Schools face significant cuts as budgets plummet

Video report from ITV News Anglia's Hannah Pettifer

Teaching unions claim schools in the East of England face having to make thousands of teachers redundant as their budgets plummet by millions of pounds over the next four years.

The figures are based on estimates that take into account rising costs and a proposed change to the way school funding is shared out across the country.

Across the region, unions say the annual school budget will drop by the following amounts:

• Essex - £56.5 million (£321 per pupil)

• Hertfordshire - £40.5 million (£225 per pupil)

• Luton - £22.5 million (£662 per pupil)

• Norfolk - £30 million (£313 per pupil)

• Northamptonshire - £40 million (£411 per pupil)

• Suffolk - £19 million (£222 per pupil)

The government's budget for schools has been protected since 2010. It currently stands at £40 billion - the highest on record.

However, the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers says it doesn't take into account the impact of inflation and the change in pupil funding due to come in in 2018 - and in real terms that amounts to a cut.

They have put together an estimate, for almost every school, detailing just how deep those real term cuts will be.

Passmores Academy in Harlow, Essex has had to make significant changes over the past four years because of real terms cuts to funding.

Among the changes: ten support staff have been made redundant, the careers service has been halved and the school's mentoring programme has been shelved.

According to the unions, Passmores Academy's annual budget will be reduced by nearly £1 million in real terms by 2020 - that's £943 less per pupil per year and the equivalent of 25 teachers' jobs.

The government has dismissed the unions' claims as "irresponsible scaremongering".