Brookfields School in Tilehurst has sent a letter to parents with a blistering attack on West Berkshire Council’s decision to claw back cash in its bank accounts.
The school, which is a special needs school, has been told more than £2m will be sucked back into the council piggy bank – it said in order to shore up non-statutory special needs service provision. But it is sending mixed messages out, as the council also said it needed to money to pay into the £9m deficit in the high needs block budget.
Brookfields has applied for academy status – meaning it can then manage funds without local authority intervention.
But in a letter to parents just published by Brookfields, the head, Catherine Bernie says the money was in reserve, as the school waited for vital accessibility reports – from the council.
“Should the clawback be enforced, our 2025-26 forecast puts us into a deficit straight away of -£755,750 and by 2026-27, -£2,068,764. This would be an impossible mountain to climb,” she said.
And the move comes less than two years after the school was asked to consider expanding to allow for 20 additional pupils requiring a specialist setting – by the council.
Opposition councillors have forced an extraordinary meeting of the council, due to take place in early September.
Olivia Bailey, MP for Reading West and Mid Berkshire, said: “It is right that there will be an emergency council meeting to discuss the troubling circumstances around the claw back of funds from West Berkshire schools.
“I would urge all councillors to do the right thing, pause the claw back and conduct a thorough review of how the process has been conducted.”
The school governors have also issued a statement saying: “We believe strongly therefore, that this purely short-term financial expediency threatens to damage the safety, welfare and educational opportunities of some of the most vulnerable children in our community.”
Ms Bernie says the council has already pulled out of accessibility schemes at the school.
“If the LA can pull out of a project to widen doorways, fit ramps and upgrade toilets to make them accessible to our population in line with the Equalities Act, after the budget has been agreed, how can we budget successfully?”
In last week’s executive committee meeting, council leader Jeff Brooks stated unequivocally that WBC would not take away funds from schools if it was evidenced that their budget would be impacted.
He stated that “no school will go into deficit this year and their budget will not be impacted” by the retrieval of the funds he described as surplus.
“Councillor Brooks said that these recovered funds would be distributed across the local area,” wrote Ms Bernie.
“This is, however, contrary to what we were told by Ann Marie Dodds [the recently appointed executive head for children’s services at the council], who stated that the money clawed back would go towards offsetting the deficit held within the high needs block.
“As you will be aware all schools are required to plan for their finances in a three-year budget plan and Brookfields is no exception.
“We produce a three-year budget plan each year to enable those scrutinising our finances to understand what we are planning on spending our money on and what position this would leave the school in by the end of year three.
“However, the formula that councillor Brooks refers to is not sufficient to run our school.
“Despite our careful financial planning this is demonstrated by our in-year deficit of ‑£1,525,350.
“It means our costs outweigh our funding. This is why we need our reserves.”
She explained that the school’s funding is determined according to a formula created in 2013 and which does not reflect the costs of staff in real terms.
“We have had to do this to both try and provide enough staff to reduce the number of behavioural incidents that have occurred this year and importantly to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for our pupils,” she added.
“We have only been able to do this knowing we have a reserve.
“We have a hydrotherapy pool on site, essential to our children and young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties and those with additional physical needs.
“We arranged a survey of our hydrotherapy pool long ago but received the report only recently.
“Vital repairs to the pool were discussed at our governors meetings and it was agreed funds would have to be allocated to this as the health and safety issues raised, such as new filters, extending the plant room and repositioning the chemical Iinlets to avoid contamination, required urgent attention.
“We are awaiting a priority plan from the surveyors to enable us to allocate funds accordingly.
“We have also had a site condition survey which, when the budget was set, was not allocated funding in this year’s budget, firstly because we did not know what the cost would be of any findings and secondly, because we were waiting for the accessibility project to be executed.
“Waiting to be able to bid for capital projects funding froma the LA, s mentioned by councillor Brooks last week, was not a feasible option for us.
“We have been waiting for the agreed accessibility project to be delivered by the local authority since 2019.
“The enhancement of these new buildings we would be expected to plan for, as we would the accessibility project on delivery, however we could only allocate funds to these once completed. The LA has pulled out of both projects.
“Without further cost-saving measures introduced in school, our forecast for 2026-27 already takes us to -£803,079.”
Ms Bernie says she has asked for a meeting with Mr Brooks, but, as yet, hasn’t heard back.
