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The school funding crisis: balancing your budget

Friday, February 22, 2019

The school funding crisis: balancing your budget

Funding in UK schools has reached a crisis level.

With school budgets being reduced by 8% in real terms since 2010 (Institute for Fiscal Studies), headteachers are faced with daily challenges, searching for new ways to save money.

A group of headteachers who formed the now grassroots lobby, Worth Less?, have been trying to tackle this crisis head-on. Last year they went on a protest, and they continue to write to the Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, pushing for a meeting with him to discuss the current climate.

“When thousands of moderate headteachers are all saying that we can’t balance the books, and cuts continue to vital curricular and pastoral services, it’s extraordinary that the Department for Education (DfE) is unwilling to meet,” - Jules White, headteacher in West Sussex and one of the organisers of Worth Less?

Primary and secondary schools across the country are working with an increase in students but a decreasing workforce. Lunchtime supervisors, support staff and subjects are being cut, schools are shortening their teaching hours as well as their subject offerings, additional dress-down days are being added to raise school funds, and schools are even creating Amazon wish lists so that parents can help to buy supplies.

The loss of vital resources is stretching the remaining teaching force very thin; they’re covering extra classes during their leadership and PPA time, taking over lunch and gate duties, all while juggling their own timetable and workload.

If teachers, support staff and heads are taking on these extra pressures without any additional support, the likelihood of them falling sick from stress and needing time off increases. When absences are high, supply staff are essential but come with a cost. This is where SupplyNow steps in.

The average margin for a supply teacher with a traditional teaching agency is between £40 to £60. Over the course of a year, this becomes a significant amount.

SupplyNow can reduce this sum by up to 20%.

Supply teacher costs

One school reported to us that they saved £4000 after switching to SupplyNow! What would you do with those additional funds in your school’s pocket? You could consider keeping that extra member of support staff, loosen the photocopier restrictions or purchase vital curriculum materials, like textbooks - the possibilities are endless.

If you think this sounds too good to be true, let us explain how we make it happen.

Our founders have more than 20 years of experience working in education recruitment. In that time, they have figured out the most efficient way for schools to connect with local supply staff. The SupplyNow app creates a direct link between supply staff (or Supply Heroes, as we say) and schools – saving time and money in the process.

By removing the middleman, we’ve also managed to cut the need (and expense) of having a large office space to hold recruiters, as well as the commission rates typically expected by them. However, we do have a brilliant team on hand to support you when you need them.

All this leftover money means that we have more to give back to Supply Heroes and can afford to charge schools less - because you’re the ones who really deserve it!

So, if your school is looking for a more straightforward way to save money or needs support filling those spaces, give us a call on 020 3137 1246.

Are you a headteacher or educator fighting for fairer funding in our schools? We’d love to hear from you and have your voice on the blog.

Get in touch today!


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SupplyNow exists to improve upon the traditional ways of finding supply work and are using technology to guarantee teachers #FairPayNow while saving schools up to 20% off their supply budget.

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