Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of schools in (a) England and (b) each local authority in England projecting that they will run an in-year deficit in the next three years.

The Government want schools to have the resources they need to deliver a high quality education for their pupils. This is why we have announced that under the National Funding Formula there will be an additional £1.3 billion for schools and high needs across 2018-19 and 2019-20. This means that core funding for schools and high needs will rise from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to £42.4 billion in 2018-19. In 2019-20, this will rise again to £43.5 billion.

An in-year deficit is not an issue in itself unless it is symptomatic of a trend towards a cumulative deficit. Schools may draw on their reserves in a particular year – for example to spend on capital projects.

The Department does not collect data on balance projections, including in-year deficits, for maintained schools. Academy trusts are obliged to provide the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) with an unaudited Budget Forecast Return (BFR) each year, to allow us to view their current and expected end of year position. Since the BFR is only an unaudited forecast, we do not use it as a basis for estimates. An audited financial statement is published by trusts at the end of the financial year, confirming their actual financial position for that year.