Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Gloucestershire have posted a deficit budget for the years (i) 2017-18 and (ii) 2018-2019.

The Government trusts schools to manage their own budgets and the vast majority are operating with a cumulative surplus, with only a small percentage having a deficit.

The Department will be publishing 2017-18 data on maintained school reserves in December 2018; this will show the schools in Gloucestershire which reported a deficit. 2018-19 data is expected to be published in December 2019. Academy trusts are the legal entities responsible for academies, including their finances, and are accountable at trust level. The accounts for each trust are submitted for publication on the Companies House website by May of each year; the latest accounts, published this year, relate to 2016-17.

The latest figures for Gloucestershire’s maintained schools showed one hundred and eighty-eight primary schools and five secondary schools reporting a cumulative surplus or breaking even, compared to fifteen primary schools and one secondary school reporting a deficit in the financial year 2016-17.

Forty-four primary and thirty secondary academies in Gloucestershire were in trusts that reported a surplus in the academic year 2016-17, compared to one primary and three secondary academies in trusts that reported a deficit. An academy in a local authority may belong to a trust outside the local authority.

Academy trust accounts allow for a significantly higher level of public scrutiny than is required of maintained schools. This is because maintained schools are not required to prepare individual statutory accounts – their financial performance is instead summarised within local authorities’ accounts.

Academy trust accounts are consolidated in the Sector Annual Report and Accounts (SARA). The SARA provides a sector-level overview and does not break down the data by trust or local authority. The Department published the 2016-17 SARA on 6 November and it is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academies-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2016-to-2017.