertisement varied considerably between primary and secondary,and with the type of post. In keepingwith ease of recruitment to training, and also falling rolls, Chart 7.4 showsthat each advertised primary post attracted 15 applicants compared to six foreach secondary post, but the differences were even greater when the nature ofthe post is taken into account. Primaryclassroom posts attracted three times as many applications as those insecondary schools. But for headshipsand deputy headships the position was reversed. A deputy headship in a secondary school was likely to attractthree times as many applicants as one in a primary school, and a headshipnearly twice as many. Box 5.1 (page 28)brought out the very heavy demands on the senior staff of primary schools whooften had full teaching timetables as well leading, managing and administering. Heads of department/faculty are in asomewhat similar position in secondary schools and these were the posts whichattracted fewest applicants.

Chart 7.4: Applications to Full-TimePermanent Posts

Type of Post	Primary			Secondary
Type of Post	N	% Posts	Average Applicants	N	% Posts	Average Applicants
Headteacher	14	3.5	9.2	10	0.7	16.2
Deputy/Assist Head	39	9.9	6.9	63	4.2	22.3
Head of Dept/Faculty				222	14.9	4.3
Classroom Teachers	341	86.3	16.4	1,192	80.2	5.3
Total¹	397	100.0	15.2	1,487	100.0	6.0

1. Totals for primary andsecondary posts allow for 3 and 2 missing cases respectively. Analysis of number of applicants does notinclude 5 primary posts where the closing date had not been reached and 8primary posts when the appointment was made from the LEA NQT pool, or 16secondary posts where the closing date had not been reached when questionnairereturned.

Applications by Region and by Subject

7.9 Given these differences, for like-with-likecomparisons between regions and with subject in secondary schools we havefocused on applicants to the 341 advertised full-time permanent classroom postsin primary schools and the 1,192 advertised full-time permanent classroom postsin secondary schools (see Chart 7.1).Chart 7.5 shows there were striking differences with region. Average primary applications ranged from 3.8per post in Outer London to 33.9 per post in the North East. The East of England and Inner London werealso well below the overall average.Interestingly, in our sample there was only one advertised FTP primaryclassroom post in Wales (although 16 part-time and temporary posts).

7.10 Applicationsto secondary posts followed a similar pattern to primary applications althoughat one third the level. Again, theNorth West, Yorkshire and Humberside and the South West did relatively well andLondon, the East and the South East relatively poorly. But there is also an intriguingcontrast. While primary posts in theNorth East attracted the highest average number of applications of all theregions, for secondary it was among the lowest. For secondary posts Wales did best of all with an average of 9.4applications.

Chart 7.5: Applications to Full timePermanent Classroom Posts by Region

Region	Primary		Secondary
Region	N	Applications	N	Applications
North East	13	33.9	50	3.9
North West	31	26.2	141	7.9
Yorks & Humber	19	31.4	105	6.6
East Midlands	30	16.1	125	6.1
West Midlands	34	14.3	128	5.3
East of England	36	9.1	118	3.2
Inner London	35	10.3	52	3.0
Outer London	36	3.8	126	3.4
South East	56	12.3	190	3.9
South West	38	28.1	103	7.0
Wales	1	7.0	42	9.4
Total¹	329	16.4	1,180	5.3

1. Primary does not include 4 posts whoseclosing date had not been reached or 8 where the appointment was made from theLEA pool; secondary does not include 12 posts where the closing date had notbeen reached.

7.11 Therewas also wide variation with subject.Chart 7.6 shows that history posts attracted, on average, about threetimes as many applications as those in maths, music, RE and Welsh. Art and geography also did relatively well,but English, design and technology and information and communications technologyhad to make do with between four and five applications per post. The position in physics is even worse thanthat in maths, but its position is masked by the ready recruitment to biologywhich falls in the same subject category.

7.12 Headteacherswere also asked to rate the quality of the applications they werereceiving. We come to the generalpicture in Chart 7.8. But in relationto the subjects we can see that quality was perceived to vary, to some extent,with the number of applications that were received. Over three-quarters of the applicants to the history and artposts were rated good down to maths where only 35 per cent were put in thiscategory. This spectrum is consistentwith the training figures. Whilehistory teacher training has no difficulty in meeting its targets, maths hasalways struggled and, in spite of incentives, 15 per cent of the places stillremain unfilled. Further, an analysisin 2000 (Smithers and Robinson, 2000) showed nearly two-thirds of historygraduates recruited to teaching held a first or upper-second compared with only33.4 per cent in maths. This suggeststhat there is an objective base to the headteachers judgements and they do notsimply perceive quality where applications are highest.

Chart 7.6: Applications by Subject

Subject	N	Applications	% Good
History	41	11.8	76.9
Art	35	10.0	81.3
Geography	60	8.0	55.6
Science¹	193	5.7	44.9
PE	116	5.6	68.9
Modern Languages	71	5.5	55.4
ICT	65	4.6	50.0
Design & Technology³	118	4.5	50.9
English²	201	4.3	55.5
Maths	131	4.0	35.0
Music	33	3.8	40.0
RE	44	3.5	39.0
Welsh	5	3.2	20.0
Other⁴	53	4.8	62.0
Total⁵	1,180	5.3	52.6

1. Includes physics,chemistry, biology, science and other science.

2. Includes drama.

3. Includes business studiesand home economics.

4. Includes SEN and subjectsother than those listed.

5. Applicants for 75 of the posts not rated.

7.13 Sinceapplications seem to vary considerably by both region and subject, it could bethat one was causing the other. Chart7.7 gives the number of posts and the applications for them across the regionsin selected subjects. It shows thatthere are indeed regional and subject patterns. The East, London and the South East were struggling toattract applicants receiving barely two or three applications across thesubjects. Inner London could attractonly 2.5 per post in PE, less than half the overall average. On the other hand, Wales did better than allthe English regions in the core subjects of English, maths and science. The North West also generally had littledifficulty, attracting 9 applicants per post in English, 10.5 in Science, 9.7in PE and 6.1 in design and technology (a good number for this subject). Yorkshire and Humberside and the South Westalso had little difficulty in attracting to some subjects.

7.14 ButChart 7.8 also brings out that pockets of shortage are likely to occur inotherwise relatively comfortable regions. For example, the seven maths posts inthe South West attracted only just over one applicant each and the one PE postin the Welsh sample received just one application. There is also variation within regions. While science posts in the North East received an above averagenumber of applications, the maths posts attracted only one applicationeach. The South East, generally shortof applicants, received above the average in PE. The West Midlands, average overall, only received about threeapplications per post in the core subjects of English and maths.

