The Department for Education has released information on local authority (LA) expenditure on education, children and young people’s services. This data is useful for maintained schools as it gives a breakdown of LA expenditure by school type, as well as some useful information on average budgets and expenditure at a school level.
In particular, the number of maintained schools with a deficit budget has increased this year, from 5.4% to 6%. The average surplus has increased by £7,000 (to £141,000), while the average deficit has increased by £12,000 to (£120,000). This has impacted upon secondary schools the most. For maintained secondary schools, the average deficit has increased by £47,000 to £373,000 this year alone.