Greenwich schools experienced a £1.27 million decrease in their overall reserves during the 2024-25 financial year, according to a report presented at the Schools Forum meeting on 16 July 2025. This continues a trend of decreasing reserves, with total maintained school balances falling from £8.9 million in 2022-23 to £6.4 million in 2024-25.
The report on 2024-25 Revenue Capital School Balances indicated that the overall level of schools' reserves decreased from £7.67 million to £6.40 million. This represents a drop in overall reserves as a percentage of the budget allocated to schools, from 4.08% in 2023-24 to 3.19% in 2024-25.
The report, which focused on maintained schools and did not include information for academies, noted that schools have faced cost pressures including increases in energy costs, inflation, and teachers' and support staff pay awards.
Notably, 21 schools in Greenwich are currently operating with a deficit. Discussions are ongoing with these schools to finalise agreed deficit recovery plans. For 15 of these schools, the deficits are significant enough to potentially require special consideration regarding the length of the repayment period.
The report also highlighted that six schools currently have uncommitted surpluses exceeding 15%. Royal Greenwich will be engaging with these schools to determine if there are plans in place for the excess, and will report back to the Forum by October 2025. According to the Royal Greenwich Scheme for Financing Schools, if these schools do not have adequate plans for using the excess funds, the Royal Borough may deduct the excess amount from the current year's budget share.
The Schools Forum was asked to note the report.