Chart 7.7: Applications to SelectedSubjects by Region

Region	English		Maths		Science		D & T		PE
Region	N	App	N	App	N	App	N	App	N	App
North East	7	3.6	2	1.0	6	6.3	8	3.1	4	2.3
North West	17	9.0	17	5.4	21	10.5	16	6.1	19	9.7
Yorks & Humber	18	4.8	11	7.6	18	6.8	10	7.0	12	4.7
East Midlands	22	4.8	16	4.6	24	6.9	11	5.5	8	8.0
West Midlands	24	3.1	10	3.2	22	5.2	12	6.1	14	3.4
East of England	24	2.3	5	1.6	27	3.2	8	3.1	14	4.1
Inner London	11	3.1	7	3.7	7	2.9	8	3.9	2	2.5
Outer London	18	3.2	20	3.8	20	2.7	15	2.2	8	4.8
South East	33	3.3	29	2.3	27	2.9	18	2.1	24	5.8
South West	23	5.1	7	1.3	16	8.6	8	6.3	10	4.8
Wales	4	10.5	7	7.3	5	12.0	4	5.5	1	1.0
Total	210	4.3	131	4.0	193	5.7	118	4.5	116	5.6

7.15 Thecomments made by headteachers in Boxes 7.1 and 7.2 bear out thesetabulations. A headteacher in the SouthWest refers to the great trouble in recruiting in maths, losing three peoplewho had virtually agreed contracts. Aschool in the North East points to A serious shortage of applicants formaths/English/ science, not experienced in this area before. A technology school in the South Eastremarks, extremely difficult to recruit to all areas of the curriculum theyare all shortage subjects but some more than others technology, physics, ICT,English, maths.

7.16 Theheadteachers comments also underline a number of the other points to haveemerged in the analyses of this chapter.Most regions had plentiful applications to primary posts, exceptingOuter London and the East. Nearly allof the primary comments on applications come from those regions and they stresstheir reliance on overseas trained teachers: overseas staff on fixed-termcontracts mask issues of vacancies (Primary, Outer London); lots of interestfrom OTT but many have limited English skills (Junior, East). There is also reference to another pointwhich emerged in Chart 7.4 which is that it is very difficult to attractapplicants for deputy-headships and headships of primary schools, We have nodeputy head and have been unable to appoint one (no real interest) for threeyears (Infant, South East). Even thelament of a headteacher in Wales - In the last two years I have lost twooutstanding teachers because I was unable to offer them permanent posts -resonates with the one full-time permanent classroom post in the Welsh sample.

Box7.1: Applications - Primary

Recruitment of senior staff is very difficult. Even teaching staff applications are erratic this time was good.

Junior, East (2720)

Advertising in TES, Jobscene and on the internet are costly. Response is very poor from UK trained teachers lots of interest from OTT but many have limited English skills.

Junior, East (2615)

We exist on Australian supply staff which cost a great deal of money thus budgets are reduced further.

VA, Primary, Outer London (3285)

Overseas staff on fixed-term contracts mask issues of vacancies.

Primary, Outer London (3287)

Adverts are a waste of time and money. Many teachers want to be non-class based or part-time to avoid paper work. School development is seriously hampered.

Primary, Outer London (3348)

We have no Deputy Head and have been unable to appoint one (no real interest) for 3 years. I am also losing my SENCO to early retirement and will have to do that job myself also!

Infant, South East (3566)

In the last 2 years I have lost 2 outstanding teachers because I was unable to offer them permanent posts.

Primary, Wales (4689)

Box7.2: Applications - Secondary

Applicants for middle management posts very thin. Where are tomorrows leaders? Does anyone teach technology?

Comp 11-18, North East (58)

Serious shortage of applicants for maths/English/ science not experienced in this area before.

Tech 11-16, North East (79)

Very few applicants for some posts. We have carried a vacancy for a whole year in music. We are having to pay management 3 to attract any maths applicants at all.

Bus & Ent 11-16, North West (296)

Very hard to recruit teaching staff in this borough in shortage subjects.

Comp 11-16, Yorks & Humb (380)

It is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain a field of teaching staff for interview. The number of applicants has dropped significantly in the past two years.

Comp 11-18, East Midlands (641)

There seems to be a very limited pool of good quality staff. Subjects such as music, English and physical sciences impossible.

Comp 11-18, West Midlands (731)

Management, recruitment and retention allowances do not attract applicants. But heads offer more money when they know a teacher has an interview. It happened with the posts we advertised in maths, D&T and MFL.

Comp 11-16, West Midlands (916)

Recruitment is a major problem. Lack of quality applicants. We rely more and more on GTP where we do get good quality but it takes a lot of staff time in support, mentoring etc.

Tech 11-18, West Midlands (789)

We can afford staff but getting high calibre committed people is the problem.

Comp 11-18, East (987)

We have 3.5 vacancies we have not been able to fill.

Comp 11-18, Inner London (1150)

Recruitment a nightmare 17 OTTs, 4 RGTPS, 8 NQTs..

Sports Boys Modern 11-18, Outer London (1333)

To cover a long standing graphics vacancy I have had to appoint and ex deputy head on CPS=3 plus UP2. An NQT would have done none available.

Bus & Ent 11-16, Outer London (1295)

Recruitment is a serious issue in this area, due to housing costs etc. Employing GTPs is one way to overcome the problem, but training then becomes the issue.

Boys Modern 11-18, Outer London (1313)

The recruitment position is worrying. In this LEA the underlying trend is for fewer applications of, with the exception of NQTs, poorer quality and demanding higher salaries.

Found, Comp 11-19, Outer London (1300)

Extremely difficult to recruit in all areas of the curriculum they are all shortage subjects but some more than others technology, physics, ICT, English, maths.

Tech 11-19, South East (1438)

We have invested in GTPs who teach considerably less, but ultimately have saved us from failing to find a teacher.

VA, Boys Grammar, South East (1509)

Very small field for any post. Often need to re-advertise.

Sports 11-18, South East (1439)

We have had great trouble in recruiting in maths, losing three people who had virtually agreed contracts.

Comp 11-16, South West (1684)

Welsh teachers are in very short supply in Wales: almost all appointments are made on the basis of personal recommendation/knowledge.

