The hidden cost of poverty is draining hundreds of thousands of pounds from academy trust funds as schools try to lift the poorest families out of the “crisis”.
The news comes as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt calls for more education cash to be handed out ahead of next week's spring budget. Cost increases are expected to outpace funding increases.
The government regularly claims school funding is “the best it’s ever been”. But the survey revealed only a fraction of the additional costs schools are currently facing due to the cost-of-living crisis and the collapse of wider support services.
![DanMoynihaninset400px | school week Sir Dan Moynihan](https://schoolsweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Dan-Moynihan-inset-400px.jpg)
Dixons Academies Trust has revealed that it spends £1.5 million a year on “anti-poverty grants” amid concerns that some students would not be able to “go to school and succeed” without them.
Meanwhile, Dan Moynihan, chief executive of the Harris Federation, estimated that £500,000 of his budget had been used to support the most vulnerable students. Some of them live in temporary housing filled with moisture and cockroaches.
But Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said schools “don’t have the resources to execute long-term”.
“This is largely a result of rising costs of living and the erosion of other support services, meaning schools have no choice but to step in.”
The trust covers meals and travel.
Dixons, which runs 17 northern schools, helps pay for “meals and school trips that families cannot afford” and supplies school uniforms and food parcels to those in need. Staff also provide support to families struggling to make ends meet.
Chief executive Luke Sparkes said the £1.5 million annual bill – most of which comes from the General Annual Grant (GAG) – “means we have less money to spend on teachers”.
But he added, “Some kids won’t be able to go to school or be successful if they don’t spend the money.”
Mr Moynihan said the “invisible” part of his six-figure spending was spent on the time it took SENCOs to write letters to housing departments and complete benefit applications.
“One family of five was locked in a room with no laundry facilities. There are cockroaches and wet places. [as well].”
Some children are provided with breakfast club passes, and children living in temporary accommodation without cooking facilities are provided with dinner.
One of Harris's 55 schools, where many homeless students travel two hours away, has even opened its heated halls to parents who come with their children to stop them from “running around Costa all day”.
Families “at risk” also receive mental health and wellbeing support from a team of counsellors. But it is “not close.” [large] enough”.
The trust will spend a further £2 million on “alleviating various forms of poverty” from funds raised through sponsorships.
‘In the old days, I taught children at school.’
The Consortium Trust, which runs 15 schools in East Anglia, uses around £100,000 of GAG to support its poorest pupils.
It pays for three pastors and family support staff (£51,015), travel stipend (£28,000), school uniform (£3,000) and breakfast and after-school clubs (£18,500).
Marino Charalambous, head of London's North Star Community Trust, spends about £200,000 of his annual budget on similar schemes.
Half of them are responsible for his safeguarding team, which works to prevent young people “getting into gangs” and child protection issues, among other things.
The remainder pays the uniform grant, a hardship fund that provides £25 Tesco vouchers to homeless families, and the salaries of its community outreach department, which has grown “every year” since launching in 2016.
“This is the kind of thing that can take two or three days for local authorities and social services to process, so we are the first point of contact,” Charalambous explained.
Barton urged the prime minister to tackle what could be his last budget before the election “by investing in education and other public services and tackling the incredibly high levels of child poverty”.
Moynihan added: “In the old days, we taught children at school. Today we provide a variety of services for which adequate funding is not possible. “But if we don’t provide, it becomes a crisis for these families.”