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Q&A: Kerry Jones, Chair of governors at Ysgol Eirias in Conwy

Many schools across Wales are struggling in the face of funding pressures and increased responsibilities. As a result, more governing bodies are being forced to make difficult financial decisions. We spoke to Kerry Jones, chair of governors at Ysgol Eirias in Conwy, about the growing challenge of trying to balance the school budget.

Tell us about your school and your role
Ysgol Eirias is one of the larger secondary schools in the area, with 1,300 pupils and an eight-form intake. It is one of Wales’s few foundation schools, which means that while it is still state funded and maintained by the local authority, it is effectively run by the governing body.

We have more freedom and authority over how the budget is spent. It also means we have fewer local authority governors – two instead of five.

I’ve been a governor here since 1994 and chair since 1999. Every few years I say “This will be my last year”, but I keep on going. I retired in 2000, so I have plenty of time, and I enjoy the role.

What is your school’s current financial situation like?
We used to have a fairly healthy surplus budget, but increasingly we have had to eat into it in recent years. Like all schools, our budgetary pressures have grown significantly – energy bills have increased, our responsibilities have increased and our wage bill has increased – and our pupil intake has dropped from around 250 a year to 210, so we receive less per-pupil funding.

More of our pupils qualify for free school meals and we have an increase of pupils who have additional learning needs, which can require a reduced pupil-teacher ratio. This brings additional costs that we have to fund. We have had some additional funding but it doesn’t cover it.

Despite promises of extra funding for education, that has not materialised in our school budget. The extra work involved in implementing the numerous new initiatives, like Curriculum for Wales, have not in our view been adequately funded.

As a school, we’ve been heavily reliant on grants, which are not guaranteed and are often delivered late in the financial year. This increases the complexity, effectiveness and efficiency of our budget planning and control.

Even when we’re promised a ‘zero reduction’ in our budget, in reality it means a year-on-year reduction equivalent to the rate of inflation. We worked out that if our per-pupil funding had increased in line with inflation over the last decade, we would have had an extra £1 million in our budget. If it had increased in line with local council tax rises in that period then we would have had an extra £4 million.

For the last two years we have had to borrow money from the local authority to try to balance the budget. We’re currently half a million pounds in debt to the local authority.

What measures have you taken to balance the budget?
We’ve stripped the curriculum back to its basics by looking very closely at what subjects we offer. We offer fewer subjects at A-level now than five years ago. Small classes like music and German were in single figures, and we simply can’t afford that. We try to offer what most of our pupils want, but it’s a fine juggling act.

We’ve reduced our overall staff count by 23 full time equivalent roles over the last two years, most of which have been teaching staff through voluntary redundancy. We try to have subject specific teachers as experts rather than deploy general teachers covering four to five subjects. But we’ve had to keep the headcount at a certain level – any fewer staff and we wouldn’t have been able to deliver Curriculum for Wales adequately.

It’s sad to see the range of extra-curricular activities and sports reduced, but teachers are less willing to give their free time that they used to. And, given the increased pressures of the job, you can’t blame them.

How have you managed this as a governing body?
It’s been tough. We don’t want to have to make some of these difficult decisions, but we have to for the sake of the school and the pupils.

This year we have had to call two extra ordinary meetings to discuss the budget shortfall and the procedures involved in reducing staff numbers, including redundancy.

In recent years it has become increasingly difficult to recruit governors. We’re currently two governors short. It appears there are fewer people willing to undertake voluntary work or take on the increased responsibilities that come with the governor role. When we have vacancies, we recruit based on the skills needed within the governing body.

How have Governors Cymru Services helped you?
Governors Cymru Services has helped us tremendously. The advice, guidance and support provided to our governors by Sam and Jane has been invaluable. They are always my first port of call when it comes to information, practical queries and guidance. I can’t praise them enough. Their services are well worth the annual subscription – in fact they should charge more!

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