Comp 11-18, Wales (1996)

7.17 Thevolume and substance of the comments in Box 7.2 also illustrate and confirm anumber of the other aspects of recruitment to secondary posts revealed in thestatistical analyses. We saw in Chart7.4 that head of department posts attracted the fewest applicants of all. This is echoed by, among others, the schoolin the North East which remarked, Applicants for middle management posts verythin. Where are tomorrowsleaders? Several schools commented onhow they were coming to rely on the Graduate Teacher Programme to plug thegaps, and while it helped to overcome recruitment difficulties it called for alot of staff time to do the training. Aschool in the West Midlands blew the whistle on management, recruitment andretention allowances suggesting, they do not attract applicants. But heads offer more money when they know ateacher has an interview.

Quality

7.18 Anumber of the secondary schools commented on the quality of theapplicants. There seems to be a verylimited pool of good quality staff (Comprehensive 11-16, West Midlands). In this LEA the underlying trend is forfewer applications of, with the exception of NQTs, poorer quality and demandinghigher salaries (Foundation, Comprehensive 11-19, South East). We were able to test this against theheadteachers ratings of the quality of the applications they werereceiving. Their assessments are shownin Chart 7.8.

Chart 7.8: Ratings of Quality ofApplicants to Full-Time Permanent Classroom Posts

Rating	Primary				Secondary
	NQTs		Other		NQTs		Other
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
Good	104	66.2	101	63.5	368	57.0	215	46.6
Average	42	26.8	49	30.1	230	35.6	172	37.5
Poor	11	7.0	9	5.7	48	7.4	72	15.7
Totals¹	157	100.0	159	100.0	646	100.0	459	100.0

1. Primary total does notinclude 4 posts whose closing date had not been reached or 8 where theappointment was made from the LEA pool; secondary does not include 12 postswhere the closing date had not been reached.There was some reluctance on the part of headteachers to rate thequality of the applications: secondary headteachers declined to rate 87,primary 13.

7.19 Thecomment from the South East does seem to capture the general view. Secondary schools both seem to appoint moreNQTs and to rate them more favourably.Nearly 60 per cent of the appointments to the advertised full-timepermanent classroom posts in secondary schools went to NQTs and theheadteachers rated 57 per cent of the applications from them as good comparedto 47 per cent of the applications from others. In contrast, primary posts saw less of a difference, with bothNQT and other applicants rated higher than by secondary schools. This is in line with ease of recruitment toprimary teacher training and the greater interest in primary posts.

Resum

7.20 Inthe samples, 491 primary schools (50.1per cent) and 348 secondary schools (94.6per cent) were seeking to make respectively 812 and 1,960 appointments, fromwhich we can estimate the demand nationally to be for some 16,240 and 19,600recruits. Of these, 1165.2 primaryfull-time equivalents and 3,135.4 secondary FTEs respectively were newposts. Set against the losses recordedin Chapter 3 suggests a net loss in the primary phase of 4,377 posts, but a netgain in secondary of 20.4.

7.21 Advertisedclassroom teaching posts in primary schools received, on average, three timesas many applications as those in secondary schools, 16.4 against 5.3. But the advantage was reversed when it cameto deputy headships, 6.9 against 22.3.Head of department posts in secondary schools received fewestapplications of all - on average 4.3 per post.Applicants for classroom posts in primary schools ranged from averagesof 3.8 in Outer London to 33.9 in the North East, and for secondary posts from3.0 in Inner London to 9.4 in Wales. History received 11.8 applications per post and 76.9 per cent ofthe applications were rated good. Incontrast, for maths where there were 4.0 applications per post only 35.0 percent were rated good. Within theoverall pattern, there were a number of hot and cold spots, for example, veryfew maths applicants in the South West although there was generally goodrecruitment across the subjects in that region, and a relatively high number ofPE applicants in the South East which otherwise struggled.

7.22 Secondaryheadteachers rated the quality of NQTs higher than that of other applicants andappointed relatively more of them. Inprimary schools, the ratings of NQTs and other applicants were similar and theywere about as likely to be appointed to advertised posts, though some postswere being filled by recruiting directly from LEA pools of the newly qualified.

Box8.3: Prospects - Primary

Just managed to balance budget with carry forward and not replacing staff. Worried that if this trend continues together with falling roll more staff reductions would be inevitable.

Primary, North East (0053)

Pupil rolls are falling. Next year it will be necessary to 'lose' a teacher. A smaller number of children in each class would be a much better option.

Primary, North East (0154)

In September we will have 16 fewer children in year 1 due to general falling rolls. We are therefore employing temporary staff in case we have to make cutbacks in staffing if the trend continues next year. This is why we are not replacing a much needed teaching assistant in Reception.

Infant, North West (0513)

With a drop in numbers and cheaper staff employed we are able to manage this year but are unsure about next year if budget does not improve.

Infant, Yorks & Humb (1378)

Falling rolls account for most discomfort - a pupil 'bulge' leaving in July. Problems will be far more acute in Sept. 04 when a one year maternity 'expires'. At current levels we shall probably lose 2.0 FTE teachers. CSA support for workforce remodelling not viable.

VC Junior, Yorks & Humb (1129)

We had a large carry forward - 75,000 but have wiped this out. Have also lost 68 hours TA support to keep afloat and have a small reserve for next year. Expect to go into deficit budget in 2004/05 if funding does not improve.

Primary, East Midlands (1595)

We have a carry forward which will support budget for 2003/4 but we will need to reduce classes from 7 to 6 in September 2005 and therefore reduce staffing by one teacher.

Junior, East Midlands (1754)

We can cover the additional costs of new pay levels for teaching assistants this year, but will struggle to do so in future.

VA, Primary, West Midlands (2328)

The additional post is temporary due to financial concerns for next year.

Primary, West Midlands (2044)

We have been able to set a budget this year only by reducing staffing, LSA hours reductions, reductions in admin hours, the head taking on more teaching and using up our entire carry forward. This cannot be sustained for 2004-05. The workload agreement cannot be implemented at present.

Primary, East (2534)

This year has been the worst budget settlement I can remember and next year looks like being worse.

Primary, South West (4414)

Box8.4: Prospects - Secondary

If the current funding crisis is not resolved, large numbers of teachers will be made redundant next year. At a strategic level problems are financial, at teacher level it is workload and stress.

