Financial impact on schools of lockdown

[LincolnE]

School's saved loads on not having people in for months, easily pays for laptops

Apart from the fact there's been almost the same costs - The buildings still need to be maintained, the heating still needed to be on for the students and staff that are in. Teachers have still had to be paid, which is a large chunk of any budget... and where are you going to buy that many laptops and get them set up in time for anything?

 

Edit - In fact, given lettings and room bookings have been stopped, I'd argue most schools are loosing money at the moment - There's been a need for additional cleaners for example.

 

 

MOD NOTE: This post has been split from one discussing school computers after lockdown

Edited May 13, 2020 by elsiegee40

[mavhc]

you're still heating every room?

 

There's 1 computer for every 3 pupils in uk schools. So as long as only 1/3rd of pupils are in, should be possible to 1:1

[Ditto]

you're still heating every room?

 

There's 1 computer for every 3 pupils in uk schools. So as long as only 1/3rd of pupils are in, should be possible to 1:1

I want to go back to the money saved idea. I have a governors meeting next week and I want to raise the possibility of redirecting the saved money. Could you let me know of some examples of where money has been saved so I can go in prepared.

More in relation to the OP, I like the keyboard covers and the personal portable keyboard mice ideas. The 1-1 device offers some benefits. I've worked in a GSuite school where devices were stored in classroom, with enough for one each. It would be a relatively simple move to go true 1-1. Yet, I've worked in traditional ICT lab with perhaps 5 to 1 ratio of PCs (old!) to pupils. The latter is a much more challenging environment.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Ditto

[LincolnE]

you're still heating every room?

 

There's 1 computer for every 3 pupils in uk schools. So as long as only 1/3rd of pupils are in, should be possible to 1:1

 

Old building system, no thermostatic valves on the radiators, all in series rather than parallel.

 

Turning off one apparently turns off the entire loop, which is less than ideal.

[mavhc]

I want to go back to the money saved idea. I have a governors meeting next week and I want to raise the possibility of redirecting the saved money. Could you let me know of some examples of where money has been saved so I can go in prepared.

More in relation to the OP, I like the keyboard covers and the personal portable keyboard mice ideas. The 1-1 device offers some benefits. I've worked in a GSuite school where devices were stored in classroom, with enough for one each. It would be a relatively simple move to go true 1-1. Yet, I've worked in traditional ICT lab with perhaps 5 to 1 ratio of PCs (old!) to pupils. The latter is a much more challenging environment.

 

Well in our case we're on 2 sites, so one site has been shut completely. Also not running transport, electricity usage will be down, repair costs down

 

Council redid our heating recently, must be annoying with a really old system.

[elsiegee40]

 

This thread has been split from the discussion about school computers after lockdown as it’s an interesting topic in its own right

 

[hardtailstar]

I think money saved is minimal.

 

We are into the second month, Our budget and spending for departments should have opened up at the beginning of May.

 

We are a PFI school and I belive we pay a fixed cost a month for gas/electric/water and I doubt the company will have stopped that. I could be wrong.

[mavhc]

Paying fixed costs for resources is always a terrible idea, means no one's encouraged to save resources

[Ditto]

Well in our case we're on 2 sites, so one site has been shut completely. Also not running transport, electricity usage will be down, repair costs down

 

Council redid our heating recently, must be annoying with a really old system.

For my school, we are one site. We are open for a small number of vulnerable and key worker children. Most of our building maintenance costs would be due to weathering rather than children wear and tear. We don't fund and transport - we have no mini-buses. Services costs may be slightly down, but I expect it to be minimal. Where we are significantly down on revenue is no longer running chargeable after school clubs or morning/after school childcare clubs. The school has spent money due to the delay and issues with FSM children. Additionally, our trust is refunding all monies for school trips (including PGL) at their own cost - the trust will endeavour to recoup those cost from the providers or insurance, but they have put the parents first and have taken the financial risk on themselves. Each each school/trust will have it's nuances, but I'd surmise most are down on income, but expenditure to a lesser degree.

[hardtailstar]

Paying fixed costs for resources is always a terrible idea, means no one's encouraged to save resources

 

The school buildings are rented out by the PFI company too so if it is a fixed cost I doubt its going to be for 100% use.

[elsiegee40]

The school buildings are rented out by the PFI company too so if it is a fixed cost I doubt its going to be for 100% use.

 

I can confirm the PfI bill isn’t going down. One of our MAT schools is PfI and it’s not great. No flexibility at all.

 

There has recently been a change of service provider as the previous one triggered so many penalty clauses that we could escape its clutches. Unfortunately we couldn’t escape PfI, but the new service provider is better.

[DrCheese]

Yup - We're PFI and there's no way to lower costs.

