NAO warns on cuts to local authority monitoring as school deficits rise

The National Audit Office has warned that cuts to local authority support and monitoring services for maintained schools could damage many pupils' education as it published new research showing that one-in-five secondary schools is in deficit.

In a report for the Department for Education (DfE), published this week, the National Audit Office called on the DfE to “make clear how it is going to review the working of schools' financial management arrangements.”

According a survey conducted by the NAO, forty per cent of authorities do not believe they have sufficient resources to provide effective support to schools and almost half of those authorities are planning to reduce the amount of staff time spent on support following the abolition of much of the mandatory statistical reporting requirements to the DfE.

"Financial pressures are growing on local authority maintained schools and the need to reduce costs is becoming greater,” Amyas Morse, the head of the National Audit Office, said. “At the same time, the capacity of local authorities to monitor and support financial management in schools is itself under pressure. There must be early warning systems in place to alert the Department for Education to emerging issues requiring action and intervention."