Tech 11-16, North West (299)

Using accumulated reserves 2003/04. Real concerns for subsequent years, especially as Standards Funds are transferred to formula grants, where we will lose out.

Perf Arts 11-18, Yorks & Humb (544)

I had a very large carry forward which is allowing me to maintain staffing levels for one more year. If funding does not improve I will be making two teachers redundant next year.

VC, Middle, West Midlands (866)

We have received extra funding for an increasing roll, but April 2004 looks to be more difficult.

Comp 13-18, East (1079)

We are losing five posts this year and we will have to go further down the staff reductions procedures route (we are 220,000 in red) if more money is not promised (and it is real money) for next year.

Comp 11-19, Inner London (1186)

The funding crisis is appalling. I am only able to balance the budget because of Technology College status and even so we are losing one post. We cant sustain another year at this level of funding without making further cuts.

Found, Girls Tech 11-18, Outer London (1248)

Governors have agreed to set deficit budget in line with Secretary of States comments. We fear next year for the LEA has predicted further cuts.

Boys Grammar, South East (1470)

We have been able to keep existing staffing levels this year by tightening belts in maintenance and equipment, but this will not be possible next year when without a significant increase redundancies will happen.

Girls Grammar 11-18, South East (1472)

We have been able to sort out a budget to get us through 2003/4 by using up all our carry forward. We now have no margin for covering any shortfall in 2004/05.

Middle, South West (1639)

If next year does not see a real increase in funding, we shall need to cut teaching staff, raise class sizes and/or contact ratios. Not a happy situation with the workload agreement due to kick in and derisory sums on offer in Wales.

Found, Comp 11-18, Wales (2006)

schoolsneed to run efficiently and effectively, and test out its decisions withstudies of the impact on schools.

Processes

8.10 Schoolsconcerns were not only directed towards the total amount of money available,but also the processes by which it reached them. A representative selection of headteachers views are given inBoxes 8.5 and 8.6. A common threadrunning through many of the comments is, in the words the headteacher of anEast Midlands 11-18 comprehensive, chronic disparities in funding betweenschools and LEAs. The Government (DfES2003f) is seeking to address this by guaranteeing a minimum funding increase inevery school, though this of course will not rectify existing inequalities.

PolicyPointer 2: In seeking to arrive at fair funding arrangements the Governmentshould take into account existing disparities as well as guaranteeing at leasta minimum increase on a per school basis.

8.11 Anothertheme was the short-termism. The headof an 11-16 sports school in the North East put it bluntly. Who in their right mind provides a budgetwhich changes year on year and the information is only given four weeks priorto the new financial year. Three tofive year budgets please. A primaryschool in the South East was equally forceful. Too much change too much givingmoney one year, then too much taking away the next. If I ran my school that way Id be sacked. According to a primary school in InnerLondon, pots of money suddenly appear and disappear so planning staffing isvery difficult.

8.12 TheGovernment is aware of these concerns.In announcing its schools funding plans for the next two years (DfES,2003f) Charles Clarke said, This is the first step on the road to a moresecure funding system in which schools can have confidence. Stability and predictability forheadteachers will be our watchwords.Yet there will have to be further changes as the Government attempts todig itself out of the hole.

8.13 Acomponent of the present unsatisfactory funding arrangements which theGovernment seems disinclined to address is one of its own making. What a school in the East Midlands refers toas its adhockery:

Toomuch funding is allocated on an ad hoc basis (eg LiG) and other sometimespoorly conceived projects (excellence clusters, pathfinder schemes and even thespecialist schools scheme). This makesplanning of future staff requirements very difficult.

8.14 Wesaw in Boxes 2.1 and 2.2 (pages 7 and 8) just how important these specialgrants were in enabling some schools to balance their budgets. One of the distinguishing features of thewinners in Chapter 4 was that they were often in receipt of one or more ofthese grants. But, as a comprehensiveschool in the East of England perceptively points out, the top slicing of theschools budget to introduce initiatives which are targeted at a smallpercentage of schools, is, in effect, a tax on other schools who are noteligible.

Box8.4: Budget Process - Primary

We are employing a T.A. for extra hours on a basic contract to cover workload national agreement responsibilities from September. This money has suddenly been allocated by the LEA till April 2004 as a temporary measure.

VA, Primary, North East (0143)

Infant class size limit (30) has resulted in moving from 2 to 3 infant classes with 3 teachers. Our delegated budget is based on 2.75 teachers. Healthy reserves are being used to meet this cost.

VA, Primary, North West (0748)

Although GS8 improved there are many more items to be paid for out of it, professional development being one. This is a mistake as schools will simply allocate this money to staffing etc. and not to staff development. I doubt that I will be able to run a balanced budget this year if staffing levels are to be maintained.

Found, Primary, North West, (0880)

Our budget would have needed redundancies if we had not gone into protection. Equipment and buildings budget is at a minimum.

Primary, East (2466)

Support staff are essential to run Government programmes ELS, ALS, Springboardgive primary schools the same funding per pupil as High Schools.

VC, Primary, East (2825)

Pots of money suddenly appear and disappear so planning for staffing is very difficult.

Primary, Inner London (2917)

The staffing budget rose by 100,000+ this year (50,000 was on-costs)the Government have made a MAJOR FUNDING MISTAKE. Watch out next year!

Primary, South East (3669)

Too much change too much giving money one year then too much taking away the next. If I ran my school this way Id be sacked.

Primary, South East (3977)

Actual budget gave an increase of 3.7%. However teaching staff costs have risen by 17.4% and non teaching by 5.1. New SSA formula is as unfair as the last.

Primary, South West (4168)

There is nothing in the formula which counteracts having 35 children less on roll but only 1 less class, nor helps schools whose numbers fluctuate year on year.

Primary, South West (4215)

Funding formula is such a fog in Wales; we have no idea what the settlement is for education and LEAs and the Assembly are blaming each other for the shortfall.

Primary, Wales (4552)

Box8.6: Budget Process - Secondary

Who in their right mind provides a budget which changes year on year and the information is only given four weeks prior to the new financial year. Three to five year budgets please.

Sports 11-16, North East (33)

If we were across the LEA boundary we would have been 500,000 better off last year.

VA, Comp 11-16, North West (222)

Budget difficulties caused by additional superannuation and national insurance costs, reduction of Standards Fund, smaller teacher pay spine so staff reach top much quicker, UPS 2 not fully funded.

