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By Cllr Prue Bray
We are very lucky in Wokingham Borough that our schools deliver good quality education more or less across the board, despite the fact that – very like the council – they are among the very worst funded in the country in terms of the amount of money they receive for each pupil.
I am constantly amazed at the commitment of the heads, staff, governors and academy trustees who deliver for our children day in day out, despite the rising pressure on their budgets.
The cost of energy and other inflation is now pushing that pressure to an unsustainable level.
On October22, the National Association of Head Teachers warned that 90% of schools were likely to be spending more than their income by next September.
Our schools have been underfunded for a long time.
We will be trying to support them to reduce their energy bills by taking up measures like installing solar panels.
We are also looking at how we can improve our offer to schools on Special Educational Needs. This is a very challenging area which is worthy of an entire column by itself.
At the same time as schools are suffering, money is getting increasingly tight for families.
Wokingham Borough Council, like councils in other parties of the country, is working hard to try to counter the effects of the cost of living crisis for families.
We know we have the support of schools and academy trusts in doing what we can to help, as well as charities and voluntary sector organisations who are stepping in to assist us.
We are encouraging schools – not that they need much encouragement – to look at making the cost of uniform as low as possible, reducing the amount of branded items wherever they can, and trying to make sure uniform can be passed on to others when it has been outgrown.
Other things being looked at include the cost of the school day – for example, making school trips and events as affordable as possible, and ensuring there are schemes to help children get the IT devices they need at a reasonable cost.
The council itself, now led by the Lib Dems in partnership with Labour and the Independents, has made a decision to support food vouchers for children who get Free School Meals during all school holidays up until May half-term next year.
We did this before we knew whether any further government funding would be available, despite the fact that our own finances are under severe pressure, because we believe we must protect the most vulnerable in our community.
If I may be permitted a party political point, this is unlike the previous Conservative administration, who, when government funding was not forthcoming in 2020, declined to provide meals during the October half-term that year.
Government funding has now been announced for this year. However, it seems it will not run to paying for food for children past the Easter holidays. Many councils are not planning to fund anything past this point themselves. We in Wokingham are still committed to providing food for the May half-term holiday.
There is no doubt at all that financially things are getting more difficult for the council, for schools, and for families.
There is talk of returning to austerity measures in the budget statement due in November. This will leave the rest of us paying for the mess made by the Conservatives in national government.
Until only a few years ago I would never have believed that in 2022 we would live in a society where so many families were unable to afford to feed their children or keep them warm enough, or where the majority of schools were predicting they would be in the red by the end of the year. As a society we cannot go on like this.
Cllr Prue Bray is the Executive Member for Children’s Services and Lib Dem ward member for Winnersh
