SCHOOLS are facing “very tough decisions” over a £15 million funding black hole.

The council boss in charge of schools in West Sussex said there was “no capacity” to meet the funding short-fall.

Coun Jeremy Hunt, West Sussex County Council cabinet member for education and skills, has written to Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan over his concerns.

An outdated funding system was blamed for the £15 million funding shortfall.

West Sussex is the lowest funded county council and the fourth lowest funded local authority nationally.

The intervention follows an open letter from a group of secondary head teachers expressing their fears over educational funding.

Coun Hunt said: “This gap in provision is not fair funding.

“The county council overall is having to reduce its budgets by £68m by 2017/18 in light of reduced government funding so there is simply no capacity for us to meet this shortfall.

“I am now calling on the next government to urgently address this unfair distribution of funding and I very much hope that whoever is the new minister will accept my invitation to meet and discuss this issue in more detail.

He added: “I would however like to add that, despite this low level of funding, we are by no means one of the worst performing authorities.

“Although our results are currently around national average, we obviously aspire to be a high performing county and we have a clear strategic commitment to achieve this.”

The letter goes on to say schools were now considering “a range of options to set balanced budgets”.

Earlier this month Peter Woodman, chairman of the West Sussex secondary head teachers’ association and head teacher at the Weald School in Billingshurst, warned “children are not being treated fairly”.

In an open letter signed by most head teachers in the county he wrote: “This means that most secondary schools in West Sussex must struggle with resources which are simply not sufficient for the job they are expected to do.”

Schools of 1,000 students will be expected to reduce costs by around £250,000 over the next two years.

Teachers have warned poor funding would result in reduced staffing and increased class sizes.

Background

ALTHOUGH West Sussex County Council is facing cuts, more of its schools are converting to academy status which would mean they would not require county council funding.

This month, both Holmbush Primary School in Shoreham and Blackthorns Community Primary School in Haywards Heath are now operating as academies having previously been under the jurisdiction of West Sussex County Council.

Oakmeeds Community College in Burgess Hill could be the next to go the way of academies if it converts in January.

As a result, none of these schools would be funded by the county council but from central government.