Comp 11-16, Yorks & Humb (493)

Too much funding is allocated on an ad hoc basis (eg LiG) and other sometimes poorly conceived projects (excellence clusters, pathfinder schemes and even the specialist schools scheme). This makes future planning of staff requirements very difficult.

Comp 11-18, East Midlands (678)

Chronic disparities in funding between schools and LEAs.

Lang 11-18, East Midlands (675)

Major budget problem triggered by stopping Standards Fund for learning support unit and LEA reducing SEN funding.

VC, Comp 11-16, West Midlands (899)

Ask the Government to stop top slicing the schools budget to introduce initiatives which are targeted at a small percentage of schools. This is, in effect, a tax on other schools who are not eligible.

Comp 12-18, East (1093)

With staff costs increasing by almost ten per cent plus fully delegated SEN for the first time, it is outrageous that funding per pupil is decreasing in cash terms.

Found, Tech 11-16, Outer London (1258)

We suffer from being just outside the London allowance area. We also do not get LSC area uplift enjoyed by sixth forms just across the border. Our living costs are needless to say identical.

Arts 11-18, South East (1423)

Apart from everything else a new needs-led formula locally is transferring funding to primary sector, but does not take into account aspects of the secondary curriculum like 14-19 courses, work-related learning etc.

Arts 11-18, South West (1653)

Change in LEA support for NQT will hit in Sept 03.

Comp 11-18, South West (1732)

8.15 Itwill not be easy for the Government to move away from its specific-grantstrategy, since it has been intrinsic to its attempts to raise standards. But it should because it is patentlyunfair. Schools emerge as winners orlosers almost in spite of themselves.It is the epitome of the systems perspective. On the basis of some decision taken in the remoteness ofWhitehall a school can suddenly find itself the recipient or deprived of anextra hundred thousand pounds or more.It makes planning for staffing and anything else very difficult. A school in Wales refers to this as thegrant culture in which schools schools can become reliant on these extras tounderpin the budget.

PolicyPointer 3: The Government should review its policy of top slicing the schoolsbudget which is a tax on all schools to fund initiatives which seem to benefitidiosyncratically.

8.16 Ifit does, as it should, go down this route then removal of existing specialgrants should be undertaken over an appropriate transition period. It was suddenly switching money from theStandards Fund to mainstream funding that created some of the difficulties in2003-04 and the Governments rescue plan for the next two years involvesreversing the planned cuts to the Standards Fund and inflation proofing itthrough the extra 800 million that has been found. It is to be hoped that this reversal does not mean that it isineluctably wedded to a grant culture.

PolicyPointer 4: The Government should phase out most special grants over atransition period of from three to five years and incorporate the money intomainstream funding.

8.17 Wewill also challenge another element in the Governments funding arrangements,that of seeking to inject some stability by guaranteeing at least a minimumlevel of increase on a per pupil basis, in the next section when we look atretention and workload.

Retention

8.18 Retentionwas the aspect of school staffing that was uppermost in headteachers mindswhen this study began at the start of the 2002-03 school year. Teacher resignations and retirements hadclimbed steeply since 1998. But as thebudget settlements became known the emphasis changed to looking for teacherswho might be willing to move on. This,however, merely masks the large number of teachers still leaving the professionprematurely, often because of unsustainable workload (Smithers and Robinson,2001a, 2003).

Workload

8.19 TheGovernment has accepted that workload is at the heart of teacher retention andhas embarked on a three-year plan to reduce the demands on teachers. It has revised the School Teachers Pay andConditions Document so that from September 2003 teachers can no longer berequired to routinely undertake administrative and clerical tasks (21 groups ofactivities have been specified as examples).Ironically, it was never part of teachers contracts that they shouldundertake administrative and clerical tasks, so in a sense non-routinely performingthem has been added to the responsibilities.

8.20 FromSeptember 2004 it is intended that a limit will be placed on the number ofhours that a teacher can be required to cover for absent colleagues. This will be set at 38 hours which isanother way of legislating for teachers to be required to provide that amountof cover. From September 2005 allteachers will be given guaranteed time within the school day for planning,preparation and assessment, at least a minimum of ten per cent of their teachingtime.

8.21 Theseplans have already been thrown some doubt, as we saw in Chapter 6, by someschools having to shed teaching and support staff. But, crucially, the welcome aspiration to free all teachers forat least ten per cent of their teaching time does not seem to be backed byfunding to employ more teachers. Thisparticularly affects primary schools, because as Chart 6.1 (page 39) showed,compared with secondary schools, they have a third fewer teachers in relationto the number of pupils. Furthermore,they have only about half as many as primary schools in Denmark, Hungary andItaly. Of the OECD countries, onlyTurkey, Mexico and Korea have less favourable ratios (OECD, 2002).

Chart 8.1: Pupil Numbers

Year

Source: STRB (2003), Twelfth Report, Table 26.

8.22 Withthe per-pupil-funding basis of the Governments plans for allocating money toschools, primary schools could find themselves having to lose yet morestaff. A strand in Box 8.3 that we havenot picked up on so far is the concern a number of schools were showing overfalling rolls. A junior school inYorkshire and Humberside remarked that falling rolls account for mostdiscomfort. An infant school in theNorth West reported, In September, we will have 16 fewer children in Year 1due to general falling rolls. We aretherefore employing temporary staff in case we have to make cutbacks instaffing if the trend continues next year.This is why we are not replacing a much needed teaching assistant inreception. Chart 8.1 shows that theseschools were not alone.

8.23 Ifallocation of funds to schools remains on a per pupil basis and the amounts aredetermined by precedent, then more teaching posts will have to go. If we apply the current pupil-teacher ratiosto the pupil numbers of Chart 8.1, we find that the cumulative demand forteachers emerges as shown in Chart 8.2.

Chart 8.2: Teacher Numbers

1. PTR of 22.5 for primary and 16.9 for secondary applied to pupil numbers of Chart 8.1

8.24 Inthe storm which broke over the 2003-04 settlement, the Government appeared totake some comfort from this trend.Its not me guv; its falling rolls what did it. But these demographic changes, in fact,represent a great opportunity. If thewish, at last, is to ensure that teachers in primary schools have somenon-contact time, then funding of primary schools to keep up their staffcomplements would be the best way of achieving it. Class sizes could be reduced and teachers freed by theavailability of other teachers. Thehead of a junior school in the North West put her finger on it when she said,Pupil rolls are falling. Next year itwill be necessary to lose a teacher.A smaller number of children in each class would be a much betteroption.

