A BRADFORD secondary school now has a deficit of over £3 million, and urgent calls are being made to help stabilise its finances.

Hanson School in Swain House currently has a budget deficit of £3,015,838 - up by over a million from the school’s already eye watering deficit from 2017.

The head of children’s services at Bradford Council has been asked to appear before a panel of school heads to explain what Bradford Council plans to do to solve the school’s financial crisis.

The figures were revealed in the most recent update of financial balances of the district’s Council run schools, which show which schools have surpluses and which have deficits as of March.

The vast majority of schools in Bradford had a budget surplus, although for many it was much lower than in previous years.

But Hanson, which has over 1,500 pupils, saw its deficit grow by £1,155,235 in 12 months.

The school has underperformed in recent years, and the Department For Education has attempted to turn the school into an academy since 2011, but has so far been unsuccessful.

The school was originally due to be part of the Schools Partnership Trust, but that plan collapsed. A subsequent academy conversion failed in 2016 when the Wakefield City Academies Trust pulled out of plans to take on Hanson.

The school is currently working with Leeds-based Gorse Academies Trust to turn its fortunes around, and earlier this year Ofsted finally removed the special measures designation the school had been in since 2015.

Exam results have also recently improved, but the school has continued to struggle to recruit and retain staff reach its pupil capacity.

In recent years there have been eight head teachers at Hanson, and the Ofsted report from earlier this year said: “Unresolved contract issues to do with premises, including a large legacy of debt, have prevented the school from becoming an academy. The Department for Education and the local authority have failed to overcome these financial and legal difficulties for the past seven years.”

The Bradford Schools Forum, made up of heads of local schools and education leaders, have called for Michael Jameson, Bradford Council’s director of Children’s Services, to appear at their next meeting in July to “set out the Authority’s plan for the resolution of the deficit position at Hanson School.”

Ian Murch, Bradford representative for the National Education Union, said: “I have never seen a school’s deficit grow by that much in one year.

“The deficit has been rising at Hanson for successive years, and this has been happening while three different academies have been working with the school.

“Someone will have to find this £3 million eventually, but no-one will want to take on a school with a deficit like that. A school that is losing 15 per cent of its annual budget each year will eventually have to make big cuts. There needs to be a lot more security, we can’t keep chucking away public money like this.

“Hanson used to be the go-to school for families in Bradford.”

Councillor Imran Khan, Executive Member for the Education, Employment and Skills on Bradford Council, said: “It’s good news for parents and pupils that Hanson School is making improvements both in its Ofsted rating and exam outcomes.

“The financial situation the school is in is difficult and has come about for a number of complex reasons.

“The Council is working closely with the Gorse Academies Trust, the school, the Regional Schools Commission and the DfE to address the situation.

“Only a small number of our maintained schools held deficits at March 2018. We are currently working constructively with our schools to support and challenge them in the management of their budgets and in the avoidance of deficit.”