 

I'll be surprised if any of you manage to get any extra money from this - My leadership is being very conservative & my refresh budget this year is very low - They expect that we'll have staff shortages for months which means extra cover/hiring costs, alongside any potential maternity leaves that may arise from people being stuck at home(heh) - Also no one's really sure what the government will be expecting schools to start paying for/installing (Shields/Anti bac everywhere). We've also had to pay out school trip refunds upfront whilst getting the money back from the providers.

 

So yea you can ask for it - I just don't think you'll get it.

[Syman_a]

As a primary school, we certainly have saved in some areas.

Utilities are down by 50%, toilet consumables by 90% and inhouse cleaning materials down.

Our general waste has been put on hold too for the duration , saving £180/month (shout out to Suez for this initiative)

 

Some of the other providers are refusing to reduce charges, even though the service they are providing has been pared down. their contracts are now under review and come renewal will not be invited to tender.

[TIOAOA]

I expect the real financial impact will be seen in next years budgets once the government realises it has to pay for the furlough scheme and that financial cost echos its way down to councils and then schools.

[localzuk]

There have been a mix of extra costs and savings for schools really.

 

First, savings will have been made by some of these - supply teachers, lighting, heating (for some more modern schools anyway), reduced damage by children, not running minibuses/coaches for sports fixtures, not having all the IT suites turned on, etc...

 

However, there are also increased costs - PPE, extra cleaning, adjustments to aid social distancing, potential reimbursement of home working costs, extra pay for staff having to work bank holidays, extra devices, reduction in lets etc...

 

Not all schools will make all those savings, and not all schools will face all those extra costs.

 

Some schools will have made an overall saving, others will have seen an overall increase in costs.

[DrCheese]

I expect the real financial impact will be seen in next years budgets once the government realises it has to pay for the furlough scheme and that financial cost echos its way down to councils and then schools.

 

I don't know how I'm going to be able to continue to provide the service I do if our budget gets hit anymore than it already has been over the past few years. I've got kit that's older than the students in production & every year that gets put back, it snowballs onto something else.

[keyboards]

I don't know how I'm going to be able to continue to provide the service I do if our budget gets hit anymore than it already has been over the past few years. I've got kit that's older than the students in production & every year that gets put back, it snowballs onto something else.

Not just in that aspect but in staffing too, last time we went to recruit we struggled to get anyone who had worked in IT or really had an inkling about it, the difference in the few staff we have (who are under-paid anyway) and when we went to market was astronomical, the gaps in knowledge was worlds apart, if the schools had to run on them new staff they would fall apart.

[Andrew_C]

We have reimbursement parents a percentage of this terms fees, and have discounted next year as well.

 

Bursar has asked everyone to save wherever possible, and I expect at least 10% cut in budget.

 

Significantly, right from the start, ALL staff were told that there would be no pay cuts / job losses until September. This was before the chancellor* offered the furlough scheme.

 

 

 

 

*I remember him as a pupil!

[hardtailstar]

any potential maternity leaves that may arise from people being stuck at home(heh) .

 

If they play the game right they would be starting that in September;)

 

We had some due to go on maternity/paternity soon. So it will be interesting how that plays out.

[Edu-IT]

Agreed. No huge savings made.

 

The small savings on heating / lighting help balance the losses in other areas such as catering and lettings and the increased cleaning costs.

[HPlum78]

Yeah the savings are just not there and do not for one second think that your schools are saving money in not paying for supply as the government has said to schools if the agreement to have a supply teacher in was until the summer you have to continue to pay that supply teacher. Also if you have contracts for bin collections, cleaning services bus contracts so on and so forth all need to be serviced (although they should be some movement on both sides)

 

Also most schools now are trying to find ways to minimise the spread of the virus so most of your schools will be looking for hand sanitizer dispensers and foam/ gel, maybe screens to put between desks all these are extra and will inevitably cost more than the savings..

[localzuk]

Yeah the savings are just not there and do not for one second think that your schools are saving money in not paying for supply as the government has said to schools if the agreement to have a supply teacher in was until the summer you have to continue to pay that supply teacher.

 

Don't mix up long term supply with short term supply. Our Trust, for example, has a couple of long term supply teachers in at any one time. But on a normal day, we'll probably have 5-10 short term supply teachers in. We've not had any short term supply in during this time, so that is a significant saving of at least £1000 a day.

[Guest Guest]

We're a small special schools and usually have a significant number of our 45ish TAs from an agency.

 

We're saving thousands a day and as a result we've had the IT budget increased [emoji3]

[hardtailstar]

We're a small special schools and usually have a significant number of our 45ish TAs from an agency.

 

We're saving thousands a day and as a result we've had the IT budget increased [emoji3]

Show off! [emoji1787][emoji13]

[gaz350b]

If your school runs catering, ours is ran cost neutral including staff. But now we have limited income so losing money from that.