{"id":236176,"date":"2025-10-10T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=236176"},"modified":"2025-10-09T23:47:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:47:26","slug":"reform-run-kent-council-plans-2m-school-budget-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/reform-run-kent-council-plans-2m-school-budget-raid\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform-run Kent council plans \u00a32m school budget raid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reform UK-run Kent<\/a> council plans to raid \u00a32 million from schools\u2019 already-squeezed budgets to pay for vital services it can no longer afford, sparking fears of more classroom cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaders say the proposals fly in the face of Reform\u2019s<\/a> pre-election pledges to identify efficiencies and savings through a pilot of its own Elon Musk-style DOGE unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The party also admitted this week it\u2019s likely to hike council tax charges for its residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Daniel
Daniel Kebede<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede said: \u201cThey promised that they would reduce waste to make the council more efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving failed to identify actual waste, they have resorted to charging schools for council services. This result will be more cuts to Kent’s schools. The NEU doubts this is what voters expected of them\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council reviews services for maintained schools <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Kent, England\u2019s biggest council, has long used council tax cash to cover several services available to its authority-maintained schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But documents published by the authority show it decided to launch a review of funding to ensure it \u201cwas not now inadvertently advantaging maintained schools over academies\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

County hall officials noted it was \u201cnot providing this subsidy\u201d to trust-run primaries and secondaries, which account for around half of its schools and teach two-thirds of its pupils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council is now proposing to increase the top slice it takes from its maintained schools by just over \u00a32.2 million to pay for services which are currently subsidised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include statutory compliance testing, which includes asbestos management and fire and electrical safety, and health and safety advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kent also wants to scrap in-house occupational health services, saving almost \u00a3345,000, with schools expected to buy in the support themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Kebede said Kent schools \u201chave been hard hit by the last 15 years of austerity\u201d and added NEU analysis shows four-fifths of its schools have the equivalent of \u00a3126 million less spending power now than in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools oppose plans<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Council papers show almost 60 per cent of schools opposed the proposals to top slice budgets for statutory compliance testing and surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budgetary concerns and the view that \u201cschools should commission\u201d the services themselves were among the reasons critics gave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forty-eight per cent of schools supported the plan to buy in occupational health advice and support when they needed it, while 41 per cent opposed it. There was a higher proportion of schools that \u201cdisagreed or strongly disagreed\u201d with the rest of the proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kent said opponents tended to fall into one of two camps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some argued leaders should be allowed to \u201cbuy what they need, rather than have a service imposed upon them\u201d, while others thought the authority must pay for the support itself as schools \u201ccannot afford this top-slicing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council said many \u201cdo not have the budget, skills, or staff to self-manage these critical areas of service, particularly in the primary sector\u201d. An opt-in system, meanwhile, also \u201cincreases, rather than decreases, costs\u201d for schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maintained schools can’t shop around<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Academy consultant Lucia Glynn noted Kent\u2019s \u201cdifficulties are mirrored right across the country, [with] almost every local authority having to reduce services to schools\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reform on education: All headlines, no policy lines<\/a><\/blockquote>