THE chair of a panel of local education leaders has urged schools to have their say on funding shake ups that could place massive pressures on budgets.

The Bradford Schools Forum, made up of local heads and school leaders, discussed looming budget pressures at a meeting in City Hall this morning.

Both nationally and locally, schools have raised concerns that a proposed new funding formula by the Department for Education, coupled with rising costs facing schools in coming years due to increased pension and National Insurance contributions to staff, will lead to many heads having to make cuts.

However, the DofE has denied claims schools were facing increasing financial pressures, saying: “School funding is at its highest level on record and will be over £40bn in 2016-17.”

The forum has submitted its response to a consultation on the upcoming funding formula changes, and chair Dominic Wall urged members to make their own submissions, adding: “The opportunity is still there to influence this national formula. We need to make sure Bradford as a district responds to this.

“It seems clear that the claims from the government that school budgets are being protected is hyperbole of the standard of Donald Trump.

“Budget pressures will mean school leaders will have to respond in ways they have never had to before. The greatest minds in our schools may be able to come up with ways of dealing with these pressures. However others may only be able to deal with these pressure they way have been trained to deal with them, by making cuts.”

The deadline for comments on the new formula is Wednesday.