School appeals to government over council cash row

West Berkshire Council has agreed to remove about £2.85m from eight local schools' budgets

A school has asked the government to intervene in a row over a council "clawing back" money from its budget.

The Downs School, in Newbury, said West Berkshire Council's decision to demand it return £490,000 was "procedurally unfair".

In a lengthy letter to the Department for Education (DfE) it said most of the surplus was "self-generated income" from fundraising efforts.

The council said it had agreed to remove about £2.85m from eight local schools, partly so it could reduce a £9m deficit in its special educational needs (SEN) budget.

The school said throughout the decision-making process, the authority has shown a total disregard for the wellbeing of school staff.

“It is our position that [the school] has been penalised for working incredibly hard to generate income to independently provide the best possible education for the pupils of the school," the letter said.

“It must be emphasised again that the school will go into a deficit position in 2025/26 if the surplus budget is clawed back.”

In December it was agreed that a mechanism for taking back money from schools with surplus balances exceeding 10% of their budgets should be introduced from 31 March 2025.

In July, the school was informed that it would need to return £490,000 beginning in March of this year.

'Ring-fenced'

“This surplus does not simply comprise of unspent funding," the school's letter said.

“In fact, it contains self-generated income that has been produced by the hard work of staff and the parent body in raising money for essential school projects over a three-year period.

“This money has been raised to allow the school to increase much needed classroom capacity and extend the sixth form to accommodate growing numbers.

“It was specifically set out in the consultation of December 2023 that self-generated income would be ring-fenced and therefore specifically excluded from any clawback.

"The local authority has therefore breached its own guidance in this regard."

West Berkshire Council’s leader Jeff Brooks said: “As soon as they [the school] can say that this is money, we have raised through parents and that can be audited properly, then it will be excluded.

“Not one penny raised by parents will come to this council for other children, not one.”

A council spokesperson added that there would be an extraordinary meeting about the issue on Thursday.