Headteachers have warned that an annual budget that gives no extra funding to schools would hit the most vulnerable young people the most.

Representatives of the county’s primary and secondary headteachers federation told members of Flintshire Council’s education and youth overview and scrutiny committee that they were heading for “an area of irreparable damage” as it debated setting a cash flat budget for schools.

Richard Collett, headteacher at Ysgol Mynydd Isa, said continued cuts to education funding “could be catastrophic” on the education, safety and well being of pupils while Rachel Molyneux, of
St Mary’s, Flint, said it was getting to the point where they had to say “enough is enough” and reject the cash flat approach.

Colin Everett, Flintshire Council chief executive, said the settlement was not put being forward as a preferred option, rather “we are not funded to do anything else for the year we are moving into”.

And council leader Aaron Shotton said the situation was “the reality of what we have been warning people and communities” about for years.

Cllr Shotton admitted: “The impact on children’s education is a fear.” He added the council was some way off setting a balanced budget and education was the biggest single budget the council dealt with some something the local authority had “sought to protect as best we can”.

Committee members voted to acknowledge the work to protect school budgets in previous years but recognised the cash flat budget posed risks to schools to deliver the curriculum effectively.

If at all possible, the scrutiny committee recommended an uplift to budgets.

The settlements, subject to full council approval later this month, will give schools the same level of funding as they received last year, with no uplift.

The central educational budget within the council has been reduced by 30 per cent over the
last three years in response to reduced funding for local government services.

With the current financial situation, elected members are having to consider all remaining options to try to meet the legal requirement to set a balanced budget.

Mr Everett said schools were “particularly exposed” to funding pressures in Flintshire and the council “can only protect them so much”.

He said nobody was proposing a cash flat settlement as a preferred option or as what they council wanted to do, rather “we are not funded to do anything else for the year we are moving into”.

The chief executive said headteachers had been forewarned but officers “can’t find anything different” in terms of a funding solution.

Clare Homard, chief officer education and youth, praised the efforts of schools for being “proactive”in managing their financial situation and admitted there were “very few mitigations” in adopting a cash flat approach.

She said there was “no easy answer in the level of funding we have” and there was “no fudging the risks but there are no easy solutions.”

Committee chairman Cllr Dave Healey, a former Flintshire high school teacher, said the council was “clearly in a danger of reaching a danger zone as far as the service is concerned”.

The committee’s recommendations will now go on to full council later this month where it is expected the second stage of the budget setting process will be confirmed.