Ofsted warns that most schools are suffering due to a lack of funds

Most schools are cutting teacher numbers while others are slashing the curriculum amid funding problems, research by Ofsted has revealed.

The findings are significant as the education watchdog is providing an independent view of funding amid warnings from teaching unions and pressure groups.

They are likely to trigger a row with the Department for Education, which has repeatedly claimed that ‘more money is going into schools than ever before’.

Inspectors visited 16 primary and secondary schools in England, surveyed 201 head teachers and carried out telephone interviews with 18 of them. They reported ‘significant financial pressure’ due to ‘funding cuts’ and also rising costs.

Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman said yesterday: ‘We saw most schools making reductions to the number of teachers. In some of the secondary schools, subject specialists were not being replaced when they left and other teachers were teaching outside their specialism.

‘In some schools, experienced teachers were replaced with less experienced and lower-qualified staff.’ However, Miss Spielman said: ‘This does not mean that we found universally strong financial decision-making in schools.’

And Ofsted pointed out that even with more money, schools could still squander cash due to poor decision-making.

Ofsted is proposing having greater oversight of financial decisions, which could feed into judgments on leadership. It is conducting research and will report back.

Last August, Boris Johnson announced the schools budget would be increased by £2.6billion in 2020-21, £4.8billion in 2021-22 and £7.1billion in 2022-23.

Stephen Rollett, from the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed Miss Spielman’s ‘acknowledgement of the damage done by the school funding crisis’. ‘But we are disappointed she accuses schools of failing to do enough to monitor the impact of the cuts they have had to make,’ he said. ‘The blame lies with the Government which has caused the crisis by failing to fund schools properly.’

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: ‘We recognise the challenges that schools have faced and that is why we are increasing funding so all children get the top-quality education they deserve, while supporting schools to recruit and retain the best teachers.’