Most schools in Wales are considering making redundancies in order to save costs, a new survey of headteachers in Wales has revealed.
The main trade union for school leaders and headteachers in Wales, the National Association of Headteachers Cymru (NAHT Cymru), surveyed 670 school leaders and found many are "desperate" to cut costs - with 73% of headteachers surveyed saying they will have to make teaching assistants redundant or reduce their hours, and 61% of headteachers surveyed saying they are looking to reduce the number of teachers or teaching hours, in order to save much-needed funds.
School leaders from 95% of the schools surveyed also said they would be unable to pay their costs next academic year (2023 to 2024) without going into deficit, whilst leaders from 38% of the schools surveyed said their schools will go into deficit this academic year (2022 to 2023), unless they make drastic cuts. And with most schools not permitted to operate with a deficit budget, they must make "significant cuts" to remain in the black, the NAHT added.
