Teachers and staff at academy trust offered voluntary redundancy amid ‘budget pressures’
The 1,300 plus staff at Northants-based Brooke Weston Trust have been offered redundancy, as the organisation says it is being asked by the government ‘to do more with less’.
By Sarah Ward
Staff at a long established academy trust have been offered voluntary redundancy as the organisation attempts to shore up its finances amid pressures from staff pay awards and rising operational costs.
All employees at The Brooke Weston Trust were told this week of a widespread round of voluntary redundancy.
The Trust, which runs 12 schools across Northants and Cambridgeshire, is led by chief executive Andrew Campbell who said the organisation is being asked ‘to do more with less’.
In an issued statement, the academy boss said:
“While we welcome the recent pay increases for our dedicated staff, the reality is that they have not been fully funded by the government.
“This, combined with other rising costs, has increased the financial challenge for
schools across the country. We are being asked to do more with less this year. We do not agree with these funding decisions, but our top priority is to continue providing excellent education and care for our children.
“Over the last couple of years, we have already made substantial savings across all our non-staffing budgets, however these further unfunded rises mean we need to do
more.
“To do that we are working with our staff, our leaders and union officials to open a
voluntary redundancy process so we can proactively tackle the funding shortfalls in away which can potentially benefit some of our staff for whom voluntary redundancy might be an attractive option.
“We have not taken this decision lightly and have worked with our headteachers,
Chairs of Governors and union representatives before announcing this news.
By opening a voluntary process now, we hope to achieve savings and prevent any
more difficult decisions we could otherwise face further down the line. The voluntary process is something any employer can offer and it could be the right opportunity at the right time for some colleagues, depending on their personal circumstances.”
“Our focus remains absolutely fixed on protecting the quality of education and care our students receive and ensuring our schools can continue to thrive. This is a responsible and proactive step taken together as the Brooke Weston family that helps us deliver that mission."
The trust did not say how much it needed to save.
As reported by the Northants Telegraph, in April the trust informed staff it had a ‘significant short term challenge’ and said all schools had to tighten their belts. None urgent spending was postponed and headteachers were asked to look again at their spending plans.
NN Journal has looked at the latest financial accounts for the trust (to the year ended August last year) and it has been using reserves to meet costs. The latest set of accounts said there was just £700,000 left in reserves.
It received £67.3m from the department for education and other education grants (such as from the local authority) to run its schools, but in the latest financial year spent £69.7m, taking almost £1m from reserves to make ends meet.
The Trust’s flagship school is Corby based Brooke Weston Academy which was one of the first City Technology Colleges.
It has long been a high achieving school, although in the latest Ofsted inspection in 2023 it received a good grading, dropping down from outstanding.
Other Northants schools that are part of the trust include Corby Business Academy, Corby Technical School, Kettering Science Academy, Gretton Primary School, Oakley Vale Primary School, Compass Primary Academy and Beanfield Primary Academy.
Thrapston Primary School joined the trust last year and the trust’s central team is based there.
According to the annual report, the trust educates more than 8,500 students across its schools network and employs just over 1,3000 staff. 524 of these are teachers, 338 are education support staff and 365 technical support and admin staff. Andrew Campbell, who became chair of the trust in the 2010s following the departure of Sir Peter Simpson, is paid between £215,000 and £225,000 per year.
The last sentence speaks volumes.
Executive salaries would be a good place to start looking for savings.