PolicyPointer 5: The Government should review its policy of funding on a per pupilbasis. Rolls are set to fall in primaryschools by 7.3 per cent to 2010. Whileintakes to secondary schools are still rising they will also fall by 4.8 percent over the same period. On presentpupil-teacher ratios this will require schools to cumulatively reduce theirteaching complements by about 10 per cent to the end of the decade.

PolicyPointer 6: The Government should take the opportunity of falling rolls in primaryschools to improve the pupil-teacher ratio in the direction of secondaryschools and other OECD countries.Employing more teachers relative to the number of pupils would tackleworkload at source.

8.25 Anotherstrand in the Governments attempts to reduce teacher workload is that fromSeptember 2003: All teachers and headteachers shall enjoy a reasonablework/life balance and All teachers, including the headteacher and othermembers of the leadership team shall have a reasonable allocation of time in supportof their leadership and management responsibilities (DfES, 2003e). Box 5.1 (page 28) showed that this issue wasof particular concern to senior staff in primary schools. We also saw in Chart 7.4 (page 42) thatdeputy headships were the least attractive of posts in primary schools, withheadships also receiving many fewer applications on average than classroomposts. Headteachers told us they wereleaving because of the added pressures of recent successive initiatives andlack of a reasonable work/life balance.The aspiration to redress this is admirable, but it is not obvious howit is to be accomplished.

Administrationof Primary Schools

8.26 Itmay be that excessive demands on heads of primary schools and their deputiesare inextricably bound up with current arrangements for devolving funding andresponsibilities to the schools. Insmall schools particularly, heads and deputies may have almost a full teachingtimetable, with leadership, management and administration fitted in aroundbeing essentially a classroom teacher.In Box 5.1 there are a number examples of how their teaching load hadbeen increased by the 2003-04 budget settlement.

8.27 Itis an open question just how many primary schools have the critical mass ofsenior staff with the appropriate expertise and administrative support to runthe school as an organisation. Whereasdelegation to schools has released the energies of secondary schools, it hasbecome a burden for many primary schools, which, as small as they are, havesimilar accounting and reporting responsibilities to their many times largercounterparts. Is it time for theGovernment to rethink the administration of schools, distinguishing the primaryand secondary phases? With primaryschools a case could be made for providing an umbrella of administrativeco-ordination through the LEAs. Thiscould fundamentally improve the work/life balance of the heads and deputies andget to the heart of the recruitment and retention problems.

PolicyPointer 7: The Government should review the delegation of responsibilities toprimary schools and consider whether there should be an umbrella ofadministrative co-ordination provided by the LEAs. Primary schools with two or three teachers are very differentorganisations from secondary schools with a staff of 70 or more. There is a case for treating the two phasesdifferently.

Recruitment

8.28 Recruitmentis our third theme. Applications andacceptances to teacher training seem to be improving. The Government has been able to claim that in 2003, 3000 moreplaces on PGCE courses have been accepted, including increases of 35 per centin maths, 26 per cent in design and technology, 14 per cent in science, 10 percent in modern languages, 3 per cent in music and 2 per cent in English (DfES,2003g). If the places are taken up, thetrainees successfully complete and move into posts in the maintained sector,then they will help to ameliorate the difficult situation described in Chapter7. There was evidence that secondaryschools particularly welcome NQTs who they rated as of higher quality thanother applicants.

8.29 Butthese overall numbers are once again to take a systems view. Looking at it from the schools end, oursurvey has revealed a number of hot spots and cold spots with respect todifferent parts of the country and different subjects. How persistent are the hot and cold spotsover time? Why, when it is generallywell provided, is the South West so apparently short of maths teachers? Why is the North East finding it hard toassemble good secondary fields at present?How is it that the North West does so well in science? Analysing teacher supply from thisperspective, rather than just nationally, could, among other things, help toimprove the nature and location of the training provision.

PolicyPointer 8: Teacher supply should be considered at the school level as well asthe national. Data should be regularlycollected on the ease with which schools in different parts of the country areable to recruit to different subjects.Persistent cold spots should be addressed and any hot spots noted.

8.30 Oursurvey at the beginning of the school year found that nearly 30 per cent ofteachers did not have a teaching qualification in the subject they wereteaching. Our survey in June revealedthat, in response to the 2003-04 budget settlement, headteachers were going toask even more to teach outside their main specialism. Teacher recruitment is not just a matter of numbers, but ofhaving enough good and appropriately qualified teachers. Unlike those countries discussed in theinterim report (Smithers, Robinson and Tracey, 2002) where the teachingqualification specifies subject, appropriately qualified in England and Walesis something of a grey area. The DfEShas collected information on subjects taught and qualification match in theSchools Curriculum and Staffing Surveys (eg DfEE, 1997) supposedly held on aquadrennial basis. But the survey duein 2000 was missed and the results from a survey held in 2002 have been delayedbecause of a disappointing response rate (DfES, 2003a).

PolicyPointer 9: Adopting a schools perspective the Government should monitor indetail in a small number of schools on an annual basis the match betweensubjects taught and qualifications as a basis for helping schools to secure sufficientappropriately qualified teachers.

Conclusion

8.31 Teacherprovision can look very different from a schools point of view compared withthat of the policymaker. The Governmentshould seek to complement its national perspective with a schools perspectiveincluding affordability, retention and recruitment, and their interactions, asthey affect particular schools. That isthe reality of school staffing.

Appendix A: Methods

A.1 Thepopulation studied was primary and secondary schools in England and Walesduring the school year 2002-2003. Themain part of the study was a postal questionnaire survey of schools, but therewere also interviews with headteachers and a survey of teachers as reported inSmithers, Robinson and Tracey (2002).

Survey of Schools

Sampling

A.2 Initialsamples of schools, stratified by local education authority, were drawnrandomly from our database of schools developed from the DfES Register ofEducational Establishments for England and the Primary Education Directory 2002 and the Education Authorities Directory and Annual 2002 produced by theSchool Government Publishing Company Ltd.

