NEWS that a Bradford secondary school may have a deficit of almost £2.7 million by the end of the financial year has been branded a “disgrace” at a meeting of school leaders.

One of the issues discussed by yesterday’s Bradford Schools Forum was the cost of academy conversions.

When a school becomes a sponsored academy, the academy chain takes on any surplus budget, but if the school is running in a deficit then the local authority will have to keep that debt.

In April there were six schools in deficit, totalling £1.4 million. Hanson School in Swain House, which is in the process of becoming a academy under the Wakefield City Academy Trust, had a deficit of £800,000.

By the end of the current financial year, next spring, there are nine schools forecast to be in deficit, amounting to a total of £3.56 million. The deficit of Hanson, which has 1,700 pupils, is predicted to have risen to £2.7 million.

If the school still has that deficit when it becomes an academy, this cost will fall on the taxpayer.

Andrew Redding, senior school finance officer, said: “The school is continuing to overspend on a monthly basis. We are working with the school’s potential sponsors to a more manageable state.”

Nick Weller, the executive principal of the Dixons Academies chain and a member of the forum, said: “For a school as large as Hanson there is no need for it to be running a deficit like that.”

He said there was “no way” the £2.7m deficit could be cleared.

“It is disgraceful that no one seems to have taken charge of this situation.

“It is going to pass to an academy chain, but this is still a local authority school. I don’t think any other school in local academy control would be allowed to run up a deficit this size.”

Mr Redding replied: “As a officer for the local authority I accept this criticism, but I don’t think there is a question of a lack of ownership.”

“Over the past year, not because of a lack of intervention, there has been an explosion of deficit for some key reasons.”

He said one issue was the “sharp drop” in pupil numbers.

Stuart McKinnon-Evans, the director of finance at the council, described it as a “complex problem”.

After the meeting, Michael Jameson, head of children’s services at Bradford Council, said Hanson’s governing body had “full decision making powers over its expenditure” and the council was working closely with it.

“The council is very concerned with the projected increase in the level of deficit, which is not acceptable.

“The actual level of deficit at the moment is £839,000 and the schools Forum has set aside funds to support the school. Governors are putting plans in place to make substantial savings and minimise the deficit.”

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