72 per cent of school leaders say budgets will be unsustainable by 2019

A NAHT survey of its members has found that the number of schools currently in deficit has more than doubled since its 2015 survey (up 10 percentage points from 8 per cent to 18 per cent).

It has also revealed that nearly three quarters (71 per cent) of school leaders are only able balance their budgets by making cuts or dipping in to reserves, and that 72 per cent of school leaders say their budgets will be unsustainable by 2019.

The NAHT survey asked members for information on their budgets for 2016/17 and over a thousand school leaders responded.

Increases in payroll costs as a result of government policies were cited in the survey as schools' biggest financial pressures. These costs went up in 2015 and have resulted in an increase to school budgets of over 5.5 per cent every year, but there has been no resulting increase in funding from the government.

47 per cent of survey respondents reported the decline of local authority services as a cost pressure on schools, in particular the abolition of the Education Services Grant (ESG) to local authorities which is being passed through to schools. 65 per cent of academy school leaders told us they are concerned about the impact of cuts to ESG.

The third most quoted source of financial pressure reported by school leaders was the cost of dealing with the additional needs of pupils, reported by 83 per cent of respondents. Members have expressed serious concerns about the extra pressure they are facing to support the growing number of children with mental health issues.

The most commonly reported cost saving was reducing investment in equipment, which 85 per cent of respondents said they were having to do.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of school leaders union NAHT, said: "School budgets are being pushed even closer to breaking point than before. The number of schools currently in deficit has more than doubled since our 2015 survey, with nearly three quarters of school leaders only able to balance their budgets by making cuts or dipping in to reserves.”

Over a thousand school leaders responded to the survey.