A.3 Theinitial samples comprised 4,902 (1 in 4) primary schools and 1,842 (1 in 2)secondary schools. The questionnaireswere sent to schools in the week beginning 25 June 2003. Of the letters sent out, 35 primary and 20secondary were returned by the Post Office as not being deliverable. Fourteen schools (4 primary and 10 secondary)got in touch to say that because of local circumstances, for example the schoolclosing, they did not think it helpful to respond. The effective initial samples were, therefore, 4,863 primary and1,812 secondary schools

A.4 Ofthe effective samples, 2,048 primary schools (42.1 percent) and 668 secondaryschools (36.9 per cent) responded. Ofthese, 27 primary and 14 secondary questionnaires were returned too late to beincluded in the analysis. The 2,675questionnaires available for analysis were coded and tagged by an experiencedteam of four according to printed coding frames. The coded information was inputted into the computer as an Excelfile, verified and then transferred into SPSS (Version 10) for analysis.

Structured Samples

A.5 Fromthe responses structured samples of 5 per cent of primary and 10 per cent ofsecondary schools were derived from cross-tabulations of the nationaldistributions by region and number of pupils on roll. The schools included in any cell were randomly selected bycomputer programme. Where occasionallythere were too few for any cell, compensation was from a neighbouringcell. Middle deemed secondary schoolswere included in the secondary sample, but since they differ on size andregional distribution from other secondary schools they were drawn separately.

A.6 Themake-up of the primary and secondary samples is shown and comparisons with thenational distribution by region and country are given in Table A.1. Distributions by school size are shown inTable A.2. Comparisons with nationaldistributions for primary schools by status and type, and for secondary schoolsby status, type, gender of pupils, age range, and specialism are provided inAppendix B confirming that, in so far, as the initial response wasrepresentative, the structured samples of 980 primary schools and 368 secondaryschools fully reflect the populations of schools in England and Wales.

Table A.1: Samples by Region and Country¹

Region and Country	Primary			Secondary
Region and Country	N	%Sample	%National	N	%Sample	%National
North East	48	4.9	5.0	22	6.0	6.0
North West	136	13.9	13.8	48	13.0	13.0
Yorks & Humber	98	10.0	9.9	33	9.0	8.9
East Midlands	86	8.8	8.8	32	8.7	8.8
West Midlands	93	9.5	9.8	42	11.4	11.4
East of England	108	11.0	10.7	44	11.9	11.6
Inner London	36	3.7	3.7	12	3.3	3.7
Outer London	58	5.9	5.9	26	7.1	7.5
South East	137	14.0	13.9	53	14.4	14.0
South West	99	10.1	10.1	33	9.0	9.0
Wales	81	8.3	8.3	23	6.3	6.2
Total	980	100.0	100.0	368	100.0	100.0

1. National distribution taken from Statistics of Education, Schools in England,2002, Table 2, pp 18-19 and Schoolsin Wales: General Statistics 2002,Tables 3.1 and 4.1, p24 and p34.

Table A.2: Samples by School Size¹

Number on Roll	Primary			Number of Roll	Secondary
Number on Roll	N	%Samp	%Nat	Number of Roll	N	%Samp	%Nat
Up to 100	161	16.4	16.4	Up to 400	18	4.9	5.8
101 to 200	292	29.8	30.0	401 to 700	77	20.9	21.4
201 to 300	300	30.6	30.6	701 to 1000	119	32.3	30.9
301 to 400	141	14.4	14.4	1001 to 1300	91	24.7	24.6
401 to 500	64	6.5	6.6	1301 to 1600	47	12.8	12.8
501 or more	22	2.2	2.1	1601 or more	16	4.3	4.5
Total	980	100.0	100.0	Total	368	100.0	100.0

1. National distribution taken from Statistics of Education, Schools in England,2002, Table 20, p43 and Schools inWales: General Statistics 2002,Tables 3.7 and 4.7, p27 and p36.

Questionnaire

A.7 Thequestionnaire was simple and attractively designed as a four-sided booklet. It first asked for some establishinginformation followed by questions on changes in the roll and teaching staffcomplement. If teachers were not beingreplaced, schools were asked to give the reasons and the total in FTEs. Schools were also asked whether they wereable to afford extra support staff or whether they were having to makereductions, and to specify. There werequestions on the budget settlement for 2003-04 and how it compared with theprevious years. Headteachers wereasked whether there would have to be any changes to the teaching.

A.8 Spreadacross the centre pages were detailed questions on staff not being replaced andrecruitment. For each teacher not beingreplaced schools were asked to indicate the post, type of contract, whether thepost was lost wholly or partly, how the post was vacated, and how the lostteaching input would be covered. Foreach post being filled for September 2003, the school was asked to say whattype of post, whether it was newly created, whether it had been advertised, thenumber of applicants, to rate the quality of the applicants, whether anappointment had been made, whether it was filled by an NQT and the type ofcontact offered.

Interim Report

A.9 Interviewswere conducted with headteachers at the start of the 2002-03 school year and asurvey of teachers was undertaken in the autumn term. the data were analysed as an interim report (Smithers, Robinsonand Tracey, 2002)

A.10 Interviewswith 34 headteachers (17 in each of primary and secondary) were carried out bytwo experienced researchers. They werechosen from the sampling frame to be representative of the regions, with twobeing held in each of the larger regions.The interviews were by telephone each lasting between 40 minutes and anhour. With the headteachers permissionthe interviews were recorded. The tapeswere transcribed and subjected to content and theme analysis.

A.11 Thesurvey of teachers was designed to explore the match between qualifications andsubject(s) taught. About a third ofmaintained schools publish staff lists either in prospectuses or on theirwebsites. From among those, an initialsample of 1 in 2 was drawn. Of the 514schools approached to participate, 465 agreed to do so. They were sent letters and questionnaires tobe handed on to members of staff who had been drawn in a 1 in 10 randomsample. In total 2,959 letters weresent out and 1,258 completed questionnaires were received (42.5 per cent).

Appendix B: Comparison with National Distributions

Primary

B.1 TablesB.1 and B.2 show that, in addition to region and school size, a close match wasachieved for both type of school and whether the school was community,voluntary aided or controlled, or foundation.

Table B.1: Primary Sample by Type ofSchool

Type	Sample		National¹
Type	N	%	N	%
Infant	108	11.0	2,115	10.8
First	78	8.0	1,540	7.9
Infant and Junior	678	69.2	13,575	69.2
First and Middle	9	0.9	190	1.0
Junior	100	10.2	2,057	10.5
Middle - Primary	7	0.7	132	0.7
Total	980	100.0	19,609	100.0

1. Statisticsof Education, Schools in England, 2002, Table 9a, p28 and Schools in Wales: General Statistics 2002,Table 3.2, p25.

Table B.2: Primary Sample by Status

Status	Sample		National¹
Status	N	%	N	%
Community	629	64.2	12,627	64.4
Voluntary Aided	193	19.7	3,863	19.7
Voluntary Controlled	136	13.9	2,753	14.0
Foundation	22	2.2	366	1.9
Total	980	100.0	19,609	100.0

1. Statisticsof Education, Schools in England, 2002, Table 9a, p44 and Schools in Wales:General Statistics 2002, Table 3.5, p26.

Secondary

B.2 TablesB.3-B.6 show that the secondary sample corresponded closely with the nationaldistribution in terms of type of school, gender of pupils, whether it tookchildren to age 16 or 18, and by type of specialism.

Table B.3: Secondary Sample by Gender of Pupils

Gender of Pupils	Sample		National¹
Gender of Pupils	N	%	N	%
Coeducational	326	88.6	3,263	88.5
Girls	23	6.3	232	6.3
Boys	19	5.2	189	5.1
Total	368	100.0	3,684	100.0

1. Statisticsof Education, Schools in England, 2002, Table 10, p31 and Schools in Wales: General Statistics 2002,Table 4.4, p35.

Table B.4: Secondary Sample by Status

Status	Sample		National¹
Status	N	%	N	%
Community	248	67.4	2,476	67.2
Voluntary Aided	52	14.1	568	15.4
Voluntary Controlled	17	4.6	131	3.6
Foundation	51	13.9	509	13.8
Total	368	100.0	3,684	100.0

1. Statisticsof Education, Schools in England, 2002, Table 21, p 44 and Schools in Wales: General Statistics 2002,Table 4.6, p36.

Table B.5: Secondary Sample by Type of School

Type	Sample		National¹
Type	N	%	N	%
Comprehensive	306	83.2	3,063	83.1
Grammar	16	4.3	161	4.4
Modern²	16	4.3	160	4.3
Middle Secondary	30	8.2	300	8.1
Total	368	100.0	3,684	100.0

1. Statistics of Education, Schools in England, 2002, Table 9b, pp28-29 and Schools in Wales: GeneralStatistics 2002, Table 4.3, p35.

2. Includes technical and other.

Table B.6: Secondary Sample by Age Range

Age Range	Sample		National¹
Age Range	N	%	N	%
Up to 13 years	30	8.2	300	8.1
Up to 16 years	144	39.1	1,464	39.7
Up to 18 years	194	52.7	1,920	52.1
Total	368	100.0	3,684	100.0

1. Statisticsof Education, Schools in England, 2002, Table 20, p 43 and Schools in Wales: General Statistics 2002,Table 4.4, p35.

Table B.7: Secondary Sampleby Specialism

Specialism	Sample		National¹
Specialism	N	%	N	%
General	250	67.9	2,461	66.8
Technology	46	12.5	473	12.8
Arts	16	4.3	202	5.5
Sports	23	6.3	195	5.3
Languages	20	5.4	173	4.7
Other	13	3.7	180	4.9
Total	368	100.0	3,684	100.0

^{1. Taken as the mid points between numbersdesignated September 2002 and September 2003 since in describing themselvessome, but not all schools anticipated their new status.}




	THE REALITY OF SCHOOL STAFFING Alan Smithers and Pamela Robinson Centre for Education and Employment Research University of Liverpool Final Report, September 2003

THE REALITY OF

SCHOOL STAFFING

Alan Smithers and Pamela Robinson

Centre for Education and Employment Research

University of Liverpool

Final Report, September 2003

Chart 1.1: Staffing Schools

VA, Primary, North East (0125)

Junior, North East (0167)

Infant, North West (0279)

VA, Primary, North West (0455)

First, Yorks & Humb (1122)

VC, Primary, Yorks & Humb (1158)

Primary, Inner London (2886)

Primary, Wales (4774)

Primary, Wales (4776)

Primary, Wales (4851)

Primary, Wales (4586)

Comp 11-16, North West (329)

Comp 11-16, North West (330)

Comp 11-16, Yorks and Humb (387)

Tech 11-19, West Midlands (729)

VA, Sports, Grammar 11-18, West Midlands (738)

Comp 11-19, East (987)

Tech 11-19, Outer London (1325)

Science 11-18, South East (1437)

Comp 11-16, South East (1430)

VC, Comp 11-16, South West (1625)

VC, Comp 13-18, South West (1774)

Comp 11-16, Wales (1988)

Subject

Posts Lost

Staffing1

VA, Primary, North West (0845)

Primary, North West (0563)

VC, Primary, Yorks & Humb (1290)

Infant, East Midlands (1833)

VC, Primary, West Midlands (2092)

Primary, East (2977)

Primary, Outer London (3213)

Primary, South East (3538)

Primary, South East (3855)

Primary, South West (4103)

Primary, Wales (4661)

Tech 11-16, North East (77)

Lang 11-16, North West (289)

Comp, 11-18, Yorks & Humb (474)

Found, Lang 11-18, East Midlands (681)

Lang 11-16, West Midlands (791)

Comp 11-16, East (1099)

Comp 11-16, Inner London (1182)

VA, Tech 11-18, Outer London (1219)

Comp 11-16, South East (1397)

Found, Arts 11-18, South West (1671)

Comp 11-16, Wales (1865)

Junior, North East (0104)

VA, Primary, North West (0541)

Junior, North West (0557)

VA, Primary, Yorks & Humb (1335)

VA, Primary, West Midlands (2133)

Primary, East (2436)

VA, Girls Tech 11-18, North East (39)

Comp 11-18, Yorks & Humb

Perf Art 11-18, East Midlands (642)

Maths & Comp 11-16, West Midlands (771)

Comp 11-19, East (1067)

Arts 11-16, Inner London (1182)

VA, Modern 11-18, Outer London (1240)

Found, Grammar Boys 11-18, South East (1454)

Comp 11-16, South East (1394)

Found, Tech 11-18, South West (1736)

Comp 11-16, Wales (1951)

Primary, North East (0169)

VA, Primary, North West (0334)

Infant, North West (0573)

Primary, Yorkshire & Humberside (1014)

Infant, East Midlands (1648)

VA, Primary, West Midlands (1959)

VA, Primary, West Midlands (2017)

VC, Primary, East (2489)

Staffing¹